Well, at least this movie's story is not about some douche risking his life for a stone head, an elephant, or (ahem) a magical artificial dingaling (that would be unpleasant). Yes Prachya Pinkaew has finally improved on the storytelling portion of his films, but "awww sheeit" the story is one dimensional, therefore it loses points.

The action is a step below the Tony Jaa stuff (it's not quite as suicidal), but it is still a lot of fun to watch. This chick is really good at fighting and I would like to see more of her.

IT'S NOT A 5-STAR MOVIE! Sorry, but due to its slow pacing and uninspiring and unoriginal story, it loses a point; but the fights were good enough to keep this film afloat.

The stunt-work is fairly bad in my opinion, with these poor Thai guys just bashing their bodies against floors, counters, and off roofs. These guys are literally hurting themselves for their measly pay, no question about the pain, as they flop around for the camera. I saw no skill in what they were doing as it was just taking the damage for a sad paycheck. Someone forgot to tell them that a real stuntman makes it just LOOK like they're getting hurt. And it was confirmed in the out-takes as they even show all of these guys getting banged up and some poor dude even ends up in the hospital practically in a body cast as the crew and actors laugh and applaud as if there's a reason to celebrate ("Hey, you're not dead! Only paralyzed!").

I was thoroughly disappointed and couldn't believe I sat through the entire, pathetic movie. I usually think that HKFlix is right on in their ratings, but this is one where I say, "You stole 92 minutes of my life!"

Chocolate refers to the favorite candy of the lead character, a mentally disabled teenage girl named Zen. Her mother Zin was a former gang member, and the mistress of Bangkok's top underworld leader, but she fell in love with a Japanese yakuza man named Masashi. Zin separated from her lover and her past life to lead a quiet existence with her daughter.

However, by the time Zen is grown up, the mother is stricken with cancer and urgently needs money for her chemotherapy. Zen's childhood friend Moom finds a notebook with a list of names of people who owe money to her mother, and he naively takes Zen along to collect these debts.

Thus, Zen engages in a series of furious fights, having learned combat skills by observing the Muay Thai boxers practice next door, as well as watching movies and video games. She thus compensates for her mental disability with uncannily fast reflexes and an ability to quickly absorb new techniques.

All this butt-kicking arouses the concern of Bangkok's top mob boss, who is wondering what his former mistress is up to. It leads to a bloody showdown, and even Zen's father is drawn in from Japan. The final battle sequence where Zen chases the lead villain across multiple floors of a high-rise, leaping across the neon signs and ledges is particularly creative and well choreographed.

For any action fan, I highly recommend this title. Some measure of the intensity of the action can be discerned by the end credits which document a handful of the various injuries sustained during filming, not only to the lead actress, but by the many stunt men as well...bloody noses, bruises, broken necks, cuts, etc. It's absolutely a heck of a ride.

Story is pretty straightforward: autistic girl, Zen (who seems less autistic than mentally challenged) has mom with cancer who can't afford her treatments, but all the thugs in town owe the mom money from her previous life in crime, so Zen and her cousin (think Sammo's overweight Fatty characters in nearly all his classics, played now for poor comic relief or pathos only since this fatty can't fight, or act) go out hunting down the marks after the cousin finds the mom's bookie-book.

Thus ensues the teenage mayhem--unfortunately the girl's skills are just not that impressive. The best fight scenes in the movie are of the Tony Jaa movies Zen watches to "learn her skills". Ms. Yanin is acrobatic to some extent but her motions are very repetitive, relatively slow and deliberate. I have to disagree with all the "gushers" out there, she's no Tony Jaa, not even close! It is just hard to believe her choreography could result in the destruction she wreaks. Just about the half way mark through the flick she exhibits a bit of flair for the staff but it is not sustained nor does it really deliver as one initially thinks it might. Probably her fight with the two chick thugs near the train tracks, and just after that with the young dude in the sweat suit, are the most believable but again even then they are not that impressive. The fight choreography is just not that impressive folks.

