Chocolate – Magnolia Pictures, 2008. Directed by Prachnya Pinkaew.
Click to watch trailer
I’ve been excited about this film ever since I saw the first trailer, but I just couldn’t bring myself to get a non-subtitled version which is all that was available for a while. Then when an official subtitled version came out I just sat on my hands for a while because I wasn’t really buying DVDs. Also I had heard that it might be coming to theaters which would be the ideal way to see it. Finally I got the blu-ray and sat down and watched it. So did it live up to my expectations? Unfortunately no.
Story – Jeeja Yanin plays Zen who is an autistic girl born of a Yakuza member and a Thai call girl, Zin, who get together after some business dealings between the Yakuza and Thai mafia. Zen’s father leaves before she is born, and Zin raises the girl on her own. The girl’s autism gives her very fast reflexes and with her friend Moom she earns money as a street performer who will catch balls that people throw at her from any angle. They’re using this money to buy medicine for her mom who has cancer. When Zin’s condition turns for the worse, Zen and Moom find a book Zin was keeping that has a record of all the people who owe her money. Zen spends the rest of the movie kicking the butts of the people until they give the money her mom is due.
Catching balls
Sounds like a simple enough premise with loads of excuses for fights, right? Yes you’d be correct on that, but did you know that the first two sentences is at least twenty minutes of the entire movie?
Do you know what the worst thing about this movie was for me? Watching most of it thinking of how it could’ve been done better.
Critique – Prachya Pinkaew did a fine enough job with Ong-Bak and sort of to a lesser extent with Tom Yum Goong, but his directorial shortcomings really show through in this film. Ong-Bak was the best film because it’s very very simple and pretty difficult to mess up. The only problems that film had were maybe a bit too much of the subplot with the girl trying to clean up and fly right, and also a gambling scene that was way too long. Other than that it works just fine. Tom Yum Goong was way too long, the comedy fell flat and the story tried to be more than it was which is just Tony Jaa going from place to place yelling “Where’s my elephant!?” Plus what the hell was up with the horrible CG battle scene?
If you didn’t know what Chocolate was about, from the first twenty minutes you’d probably think it was going to be a romance of some kind. So much time is spent trying to develop the relationship between Zin and her love interest Masashi (played by famous Japanese model Hiroshi Abe). I think this was probably in here to give him more screen time, because otherwise he’s not in the film much at all. This section is waaaaaaay too long. We all know we’re watching the film to get to the butt kicking and the setup is very long and could’ve been done more efficiently.
One of the big problems with such a long setup is that we don’t get anymore invested in the characters or relationship considering how long the film lingered on it. When they’re reunited later on in the film it’s not like we care at all. So why bother spending all that time in the first place? There’s also way too much bad pop music in this section, it’s like all the horrible Hong Kong end credits music, but used in the film instead. Pinkaew’s direction has the subtlety of a freight train but with none of the impact.
After this very long intro we finally get to the action! From the trailer the action looked really freaking awesome and of course was the primary reason I was watching this film. So, how does that fare?
Action – During and after watching this film I spent a while with my girlfriend discussing just why the fight scenes lacked the impact they deserved. There are a number of things that robbed this movie of its potential as a really awesome kickass martial arts film. First I blame the director. It’s clear from watching the film that the star Jeeja Yanin has impressive kicking skills and flexibility, that’s all DESPITE how the movie was shot.
What makes Hong Kong action films so exceptional is the seamless editing, the well thought out tempo of the fight scenes, the power and energy. Chocolate is rather lacking in these things. Okay so why is this? Thai Boxing is a lot less about the acrobatics, quick series of blocks, punches and kicks and more about the BIG IMPACTS. When Tony Jaa hits a guy with his elbow, knees or combination of the two you know he really doesn’t need to follow up with anything else. If you see a guy go down from one his hits you believe it. Mostly because you can see the power in Tony Jaa’s blows. If Jackie Chan is going at a guy you know he’ll probably use a ton of punches and blocks and finish off with a big kick or punch.
One thing you see in Jackie Chan documentaries is when he’s describing how the rhythm of the fight will go. He’ll describe a bunch of fast hits and then a big one, then repeat. It’s the mix of fast, slow, rapidfire and impactful hits that makes them so dynamic. Thai Boxing is more like a series of really big hits, big periods one after another. Now there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just different.
