I think it's reasonable to assume that anyone interested in this movie would have watched at least one of the three movies with Tony Jaa, Thailand's recently discovered national treasure, a guy who combines the dexterity of Jackie Chan with deadliness of Jet Li. Director Prachya Pinkaew who discovered Jaa now brings to the world of martial art movie Jeeja Yanin, bringing back the Amazon era of female martial artist in the 90s.
It is also reasonable to assume that in this genre, the plot is needed only to serve as a link, usually a feeble one, to string the various escalating action scenes to reach the ultimate climax. For example, in "Ong-bak" (2003), Tony Jaa's first movie, the plot is simply the quest to recover a stolen treasure. "Chocolate" has a little more than that by way of plot, albeit still a simple one.
A Thai woman and a Japanese man, from their respective gangs, encounter in Thailand and falls for each other (and seldom do you find such a handsome looking pair). He eventually has to return to Japan, leaving her pregnant as well as outcast by her gang. The baby, a girl, is born autistic, but is compensated with an uncanny ability acquire martial art moves by merely watching (other people in actual practice or just on the TV screen, including Tony Jaa!). When her mother develops cancer, she sets out to collect her mother's old debts, with the help of the usual non-fighting but helpful in every other way comic sidekick (Tony Jaa has one like that too in "Ong-bak"). The Thai kingpin comes back into the picture and the girl's mother sends for help from her father in Japan, with whom she has been corresponding all these year. Climatic finale. I don't need to elaborate on the holes in the plot. That is irrelevant.
The fighting sequences are remarkably well crafted, with various interesting settings like an ice factory, a butcher shop and the ledges and neon signs outside a multi-story row of buildings. The fights are everything imaginable, almost with one theme designated to each scene one on kicks, another fist-work, another elbows and knees, acrobatic stunts, Japanese swords .you name it. There is also delicious black humour, particularly in the butcher shop.
But nothing has any meaning if the hero (heroine in this case) is not worth watching. Jeeja, as she is now fondly known to her fans, is way above "worth watching". Superbly trained in martial arts long before she made this movie (and she looks to be still in her teens), she is lightning fast and deadly accurate with her moves. No, she doesn't have the explosive power of Tony Jaa but she is so beautiful to watch. Her action is as crisp as a piece of lightly battered tempura fried just to perfection (sorry I can't think of a Thai dish), but tempura, however perfect is the taste, does not come with the delightful sound of cracking bones that brings such immense satisfaction.
While the plot is feeble, it does have something to offer by way of delicate emotions, such as in the scenes between mother and daughter. Jeeja does not have much opportunity to act, because of the very nature of her character (I mean it's not like the autistic that Dustin Hoffman does in "Rain man" or Sigourney Weaver in "Snow cake"). But I think she can act, given the opportunity. This movie, however, is obviously to showcase her martial art rather than acting-school training. I even suspect that it is partly for this that the girl is written as an autistic person, so as to tone down somewhat the audiences' sentimental attachment to allow them to concentrate on the action.
During the end credit, instead of showing the funny slip-ups, they show something that can make you flinch, if you are not prepared for it (or maybe even if you are prepared for it) all the endless injuries Jeeja as well as the stunt crew sustained during filming, including a visit to the hospital for one of them. They showed these in back-and-white, I think because there was too much blood, not tomato-sauce props or computer-generate crimson, but actual bloods that real people spilled. When I got to that part, I understood why a local film critic wrote that he felt it is akin to feeding Christians to the lions for entertaining. And that's not a good feeling.
It is also reasonable to assume that in this genre, the plot is needed only to serve as a link, usually a feeble one, to string the various escalating action scenes to reach the ultimate climax. For example, in "Ong-bak" (2003), Tony Jaa's first movie, the plot is simply the quest to recover a stolen treasure. "Chocolate" has a little more than that by way of plot, albeit still a simple one.
A Thai woman and a Japanese man, from their respective gangs, encounter in Thailand and falls for each other (and seldom do you find such a handsome looking pair). He eventually has to return to Japan, leaving her pregnant as well as outcast by her gang. The baby, a girl, is born autistic, but is compensated with an uncanny ability acquire martial art moves by merely watching (other people in actual practice or just on the TV screen, including Tony Jaa!). When her mother develops cancer, she sets out to collect her mother's old debts, with the help of the usual non-fighting but helpful in every other way comic sidekick (Tony Jaa has one like that too in "Ong-bak"). The Thai kingpin comes back into the picture and the girl's mother sends for help from her father in Japan, with whom she has been corresponding all these year. Climatic finale. I don't need to elaborate on the holes in the plot. That is irrelevant.
The fighting sequences are remarkably well crafted, with various interesting settings like an ice factory, a butcher shop and the ledges and neon signs outside a multi-story row of buildings. The fights are everything imaginable, almost with one theme designated to each scene one on kicks, another fist-work, another elbows and knees, acrobatic stunts, Japanese swords .you name it. There is also delicious black humour, particularly in the butcher shop.
But nothing has any meaning if the hero (heroine in this case) is not worth watching. Jeeja, as she is now fondly known to her fans, is way above "worth watching". Superbly trained in martial arts long before she made this movie (and she looks to be still in her teens), she is lightning fast and deadly accurate with her moves. No, she doesn't have the explosive power of Tony Jaa but she is so beautiful to watch. Her action is as crisp as a piece of lightly battered tempura fried just to perfection (sorry I can't think of a Thai dish), but tempura, however perfect is the taste, does not come with the delightful sound of cracking bones that brings such immense satisfaction.
While the plot is feeble, it does have something to offer by way of delicate emotions, such as in the scenes between mother and daughter. Jeeja does not have much opportunity to act, because of the very nature of her character (I mean it's not like the autistic that Dustin Hoffman does in "Rain man" or Sigourney Weaver in "Snow cake"). But I think she can act, given the opportunity. This movie, however, is obviously to showcase her martial art rather than acting-school training. I even suspect that it is partly for this that the girl is written as an autistic person, so as to tone down somewhat the audiences' sentimental attachment to allow them to concentrate on the action.
During the end credit, instead of showing the funny slip-ups, they show something that can make you flinch, if you are not prepared for it (or maybe even if you are prepared for it) all the endless injuries Jeeja as well as the stunt crew sustained during filming, including a visit to the hospital for one of them. They showed these in back-and-white, I think because there was too much blood, not tomato-sauce props or computer-generate crimson, but actual bloods that real people spilled. When I got to that part, I understood why a local film critic wrote that he felt it is akin to feeding Christians to the lions for entertaining. And that's not a good feeling.