There are two scenes that borrow heavily in construction from two superior movies: 1) the warehouse fight about a third of the way into the movie is very similar to the long warehouse sequence in "Contour" (although not nearly as impressive as in this latter movie), and 2) the sword/stick fight in the head baddy's lair parallels the fight between Uma Thurman and the Crazy 88's in QT's KBI--although as in the previous case the scene in "Chocolate" pails in comparison that in KBI, both in terms of intensity and duration.

The final fight sequence, fought on the balconies of two buildings separated by a street, with many street signs, wires and poles for the actors to move on, is pretty intense and in some ways creative, but again it's just not very believable except when bad guys fall three stories to the pavement below.

The film has some really great moments though that have absolutely nothing to do with the "action"--the director, Prachya Pinkaew's sense of camera and composition of frame are at times simply outstanding. But these moments are few and far between and certainly only a tease in the end to "what might have been". Most of the rest of the time the cinematography looks like some other person entirely shot it on a handy-cam.

This film had a lot of potential but simply didn't deliver in ways it has been hyped to.

Scenes include a butchery with all manner of knives, a factory, and the end 30 minutes plus is one long fight fest. This includes some close quarter scenes reminiscent in feel to "Drunken Master 2's" opening sequence crossed with "The Master" (Jet Li). We then get "Kill Bill Part 1" with streams of combantants, and the fight moves back outside to a climax fought on the front of a block of flats.

The choreography is excellent throughout. Yes, some of these people wouldn't keep getting up but aside from that, the moves are at times breathtaking--how they pull some of the moves off without injury is beyond me. The plot--about a young girl with mental difficulties but with a special martial arts skill who seeks owed money from dubious characters to give to her mother who needs hospital treatment--actually works well. It's slightly stylized at times, but it all just flows into a highly entertaining film. If you liked "Warrior King" and "Ong-Bak", well this is the next level up! Enjoy.

This movie takes many cues from "Ong-Bak"--being from the same director, it is expected--and you get lightning fast action that is so solidly delivered you start to feel the pain of these hits.

I'm a bit late to the "Chocolate" party. I can be quite a procrastinator, and have heard the endless litany of praise for this movie, but amazingly it was all true. This is one of the few movies that does live up to its hype, believe it or not.

From the man who gave us a trilogy of fantastic martial arts films--"Ong-Bak", "The Protector", and "Born To Fight"--comes "Chocolate", a story about an autistic girl who collects money owed to her cancer-stricken mother.

The story starts out with the woman of a local gang boss who falls in love with a member of the local yakuza. Naturally, the gang boss doesn't like this and swears revenge. The yazuza flees town and the woman later on gives birth to an autistic girl called Zen. Zen grows up next door to a muay thai school and is an avid viewer of martial arts movies. Being a gifted mimic, Zen is able to emulate every move she's ever seen (along with some physical training she initiates) and becomes a martial arts master.

That is just a very brief synopsis of what this movie is about. The first twenty to thirty minutes helps with the set-up; after that it starts to kick into high gear. Really high gear. I can't begin to describe the fighting that goes on in this movie suffice it to say that if you can remember that feeling of excitement and exhilaration when watching a truly awesome martial arts film, you'll understand exactly what I mean.

Go out, watch this movie, and recapture the feeling of watching a truly incredible martial arts film.

If people think that Jeeja Yanin (is that her name?) is some next generation superstar about to break out, then there must really be a lack of quality action stars out there (yes there is, but still). She's a freakin' gymnast swinging her legs around and then stunt men fall and pretend they are hurt or even got hit. This isn't Tony Jaa kicking you in the head in slow-mo so you can see the guy get creamed, or Donnie Yen hitting Coolie in the face (with a fake fist BTW). It is plain jane action that just isn't as good as other stuff that's out there. If you want female action that's low brow, watch some of the funny Japanese stuff like "The Machine Girl". It's just as bad, but on purpose and much funnier.

And what is with all the transvestites? The bad guy has a posse of man-women to protect him. WTF? This movie is truly laughable.

The performances by the female leads, Jeeja Yanin and Ammara Siripong are really good. The rest of the acting is just mediocre.

