Prachya Pinkaew's CHOCOLATE

Prachya Pinkaew took Thailand by storm this weekend with his much anticipated new film Chocolate. Pinkaew is best known for his hyper-kinetic films Ong-Bak and Tom Yum Goong (aka The Protector) with Tony Jaa. Pinkaew had to change gears when he had a falling out with Jaa. One look at the trailer to Chocolate and you will see that Pinkaew is far from retiring from the action genre. He simply picked a new protégé in the form of Nicharee “Jeeja” Vismistananda, a woman who seems to be able to match Tony Jaa in agility and speed.

Chocolate is the story of a girl who is born amongst gang rivalry. The mother is left alone to raise her daughter who is diagnosed with autism. However she also displays a gift for physical quickness and is able to mimic moves she sees in movies and video games. As she grows up, she takes it upon herself to settle the score by taking on the men who abandon her mother. This may be a long-winded set up for the fights and stunts that follow, but it is far more interesting than most of this ilk.

The good news is that it has been picked up for US distribution. The bad news is that the Weinsteins picked it up, which means it will probably be slapped with a 'Quentin Tarantino Presents' tag, edited down a bit and given a new soundtrack by RZA...or at least that's what happened with Tom Yum Goong. (Some hilarious comments to a post over on Twitch have started guess what the US title will be, so as people won't get it confused with the Johnny Depp movie. I particularly like Lady Protector!)

I can't wait to see this film. Check out the trailer yourself (which includes 'injury outtakes' to prove it's the real deal):