Movie Review: Chocolate (2008) directed by Prachya Pinkaew
Zin (Ammara Siripong) was a ruthless loan shark and former lover of Thai mob boss Number Eight (Pongpat Wachirabunjong) until she fell in love with Yakuza member Masashi (Hiroshi Abe). Number Eight violently objected to the relationship, which he felt was an invasion of his territory, and Masashi was forced to return to Japan. Shortly thereafter, Zin gave birth to a girl she named Zen (Yanin Vismitananda). Zen turned out to have special needs (somewhere on the autism spectrum), so Zin retired from active criminality.
Years passed, and Zin effectively adopted neighbor boy Moom (Taphon Phopwandee, “Mike” in the English dub), who becomes Zen’s guardian/caretaker/friend. Moom realizes that while Zen may have trouble verbalizing, compulsive behaviors, and difficulty dealing with breaks in her routines, she also has uncanny hearing and reflexes, allowing her to catch things thrown to or at her, even when she can’t see them. He convinces Zen to use these skills in street performances to earn petty cash. Zen also turns out to have the ability to learn martial arts moves by watching other people do them and then practicing by herself–there’s a Muay Thai school next door, and she likes Tony Jaa movies.
Zin’s smoking habit catches up with her, and she develops cancer that requires expensive chemotherapy. Moom wants to help out, but street entertainers don’t make that kind of money. But then he stumbles across Zin’s old accounts book and realizes that a lot of people owe her cash. Moom has only ever known Zin as a kindly single mom, so doesn’t initially question why these people owe her money. He and Zen go out to collect these debts.
Unfortunately, the biggest debtors listed are the kind of businessmen who need loans from the mob and tend to employ a lot of goons. The first is an ice factory owner who naturally refuses to pay a couple of teenagers on a more than a decade old note. Zen has it fixed in her mind that her mother needs the money to have medical treatment and insists. The ice man sets his goons on the kids and Zen whips out her sweet martial arts moves. She gets the money.
A couple more collection trips and fight scenes later, Zin finally finds out what her children are up to. She realizes that this will enrage Number Eight, and sends a letter to Masashi to beg for help. Number Eight’s gang intercepts the letter, which enrages the mob boss even more (he’s the type to hold a grudge forever.) Now the family must fight not just for money, but for their lives.
After Ong-Bak (see my previous review) and The Protector, director Prachya Pinkaew decided to switch things up with a female lead for his next big action movie.
I have to admit, going in cold I wasn’t even sure that I was watching the right movie. It opens with an extended sequence of the steamy romance between Masashi (who wasn’t even mentioned in the DVD box blurb) and Zin, then scenes from Zen’s childhood to set up her backstory before finally getting to the promised martial arts action. The title turns out to be because Zen’s favorite sweet is candy-coated chocolate pieces, played for drama at one point.
Good: Sweet, sweet martial arts action sequences. My favorite is the abattoir scene, which uses OSHA violations for comedy. (Warning: not for the squeamish!) The big final fight goes on a teensy too long as Number Eight’s goons just keep spawning and spawning. Seriously, crime in Bangkok probably dropped by ten percent while all these thugs were in the hospital/morgue. Zen’s thing is copycatting, so we get scenes reminiscent of Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and Jet Li as well as Tony Jaa.
Maybe not so good: This movie plays the “disability superpower” trope absolutely straight. Having autism may cause Zen many problems in everyday life, but gives her abilities that make her a martial arts savant. Once she starts using her abilities to fight, the only opponent that gives her any real difficulty in a hand to hand fight is a young man who appears to have a form of Tourette’s Syndrome that makes his dance battle moves difficult to predict (Kittitat Kowahagul as “Epileptic Boxer”, mercifully named “Thomas” in the dub.)
Media representation of autism spectrum disorders is an especially contentious subject, and I am not educated enough on the matter to give an opinion on how well this movie does–I ask that commentators be respectful of each other in the replies.
Speaking of representation, Number Eight’s elite goons are listed in the credits as “Lady Boys” and Number Eight’s own gender presentation becomes a bit more mixed as he ages. It’s never brought up in dialogue, and no one ever treats them differently from the other criminals, so yay for that, but it also feeds into the “effeminate villain” stereotype that media has, so feels kind of icky.
Overall: Great as an action movie, but the representation issues may sink it for some viewers. Approach with caution.
