I will say this, the beginning of the movie makes no sense. Minor spoilers here, so be warned. In what is supposed to be a prologue, but feels like it lasts an eternity, Chocolate begins with two star-crossed lovers - the lovers being a Japanese gangster and a Thai gangster, who I think is also the lover of the Thai mob boss (though they never tell us that). When the Thai mob boss discovers the affair, he drives to the Japanese territory, shoots up all the henchmen and then instead of shooting the lover he shoots himself in the foot, gives the lover a "let that be a lesson to you" scowl, and then leaves. Why the hell did he shoot himself in the foot? Was he trying to be metaphorical?
The prologue's stupidity continues, the Japanese gangster returns to his homeland and the Thai woman gives birth to Zen, an autistic little girl who does nothing but eat M&Ms and watch kung fu all day. But here is where the movie gets interesting. The mom gets cancer and Zen decides to visit mom's old gangster pals and get some money for her medical expenses. They of course refuse. And Zen, whose autism has allowed her to learn the kung fu she has seen on TV (naturally) starts kicking ass.
And WOW, does she kick ass. JeeJa Yanin is a true discovery. She may not win any Oscars, but her acting is certainly acceptable, and when given permission to open a can of whupass, she brings the most charisma I've seen on screen in a long, long time. She isn't just technically good at the moves, but she also inserts her character into the kicks and punches.
The film was directed by Prachya Pinkaew, who also directed Tony Jaa's breakthrough hit, Ong Bak. He has tried to be more artistic in his storytelling this time around, especially with the dreamlike beginning, but I have to say he failed pretty spectacularly at that. But here is the question that I put to you, and the reason why Chocolate is such a good litmus test. Does it matter? Do you care that the bad guy's motivations make no sense? Does it matter that we never really understand why the Thai gang includes a special hit squad of bad ass drag queens?
Generally, I don't care how good the action is. If a movie stinks, it stinks. End of story. But there is always a line, a boundary where the action is so good, that I don't care about anything else. For me, Chocolate crossed the line into blissful kickassery. I don't care about the story or anything else. I just saw a henchmen get kicked off a roof by an autistic 15-year old girl and watched as he plummeted four stories and hit the ground. And I can't wait to see it again!
MVP:
JeeJa Yanin. There is no doubt. She may not be an technically proficient or as daring as Tony Jaa, but she is oodles of more charisma. I could watch her fight all day!
TRIVIA:
A few critics complained that a few fights were ripoffs of famous Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee bouts. This was actually on purpose (as if Yanin screeching like Lee in that one fight wasn't proof enough). The original plan was to split screen this fights, and show the Chan and Lee fights on the left side while Yanin fought on the right side - just so we could see how perfectly she was mimicking their technique. It's a neat idea, and would have reinforced how she learned to fight from TV, but unfortunately the producers couldn't afford the licensing fees. Bummer.
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