Prachya Pinkaew’s direction is relatively good in terms of shots and cinematography, but storywise the film doesn’t hold together well. The story had good intentions, but was really only at face value. Nothing’s really fleshed out and the plot is simply there to allow for lots of fighting.

The action scenes are good, but they’re lacking something that many of the Muay Thai Stunt Team usually brings. Much like "Dynamite Warrior", the reactions seem poor and the choreography seems uninspired. Nonetheless, there is some really great stuff and Jeeja Yanin is very talented, particularly for her first film.

I was surprisingly disappointing that this film only lands in the middle of Panna’s body of work.

Living between cultures means living between languages, a reality that little people bring to screen. Bruce Lee did so, and so does this film, the national-border-defying mafia conversating in three different tounges. This isn‘t the only elegant reminicence of Bruce, we also get to see a fight in a warehouse filled with iceblocks and more. On top, there is a great anime-dream sequence and a subtle, touching love for life...

If you want another great movie with thai boxing and female fighting star, look for the funky 70’s film THE TOURNAMENT with Angela Mao, she does a sort of Kung Fu hybrid, not real Muay Thai, but it was probably the first movie that showed a lady in a thai boxing ring, and the martial arts are breathtaking.

The plot: an ex-mob mother is ostracised due to her love of a rival yakuza. He returns to Japan, leaving her to care for their autistic daughter (Zin) who is brought up in a Muay Thai training school. When mother falls ill, Zin and her tubby chum discover an accounts book of people that owe her mother money--they do not realize this a loan shark book from her mob days. Zin has copied the Muay Thai techniques from the school, and avidly consumes Tony Jaa's movies and violent Playstation games.

And so cue a series of fights with the debtors--all of which are set in different factories: ice, packing, meat. Finally the old boss and his transvestite(!) gang get wind of this and we end with two showdowns: one involving the returned Yakuza dad in a restaurant, and then spilling out to the city rooftops and balconies for the final showdown.

And she's called Chocolate because she collects M&M's.

Treatment: now, this has caused quite a split among the kung fu forums. As mentioned, Zin is autistic (apologies if this is a generalization) and her mother is struck with (presumably) leukemia. In my opinion both conditions are treated respectfully, and (as far as I can see) realistically. Zin's mood swings and perception of the world are well realized. Of course, this doesn't have the depth of, say, "The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night" or "Rain Man", but its both good enough for this context and touching in its own right. The point that she could not possibly be such a good fighter without formal training is, well, pointless: "Ong-Bak" and "Tom Yun Goong" have equally ludicrous plots but are just as exciting.

Fights: again, controversial: some believe these to be slickly edited to make JeeJa Yanin look better, and that she is merely flexible/acrobatic with no real technique. I completely disagree; whilst I'm no big city martial arts expert, I have done five years of attempting to pull off similar kick combos and am not close to the speed and accuracy she displays. The combos are varied and imaginative, making very good use of kicks/elbows/ad-hoc weapons as well as the scenery. The stunts are superb; especially in the end fight on the side of a building (Harold Lloyd would be proud). Only let down is the swordplay sequence, which is just as clumsy as the one in "Kill Bill".

The outtakes show several meaty smacks in the face, the stunt team really earned their keep.

Overall: 4.5.out of 5, another modern day classic from Thailand with plenty of action, and nice to see that plot complexity is improving.

The action in this movie is the kind of action that makes you say, "Daamm!! Did you see that?!" I could vividly see the downtown movie theater exploding with excitement, with every action scene.

I have to admit the start was a little slow, but something keeps you glued. Maybe it's the anticipation or curiosity of seeing martial arts cinema's newest sensation, Jeeja Yanin, strut her stuff. Or maybe it was the track record of the filmmaking team that produced this film and Tony Jaa's two smash hits. Whatever the reason, this film captivates the viewer.

The fight choreography is innovative and exciting and long overdue! My only hope is that the stunt men didn't permanentely injure themselves. Stunt work should be realistic LOOKING, without get seriously injured. Safety should always be the priority for any filmmaker!

