Chocolate [Blu-ray]

So I was over at my friend's house one weekend and we were watching a bunch of crappy movies, and on one of the DVDs [can't remember which title it was, but it was released by Magnolia Pictures and Magnet] there was this trailer that caught my attention. The basic story was about this ass-kicking Asian girl who was getting her revenge on a bunch of people who wronged her, or so I thought...I really couldn't remember because I was mesmerized by this hot little Asian girl who was kicking some major ass in the trailer. I didn't really pay much attention to the name of the movie, but I remembered thinking "Man...I really want to see that movie" and then I promptly forgot about it until a few weeks later. My friend and I were out at chain DVD and Blu-ray store that specializes in selling mostly used product that other people trade in [betcha can't guess which one I'm talking about...;}]. So anyway, there we we're checking out their selection of used Blus and I suddenly remembered that trailer, but as I said before, I didn't remember the name. He couldn't remember either, but not to worry, he breaks out his handy-dandy iPhone [MAC snob] and he does a Google search for recent martial arts flicks with female stars and he finds a trailer for a movie call Chocolate [not to be confused with that chick flick Chocolat starring the very popular Johnny Depp]. He shows me said trailer and asks if that was the movie I was thinking of...and it was. So we checked to see if this place has it, and not too surprisingly they don't. But another nearby BIG BOX store, whose employees wear blue Polo style shirts and khaki pants, did. So we rushed right over and bought it.So what exactly is this movie called Chocolate about? My original interpretation of the trailer was only partially correct...she is a hot Asian chick and she kicks a ton of ass in it. However the revenge aspect was off. The actual plot is simple: real-life, human anime looking Yakuza man and hot Thai dragon lady crime lieutenant fall in love, but both of their organizations kinda hate the fact that they are together. So they split up and go their separate ways, but not before she ends up pregnant. She decides to leave her life of crime behind and raise their autistic offspring [dragon lady smoked a lot and this of course caused some defects] on her own. She gets a normal job at a restaurant and somehow adopts a homeless boy who gets picked on by all the local bullies because he's fat and has bad acne. As our heroine Zen grows up [eventually into Jeeja], she watches the young, neighbor boys practicing the deadly martial art Muay Thai in the courtyard of the housing complex her family lives in, and she starts mimicking their moves. She also loves watching old Tony Jaa movies and playing martial arts fighting games. Flash forward a few years and both she and her adopted brother Moom are in their mid teens and he's hustling for money on the streets by taking advantage of Zen's incredible speed, agility, and talent of catching balls flying at her head.So as it turns out, all those years of smoking have caught up with the hot Thai dragon lady and she gets cancer. But alas they are very poor and cannot afford treatment. So one night while Zen is playing video games, Moom finds the dragon lady's old collections book from back when she was still a mafioso, and he opens it and sees that a whole bunch of people owe her bookoo buckage. So he and Zen go visit these people to ask if they can pay their debts to the dragon lady so they can use the money for her cancer treatment and much high jinx ensues. Basically all of those years of studying Muay Thai from afar pays off and Zen goes on a rampage to get "Mommy Money."So why is the movie called Chocolate? Well the only thing I can figure is that Zen loves these little M&M type candies a whole bunch. Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine. The plot of the film may come off as pretty weak, but trust me, it is well worth your time to watch...if nothing else than to watch the lovely Jeeja Yanin kick some ass!Okay...so some technical aspects:Blu-ray image quality - SWEET!Sound quality - Awesomely Loud! The Blu-ray has both the original Thai dialogue with your choice of subtitles and an English dub.Extra Features - Maybe a trailer and some behind the scenes stuff...can't remember off the top of my head.The only thing bad about the Blu-ray is this: If you're watching the movie with the English dub and you turn the subtitles off, they will still pop-up for some parts of the movie. It was driving us crazy...thought we had a defective disc or something. We eventually figured it out though. The subtitles only popped up when the characters in the movie were supposedly speaking in Yakuza, but if you pay close attention they are actually speaking English during those scenes because it's the only time the dubbed dialogue matches what their mouths are saying.So in conclusion, this movie is the awesome...you should totally buy it and watch it as many times as you can until the states gets an American release of Jeeja's next movie: Raging Phoenix [also pretty damn good despite what other reviewers may have to say]Thanks for reading!

