Chocolate

So I'm currently in the process of watching Chocolate. And I've got to say I'm pretty impressed.

Despite lacking any serious filmic craft (story structure, character development, um... plot) it has some very cool Tony Jaa-lite action. And by lite, I don't mean less graphic, or "for the young-ins," I just mean smaller scale set pieces and whatnot. Toes get cut off, asses get stabbed with rusty nails, people, pretty generally, spend the movie getting the shit beat out of them. Despite the latter being what people pay to see in a movie like this, the movie packs some pretty big emotional punches.



Now, every trick in the book is pulled out to accomplish said emotion, as the story concerns an autistic girl, Zen, and her overweight, bullied friend taking money from corrupt businesses to pay for the medical bills incurred by Zen's cancer-stricken mother. That's like the trifecta right there. Instant sympathy. And if that's not enough, Zen and her mother are also pariahs, hunted by a group of Thai transvestites because Zen was fathered by a member of the Japanese Yakuza. So, naturally, that's beefage.

But don't worry about it, because Zen can absorb fighting skills by watching Tony Jaa movies. This is supposed to be a selling point of the movie, but it isn't really that big of a deal, because I can totally do that too.

All of the above makes it hard not to care for this little girl whooping on people to save her mom. The end result: Awesome. Check it out. Especially if you crave a River Tam-esque, girls in flowering clothing kicking people fix.

And naturally, the fighting sequences feature infinitely better choreography and cinematography than any stateside action offering. The whole time I'm watching this, I'm thinking, "Oh. So they just must not care if they kill their stunt team." There are numerous times where it really looks like someone got killed. I'm talking about single shot, multiple story falls onto concrete.

Watch the outtakes. One of the aforementioned falls results in a very serious injury, and someone asks, "Should we go to the hospital?"

The answer, is no. You should go hard. Which you are doing. And the stunts look great, as a result.