All in all, this is a very engaging film. Go get it!

I honestly don't get where all this animosity for this film comes from. People diss it because the girl is small so many basically sign right here off as weak. Size is a factor in power. That I can't deny, but also so is proper technique. With good technique any sized individual can manifest amazing power beyond their stature. I'd love for you folks to question the power of the small man who taught me Muay Thai. I'm a good sport so I would totally call an ambulance for you after I finished laughing my ass off at what he did to you.

Allow me to be equal parts sexist and scientific. There is a greater need for suspension of disbelief in any movie were a small or average sized chick physically takes out grown men. Because that doesn't happen. Men are bigger, stronger and have higher endurance to physical trauma than women. Don't give me that damn look. I didn't make up physics. Look dat shit up. So basically if you hold any film where a woman is a complete badass in high regard, then on some level you too have disregarded reason in favor of entertainment. Good for you, that is what it's there for.

The martial arts choreography and delivery in this film are exemplary as well as extraordinary. Many critics have touted Jeeji Yanin as the female Tony Jaa, which isn't really fair to her as she does have her own distinct style and flair, though many of the large and daring moves do have that trademark Thai seal of approval like Tony's stuff.

Honestly, folks, why are you dissing the plot of this movie? Yeah, the story is kind of lame, but is that really why you are watching? It is disgraceful for any action junkie to disregard or blast on this movie. Top class fights and stunts keep this in a league of its own, but the yummy violence doesn't stop there. There's some rough and tumble gunplay in full effect. The shootouts don't have the dramatic flair of say a John Woo film, so you won't see any slow-mo, two-gun, dive through the air, exchange fire for five minutes type of jazz. No, the gunplay is more Quentin Tarantino styled--abrupt, gritty, and in your face. No stand-offs. Usually when you see a piece in this flick, cats are in the process of getting shot the fuck up.

Also toward the end there is a balls out, slash 'em up sword battle that gets the blood flowing. That sword battle is raw and intense. If I had it my way, every flick would have to incorporate at least one swordfight or end with a swordplay duel. Hell, I would have actually watched "The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants" if I knew at the end they all kill each other with swords. That I would pay to see. Again, don't give me that damn look.

Some folks also say that the heroine doesn't get to take on a decent challange in the flick. You folks are forgetting about Mr. Adidas: four eyes, short bus, break dancing heavy twitcher. He was wild and very enjoyable to watch with his break dancing Capoiera-fu. How was he not a worthy challenge?

I tried my best not to give up the coveted five star grand prize, but this bad little ass kicker earned it. Is the story groundbreaking and Oscar worthy? Nope. Is it perfect? Not really. But excellence in the desired arena can trump all that garbage. When a movie excels in certain areas to such a phenomenal degree, and it achieves the intended type of entertainment that it was striving for with utmost quality, then all our pretensions and over-analyses become meaningless, because we know we were entertained and that chances are we are going back for second and third helpings. You don't do that with bad or mediocre flicks. You do that with great movies.

In my opinion, this is the best bad ass chick flick, trumping the reigning champs, "Yes, Madam" and "Book Of Heroes". I defy any reviewer here to find or name a better ass kicking chick movie. If you disagree with this review I'm going to expect you to name-drop a better bad-ass chick flick. If you can't think of one and are of the collection of reviewers that clocked on this movie, then I'm going to ask you to reevaluate your feelings on this film and watch it again. You may have missed something. Something great. You know the name and the game's still the same. Keep it real, folks. Peace.

As for the fights, they're breathtaking, incredible leaps and flips and kicks by the new girl on the block, and, again like in a Chan film, the fighting is her vs. a whole bunch of guys again and again and again, but it's the setting/scenery and how she uses it that dintinguishes each action sequence. I'm baffled that some have said "they're all the same". And I feel like I must be from a different species than those who say the fighting wasn't well directed or performed. I have no idea what they expected, but this movie ranks with the first ONG-BAK and the best of HK martial arts (though TOM YOUNG GOONG is admittedly still the absolute king).

