Chocolate is the story of a Thai gangster’s mistress, Zin (Ammara Siripong), and her love affair with trespassing Yakuza, Masashi (Hiroshi Abe). Knowing that her former boss, known as No. 8 (Pongpat Wachirabunjong), will never forget or forgive her transgression, Zin calls time on the relationship, but not before she falls pregnant with a half-Japanese child, named Zen (Jeeja Yanin).
Zen is born autistic, with heightened senses and a knack for mimicry, which, thanks to watching over a kick-boxing school next door, gives her a taste for the martial arts.
Joining the family is Mang Moom (Taphon Phopwandee ), a street urchin taken in by Zin, who thinks Zen can earn cash with a few parlour tricks. Zen’s mother, however, is now suffering from cancer, and when Moom finds details of money owed from her criminal past, he sets out with Zen in tow for some debt collecting. Naturally, no one is going turn over a single baht without first taking a major ass-whooping.
Prachya Pinkaew and Action Choreographer Panna Rittikrai
Prachya Pinkaew has teamed up again with Panna Rittikrai, having overseen the choreography in Ong-Bak (2003) and Tom Yum Goong (2005). Their collaborations are proving to be special occasions and long may they continue. Chocolate gives us a wider variety of action than Ong-Bak, in terms of both style and intensity and there’s a flair here suited to the idea of a martial arts savant who can replicate even the most fantastical moves.
It’s easy to suggest that Pinkaew would be better suited to choreography and should leave the directing to a firmer hand, but the fact is he’s still improving and, compared to traditional fight features where plot and characters are accustomed to the back seat of storytelling, he’s leaps and bound ahead (even if the incredibly hokey acting and scripts will be sorely missed). It’s only because of Pinkaew’s evident potential to do better that any minor flaws become glaring ones, but the pros here far outweigh the cons. A few tweaks in the editing department would go a long way to ridding his work of certain creases.
What there is of the plot and characters is sweetly and succintly realized, beginning and ending the film with the character of Zen’s father, who is otherwise largely absent from proceedings. It might also seem strange for a martial arts film to deal with matters of autism and leukemia and while these aspects are superficially treated , they’re not handled without a little heart and some well intended sentiment.
Naturally, as the film tapers toward the end there’s not much room for anything other the extraordinary fight sequences, but on the whole Chocolate is a well-rounded martial arts flick. It’s still simple compared to almost any other genre, but it’s more sophisticated than Ong-Bak, which boasts as simple a storyline as there ever was.
Chocolate Cast and Yanin “Jeeja” Vismitananda
Following in the steps of an immensely impressive physical performance from Tony Jaa was always going to be a tall order, but taekwando practitioner Jeeja Yanin has put in a phenomenal level of commitment, having trained for her role for two years prior to shooting and with the shoot itself somehow stretching over the course of another two. And while she could never match the simian agility of a younger Jackie Chan or Tony Jaa’s incredible acrobatics, she brings her own mix of mercurial speed and flexibility to the action, giving plenty of options to the choreographers. She’s cute, too.
Pinkaew may be cited in saying that Yanin was a perfectionist about her technique, and it shows. Her channelling of Bruce Lee is particularly sweet, in one of the film’s more reserved sequences, and she pulls off the more spectacular stuff...well, spectactularly. As if all that wasn’t enough, there are stunts to further prove her commitment, including dodging a thrown factory palette, which, but for a slight turn of her head, would’ve likely caused serious injury.
And then there’s the fact that, despite her commanding a limited vocabulary as Zen, Jeeja manages the emotional and humourous aspects extremely well, to the extent that this girl could surely nail parts as a ‘legitimate’ actress, so to speak (her performance earned her a well-deserved nomination for best newcomer award this year). Let’s hope she doesn’t go that way, however, because her talent would be a huge loss to the genre. Thankfully, her next feature Raging Phoenix, due for 2010, will be an action flick and it’ll be interesting to see how a different director works with both Jeeja and Panna Rittikrai, who will be choreographing.
The remainder of the cast is noticeably thin, but the main roles of Zin, Moom and No. 8 are all comfortably filled. A special mention should also go to the team of stuntmen who, frankly, are just shy of being clinically insane.
Chocolate Summary
Simply put, Chocolate is a must for fight fans. Whatever nagging negatives there may be in Pinkaew’s work (such as the shameless plugging of his own feature Ong-Bak and emphasis placed on the somewhat controversial elbows and knees-to-the-head strikes), there are plenty of positives to take as well. Besides the stunning choreography, the film has a a brief, though inspired, animated dream sequence, while most surprising of all must be the confrontation between Zen and another autistic (?) fighter, which has to be a film first.
As with all Pinkaew’s work, gone are the shots showing a clear distance between a strike and it’s target, with the film taking a semi-contact approach, (and some of it wasn’t quite as ‘semi’ as it was meant to be, shown in the out-takes).
Pinkaew is improving, Rittikrai is in invaluable asset, and Jeeja Yanin is a star. Enjoy.
- Producers: Prachya Pinkaew, Panna Rittikrai, Sukanya Vongsthapat
- Director: Prachya Pinkaew
- Screenplay: Napalee, Chukiat Sakveerakul
- Starring: Yanin Vismitananda, Ammara Siripong, Taphon Phopwandee, Pongpat Wachirabunjong
- Released: Feb 2008 (Thailand) by Sahamongkol Film International
- Running Time: 89 mins approx
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