Directed by Prachya Pinkaew
Action Choreography by Panna Rittikrai
Thailand, 2008, 90 minutes
Director Pinkaew and action choreographer Rittikrai, the team who thrilled Asian Cult Cinema fans with Ong-Bak a few years ago, are again providing us with what seems sure to be a terrific new action film.
Zen (Juja Yanin) is the shy autistic daughter of cancer-stricken Zin (Ammara Siripong), who was exiled from a powerful Thai crime syndicate because of her affair with a Japanese gangster. When a friend finds a list of outstanding debts owed her mother, Zen goes out to collect from the unwilling-to- pay-up debtors.
Zen has intuitively learned to fight from years of playing martial arts video games and watching action movies on TV. Think of her as a kick-ass, female "Rain Man." Plenty of fantastic action sequences are sure to be had as Zen goes about her task of collecting the money needed for her mother's medical care.
Yanin was already a black belt in taekwondo, which she began studying when she was eleven, when she started training in Muay Thai boxing. She put in two years of study in this new martial art form before filming of Chocolate began. Her approach of "no stunt double" harkens back to the glory days of Hong Kong cinema, a comparison reinforced by the montage of outtakes at the end of the film.
There will be two public screenings of Chocolate at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday, September 13th, 2008.
Those not lucky enough to be able catch it there (myself included), will have to keep your eyes peeled. I'm sure this film will be having a wide theatrical release and will come out on DVD at some point in the not-too-distant future.
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