So...unless you've allowed yourself to become so jaded you've effectively ceased to think and become a stunted specimen of human ignorance, CHOCOLATE is a superb martial arts flick, one of the best, though no, not at all THE best. And the story is fun and unexpectedly complex for a fighting movie. It's cheesy, sure, but it's performed admirably by the actors and tries really hard for honest dramatics. It's not NOT a martial arts film, but this is as good as such films ever are on the story side of things.

The set-up of the movie is very slow. The audience is not introduced to the new fighting sensation JeeJa Yanin until twenty minutes in the movie, where she is catching balls (literally) and fruits that her chubby best friend throws at her. CGI fruit and balls helped her a lot on that scene to impress upon a crowd that she has fast reflexes, and then a young punk throws a knife at her. We are finally introduced to her kicks and punches in a brief altercation. This was the twenty-minute mark. If you are a patient viewer, you would have to sit through the story about a criminal boss' hench-woman and criminal boss' associate and their love for each other. The criminal boss finds out and goes bat-crazy, shooting his own foot. The man and woman are on the run, and the woman says she's pregnant. The man leaves her and the mother is all alone taking care of her deaf child. The criminal boss returns with his drag-queen goons and cuts off one of the mother's fingers as the deaf child watches and cries. Then the scene cuts to the deaf girl, we see in a montage that she is interested in Thai fighters in front of her house, kung fu movies, her chubby friend, mom, and of course chocolate. Her kryptonite is flies, she really hates flies.

The action scenes are all right, starting with the first action sequence in the ice factory where she mimics Bruce Lee but thinks about Tony Jaa from "Ong-Bak". I was a little confused by that scene--shouldn't she have thought about Bruce Lee instead? In that scene ice is thrown at her, and she dodges it left and right. The second fight is in the warehouse where she fights atop crates and wooden platforms are thrown at her. The next action scene is in the shady butcher shop where the opponents are strapped with butcher knives and again the knives are thrown at her as she dodges them left and right. The last and final action scenes are on top of a roof where she fights thug girls that look like the fly girls from the show "In Living Color". Then the fight scene in the restaurant where she fights people with swords and a man with glasses that is on crack, I suppose. The most exciting out of all the fights is the one on top of billboards and restaurant signs--it was good and enjoyable.

The major problems of the movie were the lack of character development. I personally could not recognize any of the characters in the movie; they were lacking heart or any emotional impact. The story was a major problem too. There were a lot of parts that could of been cut out, like the beginning and some of the emotional parts. Another major problem was the action: there are three action scenes that look the same but in different locations--one in the butcher shop, second the warehouse, and third the ice factory. These action scenes were all the same with the same bad guys trying to attack JeeJa Yanin. The bad guys of the movie were a major problem as well. JeeJa Yanin fights a lot of people in the movie, but none of her opponents were really worthy, which lacks any danger for Miss Yanin. This is supposed to be a martial arts movie, we need a worthy opponent for our hero. If there are no good matches in a kung fu film, then it lacks excitement for the viewer. JeeJa Yanin's character is invincible in the movie, she is like a superhero and her kryptonite is flies. If this was supposed to be a superhero film, the writers should have established that. "Chocolate" is not a superhero film, it's about a deaf girl that fights and never gets hurts except when there are outtakes. There are a lot of martial arts films out there with a hero fighting off an opponent that is worthy to fight with. In this movie our main villain shoots himself in the foot and is surrounded by a group of drag-queen goons--maybe he should have read the guidelines on being a villain and stopped running away from a deaf girl.

"Chocolate" is not a five star masterpiece. We are missing the intense and thrilling action scenes, plus a decent story to follow. The character development is also missing. "Chocolate" is not a zero star movie, it does have some fun for the viewer. I am giving the film two and half stars even though it has three action scenes that look the same and henchmen that are no match for JeeJa Yanin. I did like the fight on top of the billboards, it was creative and original. There was a scene I enjoyed, in the butcher shop, where a man throws a knife at our hero but it bounces of a springy fence and strikes him on the shoulder. To me that's priceless entertainment.