The New Muay Thai Fury: Chocolate

Director Prachya Pinkaew helped launched Tony Jaa as an international screenfighter with Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior and The Protector. Now the Thai director's newest film looks to up the ante with another muay thai blockbuster.

The film, called Chocolate, has been creating a considerable buzz over the action scenes and recently arrived (officially) in the States.

As with many martial arts films, Chocolate is short on storyline but long on action. In this case, it's worth seeing the film for its fast-paced and wire-free fight sequences and stunts.

Additionally, Chocolate offers a twist on the martial genre by introducing a female protaganist, 24-year old JeeJa Yanin.

TASTE THE FURY
Yanin plays "Zen" an autistic woman who has the abilitiy to mimic the martial arts she sees in the films of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and, yes, even Tony Jaa. Later, in order to settle her sick mother's debts, she puts these fighting skills to use when seeking out hordes of ruthless gangs that owe her family money. The rivals still bear a grudge against her mother for having fallen in love with Zen's father, a Japanese yakuza.

Dismissing the idea that a female fighter can be any less intense than a male one, Chocolate offers a good amount of eye-popping action.

Yanin reportedly trained for five years in preparation for the film. With a healthy dose of elbows, knees, high-jumping double kicks and back-breaking stunts, there are enough memorable scenes to merit a replay if you have the DVD.

   
Since money seems to be everyone's problem, Zen is seen using her own fists, knees and elbows to inflict excruciating pain on her opponent's face, body and shins throughout most of the film. She delivers quite convincingly for such a small frame. 

Yanin, while no Jaa, gets better with each successive battle and eventually culminates in an excellent finale sequence. The film had a very short theatrical run from February 6th and is now available on DVD (complete with featurettes on the making of and the martial arts choreography) since February 10th.

Visit the official website.  

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