The story is fairly simplistic as in most action movie. Mother and father met, they had some 'happy times' together, she was conceived and father got kicked out of the scene. So, she was born autistic and raised by her mum alone. Growing up, she is fixated with Thai kickboxing and all forms of martial arts. Being autistic, she learned all of these martial arts very quickly. One day, mum got sick and she found a list of names of some very dodgy people owing her mum some money.... hence the action begins!
For those of you action freaks out there, this is a MUST WATCH. When this movie first came out, it made history with Jacky Chan himself caught saying he would like to collaborate with Yanin (the female lead) to film an action movie together! We sure hope that would happen soon!
Overall, an 8.5/10. Dig in, peeps!
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This review may contain spoilers
One sweet martial arts action fest!
If you enjoy martial arts action films and don’t mind a lackluster story---check your brain at the door and kick in your suspension of disbelief, make some popcorn and sit back and be prepared to be amazed by Jeeja Vanin in her first starring role.Chocolate's storyline uses the most dated of plots. A jealous crime boss doesn't like the woman he loves falling in love with someone else. The woman eventually sends her lover away to save him and has his child in secret. The child turns out to have autism and the woman runs up debts for her care and even more debts when the mom turns out to have cancer. The girl and a boy the mom adopted find her mom's old debt collection book and head out to try and collect the money from some shady characters. Fortunately, the girl has learned Muay Thai and other martials arts from watching tv and video games. I'm going to skip over the magical autism abilities discussion. The story setup is simply a reason for her to drop kick a wide assortment of baddies in ice houses, meat factories, and the Big Bad's headquarters. And punch and kick she does in the most creative ways you are likely to see. The fights started out fairly rudimentary and continued to crescendo until the bonkers, long finale fights that were as brutal as they were graceful.
The writing and acting were mediocre to poor. Just like in a Kaiju movie, when it takes the monster 30 minutes to show up, the only thing people really care about, this film took about that long to get the action rolling as well. The story was nearly irrelevant because the star of this show was Jeeja's astonishing ability to contort her body into a beat down machine, dodging objects, fists, and kicks while delivering punishing blows to men and women twice her size. I read that several actors were injured while making this film and it was not surprising when you see the hard slamming falls people took throughout the fighting. The fight choreography started out slow and breathlessly moved to astonishing.
If you are looking for stellar performances and an interesting, cohesive story, you are likely to be disappointed. However, if you enjoy exciting martial arts choreography, especially with a kickass female lead, this is definitely one to try out.
3/11/23
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As far as story goes, I was originally going to give it more of a 5 or 6, but I really really liked how they handled the story. If you're looking for exposition, there's none of that here. Instead they start showing you sequences, often covered in music, and you've got to follow along.
So, this isn't that 600 page novel you've been putting off reading, it's that flashy manga / picture book you easily devour before bed. :D
Now onto how they handled the action parts:
First off wow. If all you're looking for is an action movie, this won't disappoint. It's very reminiscent of anything Bruce Lee including the brutal hits and falls that look so painful and the frequent, ingenious, and often hilarious use of everyday props placed around the scene.
Of course, it does suffers a little from the "one on one" style, where all the bad guys seem to have made a pact not to jump in on the fight if she's already fighting somebody. Especially towards the end, there are so many guys just standing around watching her fight lol. But hey, I wouldn't want to get in on that either.
Acting/Cast (9.0):
A few stunted deliveries, but it's more than made up by the great fight sequences, especially from the lead actress who is also a very well trained martial artists (and it shows). She did a decent job of portraying autism and the emotional scenes were good too; but that's not what I was here for anyway...
The rest of the cast is pretty meaningless, most of them there for here to beat up. Sometimes, again as I mentioned, some awkward or over the top deliveries, but you don't really care when watching this kind of movie. I had to take at least 1 star off for that, but it was hard to take off more than that.
Music (6.5):
I only really paid attention to it during one fight scene and it blended in well. Other than that, fairly unmemorable.
Rewatch Value (8.0):
Well I write this after seeing it for the second time. The first time I saw it was before I began my Asian drama craze, so I did have a few years in between, but I can definitely see myself re-watching this again.
Overall (8.0):
I have to say, as an overall movie, my scores come out to an 8.
But if you're an action or Bruce Lee fan, I've got to say, this is a 10/10 action film.
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Fresh is Best
The plot of this story is unique to me. Original concept. From introduction of each character they are fully developed with minimal film time. Emotional investment and attachment for Zen starts with Phatchatorn's young Zen and only continues to grow thru the movie. The time and effort, study and research, Yanin puts into this part, gives her complete authenticity and creditability. Body language and manner of verbal iterations are typical autistic behavior. Yanin brings her youth, diminutive size (5ft2in, 90 lb), and the explosive power of her martial arts . The styles of martial arts she portrayed required further research. Tributes to Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan are beautifully choreographed . Yanin's fight scenes display masterful talent, unique attacks, and brutal reality. Prachya Pinkaew is famous for his skill as a director, and with Yanin , he reached new heights. Yanin herself comments on the dangers of the choreography and fight scenes. The cut outs at the end of the movie demonstrate the risks. Coming out of Thailand , this movie is a standout for its inclusiveness of crossdresser/transgender actors. Their parts are seamless and natural, just another character in the scene. The amount of masterful talent of Yanin's physical skills, original concept, directing , choreography, and inclusiveness makes this movie unique, fresh and the best.Was this review helpful to you?
