Chocolate
Starring: Ammara Sispong, Hiroshi Abe, Hiro Sano, Yanin Vismitananda, Taphon Phopwandee
Directed by Prachya Pinkaew
Rating: R
Ever wanted to see a Japanese-Thai-English kung-fu action comedy that casts an autistic newcomer as the lead?
While that description may be a bit laboured, it is pretty much fitting. This film stands alone as one that incorporates three different languages, a mix of cultures and a learning disability to create one of the most intense action films I have seen.
Set in present day Thailand, Chocolate tells the tale of a young autistic woman who has to confront ruthless gangs that owe her mother money so she can pay for her hospital bills. Zin (Sispong) lives her life as a gangster until the day that she falls in love with one of her rivals, Masashi (Abe).
Zin eventually crosses her boss Ryo (Sano) when she protects her new lover Masashi. This leads to her ejection from her gang and leaves her alone and pregnant. She then gives birth to a baby girl, Zen (Vismitananda), who she soon realises has a learning difficultly, and who is shortly diagnosed with autism.
Zin then falls ill but cannot afford to pay for hospital treatment until Zen's best friend, Moom (Phopwandee), finds a list of all the people who owe Zin money and decides to take advantage of Zen's unique martial arts skills to get it from them.
This is the second nationally successful Thai film by director Prachya Pinkaew, along with Ong-Bak, released back in 2003.
While Ong-Bak was purely a martial arts action film, Chocolate incorporates both action and comedy. Zen clearly has a flair for the martial arts, displaying this in her use of what I can only describe visually as aerial splits, scorpion leg holds, handstand kicks, neck hold recoveries, crouching fight scenes, break-dance fighting and autistic v. autistic standoffs!
To add to this mixture of unbelievable expertise from Thai actress Vismitananda, every fight scene incorporates new props, backdrops and opportunities to kick some mobster tail! Changing from an ice factory to a butcher shop, and even to what appeared to be a shipping outlet, Zen comes up with new moves to annihilate each and every one of her mother's enemies.
While this film is overflowing with kung-fu action it seems to be lacking truly interesting dialogue and the plot remains basic and quite predictable. However, Chocolate manages to make up for some of the missing plot with more "oh-my-god-that-must-have-been-more-painful-than-falling-from-a-four-storey-builing" moments than any other film I have ever seen.
I would tell anyone who goes to see this film to make sure you stay until the end and you'll get to see some of the real injuries incurred during filming. Definitely worth waiting around for!
3 out of 5
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