Chocolate, AKA Fury, is a 2008 Thai martial arts action/drama directed by Prachya Pinkaew. It stars Yanin “Jeeja" Vismistananda, Hiroshi Abe, Taphon Phopwandee, Ammara Siripong, and Pongpat Wachirabunjong.
The story of Chocolate follows Zen, played by Yanin "Jeeja" Vismistananda. She is an autistic woman that has learned martial arts by copying Tony Jaa martial arts movies (FYI, they are excellent), and by copying the muay thai students from an academy next door. She is the daughter of Masashi, a yakuza boss, and Zin, the ex girlfriend of Thai gangster No. 8. Zin, Zen, and an orphan named Moom live together. When Zin gets cancer, Moom and Zen start collecting debts on behave of Zin. The problem is that, unknowing, Moom and Zen collect debts from people under the protection of No. 8. Unhappy about this, No. 8 sends Zin a “message”. Now Zin has no choice but to contact Masashi, hoping that he can get them out of the country in time.
The action in this movie is some of the best that I’ve ever seen. If you’re a fan of late 80’s-early 90’s Jackie Chan, then you will love the fight sequences in this movie. You get 1 Vs many fights that utilize their environment to create really fun and exciting fights. Take Jackie Chan’s First strike, or Policy Story 2, and add Tony Jaa’s mix of Muay thai type of striking with traditional kung fu. That’s what you have here. The last 30 minutes of the movie are especially note worthy. It’s one kick ass fight after another, each transitioning flawlessly into the next while upping the ante.
Fans of John Woo’s Hong Kong work will also find a lot to like here. The direction is pretty similar to Hard Boiled, or The Killer. The movie is shot in a stylized way that is trademark of Asian action cinema, slow motion, camera angles and lighting not seen in Hollywood, etc. The tone of the movie is what you would expect from a gritty action drama. It’s dark and sad at times, but it balances that out with a lot of fun fighting and few funny character moments.
The acting in the movie is pretty good. The best performance in the movie is probably Zin, played by Ammara Siripong. We see transition from crime boss eye candy, to mother, to cancer patient. She’s believable in all of her roles. Jeeja also does a good job in the role of Zen, although you will notice her more for her fighting than her acting. No.8’s squad of bad guys is also full of memorable characters. The best is probably Priscilla the transvestite. Kill Bill Volume 3 needs to have a transvestite henchman in honor of this movie. Overall, none of the performances will blow your mind, but you will find a lot of likeable and cool characters.
The weak spot of the movie is the writing. Character motivations don’t make a lot of sense. You will ask yourself “how could she not notice that?” or “why would he do that?” a few times during this movie. Lucky for us the movie moves at a fast and smooth enough paste that plot holes don’t ruin it. Stock characters are another minor issue. Like I mentioned before the actors do a good job, but you’ve seen these characters in a million different movies before (well, Pricilla is the exception).
Overall I give this movie 4 out of 5. It does have some weak writing, but it’s easy to forgive it when you take into account the top notch action, great direction, and decent acting. If you are tired of boring weak Hollywood CIG action sequences (I’m looking at you Green Hornet), then you need to do yourself a favor and check out this movie.
In general a lot of great action movies are coming out of Thailand. Like Hong Kong cinema in the late 80’s and early 90’s, and Japanese cinema in the late 90’s and early 00’s, Thailand is coming out with a lot of interesting movies that more people need to check out.
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