The problem the film runs into is that the choreography is treating Jeeja Yanin like she actually is Tony Jaa. Her physical abilities are impressive to be sure, but you can tell she doesn’t have the same power. So when she does a kick that’s supposed to be as strong as one of his it doesn’t look good. Her small frame just can’t sell it as well.
When I’m at my martial arts school and helping newer students there’s something I find myself saying a lot when we’re kicking pads. If someone’s technique isn’t good I’ll say something like “It feels like you’re hitting the very front of the pad really hard, but it’s not going through.” That’s because the tendency of people is to use muscle strength instead of body strength. When I’m watching Chocolate, at best I feel like I’m seeing her kick the surface of the stuntmen very hard. Now, of course in filming fight scenes they’re not hitting nearly as hard as they would be if it was a real kick, but it feels very apparent in this film. I think either she was going too easy on the stuntmen or they were going too easy on her. Either way, this brings me to the next criticism of the fight scenes.
The fight choreography for the most part is just fine, but the editing and shot selection keep it from looking as good as it should. Since she’s not as big and muscular as Tony Jaa the film should’ve compensated by making her appear faster. The individual shots in the fight scenes very often feel like they start too soon, or end too late. They give us time to breathe between the cool bits, and the effect is that it feels like she had a lot of time to hit them, or prepare to hit them or try to dodge. In Jackie Chan movies the speed of the fights means that if he’s not doing something for a half second, then the other guys are going to jump in and kick him.
After watching the film I watched the trailer again. The trailer uses the exact same shots from the film and yet it works great in the trailer. Why is this? Because the individual moments in the fight scenes are cut together with very little gap in between the hits so there’s better flow and impact. Maybe they edit together a bunch of fast kicks, then finish off with a slow motion big one. This is what the movie’s editing is lacking in its fight scenes.
Angelina Jolie wishes her feat was this cool in Wanted.
Also the way it was shot you can see that you’re not getting the optimal angle for some of the really impressive stuntwork. Anyone who compares Hong Kong fight scenes to Hollywood close up shaky cam fights knows how important camerawork is. Unfortunately the shot selection and framing takes a really really impressive move, and doesn’t let it shine like it should. I rewatched the fight scenes before writing this, but I know that every time I watch this movie I’ll be thinking of how certain shots could’ve been done better. I really shouldn’t be thinking “Oh, if only they framed it more to the right and closer up in this shot.” The music often doesn’t help either. The end especially has very ambient lethargic music, the earlier scenes have a bit more of what you’d expect, but still doesn’t help much.
My hope is to see Jeeja Yanin in another film with a more competent director who knows how to use her properly and make her look as good as she did in the trailer. I would love to see her in a Jackie Chan directed film or some other Hong Kong director who knows how to use her better. Her next film is a movie called Raging Phoenix. The gimmick of that film is that they combine B-Boy dancing with martial arts. We’ll see how it pans out. The trailer’s fight scenes didn’t look as impressive as Chocolate’s from its trailer, but I’ll reserve judgment until I see it.
This scene, sooooo not in the movie. I demand deleted scenes!
Final Thoughts – I’d still say that kung fu movie junkies should see this film because there’s still some great stuntwork and martial arts, it just fails to live up to its potential. Too much sentimentality, very uneven tone, unnecessary stylistic choices hamper what could’ve been a really awesome easy to recommend movie. Oh, I forgot to mention that one of the movies Zen watches in the film is Ong Bak, and during her first big fight scene she experiences a sort of revelatory vision of Tony Jaa almost as if he were Obi-Wan Kenobi saying “Use the Muay Thai! Trust your feelings!” Really not subtle and kind of silly when it comes down to it.
The Blu-ray disc has a short fluffy “making of” piece that doesn’t really do much except show some behind the scenes footage. The only English subtitles are for the hard of hearing so you have stuff like “loud clang” mixed into the subtitles. Oh and the end credits do have bloopers but they kind of make too much of themselves, lingering on the people after they got hurt complete with the audio. I think even the blooper reel wasn’t edited well.
Oh and despite what the trailer says, you can clearly see in the behind the scenes footage there were some wires used that were later digitally removed.