.....Very action movie story, and one can easily disregard that a slightly autistic kid would probably not be able to adaptively and dynamically fight so effectively in real situations - Who cares! The story was SO satisfying! (....Except that the ending scenes totally ignored the wonderful character of Moom, Zen's friend/adopted brother, and his central, pivotal role in the plot - I wanted to see the father acknowledge him, and the final contented scene of father and daughter include her friend/brother Moom, without whose dedication and persistence, none of this would have happened). ...Great acting by the three lead roles (Zen, played by Yanin Vismitananda, a.k.a. "Jeeja" Yanin, Zin her mom(Ammara Siripong) and Moom (Taphon Phopwandee); also the too-brief parts of Zen's father Masashi(Abe Hiroshi). The bad guy roles and actors were pretty good, too. .....[Hm, is her father's name a take-off on the name "Musashi" of the over-rated "Book of Five Rings"? (from perspective of some who likes zen philosophy)?] .....Plotwise as I watched, I thought at first that the bad guy leader was going to abduct the mom and use her to force Zen to fight for crime and profit one way or the other, but this was more about the simple theme of standing up to bullies and getting what's owed... I was also waiting for yakuza Dad to come in earlier, but that's ok, the ending fight made up for that late entrance. .....The [...] blog site says "There is a version of the movie, the Malaysian one, that has good English subtitles ...[from]...[...]. I highly recommend this movie if you're a fan of female martial artists." .....Some have criticized that a couple of the fight scenes borrow choreography concepts from Bruce Lee films and Jackie Chan film (this one's locker scene). Who cares - consider it a respectful nod of inspiration which was woven into good fight choreography and story. .....Jeeja was trained in taekwondo (good foundation for elbow and knee strikes, kicks, leaps and acrobatic grace), and was 14 when she made this movie. The movie was by the same team that did Ong Baak, and Jeeja trained hard in muay thai techniques under Panna Rittikrai, plus some coaching from Tony Jaa. .....The only thing in the story that bugged me was that the muay thai teacher who was running the school next door would have eventually noticed the little girl imitating them daily and perhaps have taken her under his wing... but maybe not, if he was traditional in his perceptions and sexist in his values. [Hmm, will have to look up online if there have been well-known female muay thai practitioners in thailand over the years?] .....Anyway, I will now look for more films with lead roles by these actors - Jeeja as well as Ammara Siripong, Taphon Phopwandee, and Hiroshe Abe. .....This one is a keeper. Now I have to decide between getting the region-1, dubbed blu-ray version or the uncut, english-subtitled, region-2, (is it uncut? there's at least one version that is...), malaysian version (I have region-free dvd player, will travel :) .....ENJOY!

Very Good

I liked it at the time and would still watch it if I felt the need, I'd recommend it if you're a martial arts fan guy like myself

Excellent film d'action!

Film qui comprend des scènes de combat allant crescendo mais aussi une histoire intéressante qui permet à Jeeja Yanin de montrer des talents d'actrice

Fiance couldn't find this movie anywhere so I bought it as a birthday gift for him, he loves it,

En tant que film, l'histoire est plutôt linéaire et fait différente des usuelles histoires d'amour entre un amoureux et sa blonde. Il s'agit dans ce cas-ci d'une histoire d'amour entre une fille et sa mère... et la fille en question en une vraie experte en combats d'arts martiaux! Les combats en soi sont déjà impressionnants, mais lorsqu'on sait que les combats sont réels (dans le sens que l'actrice fait elle-même ses cascades sans filet), je ne peux faire autrement que de donner 5 étoiles ET acheter un film. Un peu de solidarité, que diable!Décidément, si vous aimez les films de combat, prenez la peine d'écouter celui-ci. Époustouflant, tout simplement.

Slow start