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Jan
04
2008

The Trailer For Prachya Pinkaew’s CHOCOLATE Finally Arrives!

Posted by Todd Brown at 4:59pm.

Posted in Trailer Alerts , Martial Arts, Action, Asia.

Well, that’ll teach me to not check the current uploads into the Twitch Video Player right away.  Prachya Pinkaew’s Chocolate has been, undoubtedly, one of the most anticipated films in these parts for well over a year and a trailer has been frustratingly non-existent despite promo reels displaying at the international markets for months now.  But no more.  I received an upload notice to the player early yesterday and figured I’d get to it a bit later ... later became a bit later until I just got to it now to discover that not only does a trailer now exist, but the good folk at Deknang have graciously provided us with it.  Here’s what you need to know:

Chocolate is the latest directorial effort from Prachya Pinkaew, the man at the helm of both Ong Bak and Tom Yum Goong / The Protector.  While Pinkaew and his star Tony Jaa have had a fairly public falling out recently - no doubt triggered in part by Jaa’s desire to direct Ong Bak 2 himself and resulting in Pinkaew’s cancellation of Jaa feature project Sword - he is quite confident he has a new star here in Nicharee “Jeeja” Vismistananda.  Don’t let youth or gender fool you, Vismistananda has been training under the personal guidance of Jaa’s mentor and fight choreographer Panna Rittikrai for years in preparation for this role so you know she’s got the goods.  In Chocolate she plays an autistic girl who goes on a mission to collect debts to save her ill mother, a course of action that puts her on a collision course with gangs of both the local Thai and Japanese varieties.  Japanese film fans will recognize popular Japanese leading man Hiroshi Abe as one of the yakuza bosses.

The trailer itself?  Hot damn.  This girl is incredibly fast, very agile, and has an awful lot of charisma.  The nod to Bruce Lee is brilliant. the fight choreography is stellar and the strikes hurt.  A lot.  And that’s before you even get to the included bloopers, just to assure those of you who might think they’re faking this somehow.  Stunt man got an owie.  Vismistananda got stitches.  This is madness.  Madness of the brilliant, painful kind.  The trailer follows below the break.

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Reader Comments

  1. zombeaner 01/04/2008 @ 6:02pm

    Looks very impressive.  The actress looks like she can deliver the goods, I’m excited.

  2. Ard Vijn 01/04/2008 @ 7:08pm

    Ho. Ly. Shit.

    Must be fun to be THAT good at kicking behind!

  3. ChevalierAguila 01/04/2008 @ 7:33pm

    I came…

  4. JMaruyama 01/04/2008 @ 9:19pm

    Hot Chocolate! Thanks for this great scoop Todd! I definitely want to see this movie. I like the fact that Jeeja’s character picks up her moves by watching Bruce Lee movies and it looks like there are scenes reminiscent of “Game of Death” and “Fist of Fury”.  The accident/mishaps footage looks painful indeed.

    There is surprisingly very little information on the web about this movie but there is an interesting article in Bangkok’s Independent Newspaper:
    http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/11/15/lifestyle/lifestyle_30056086.php

    And bigger poster art at BeyondHollywood:
    http://www.beyondhollywood.com/a-look-at-prachya-pinkaews-chocolate/

    I can’t find any release date and all references say “sometime in 2008”. I can’t wait...hopefully it’s early this year.

  5. MavisFan 01/05/2008 @ 8:35am

    I’ve got the goosebumps and chills watching the this...Damn that looks so good.. It’s been along time coming for a serious chick you can kick your ass film.  I’m liking 2008 already, thanks Todd.

  6. LT Roberts 01/05/2008 @ 9:29am

    DAAAAAAAAMN.

    That’s some serious ass whoopin’. And all stylish and yummy, just like a chocolate treat. I want some more, please.

  7. anton_es 01/05/2008 @ 4:28pm

    awesome stuff.

  8. Todd Brown 01/05/2008 @ 4:31pm

    Thai release is supposed to be in February.  No word on US, though it’s definitely coming.

  9. anton_es 01/05/2008 @ 4:34pm

    hopefully it gets engl. subs, not like the first OngBak release

  10. ChevalierAguila 01/05/2008 @ 6:35pm

    Let’s also hope this gets released here with NO cuts whatsoever, unlike Ong Bak, this one seems to have a bit more of plot going on.

  11. Mack 01/06/2008 @ 7:15am

    James: I was tickled to see that dojo scene in there too. It seems only proper that there be some kind of homage to Bruce in it. And I loved the multiple bone breaking scene in TYG. So anything with one against many is alright in my books.

    WOW!

  12. ebenbolter 01/06/2008 @ 9:20am

    The second half of this trailer gave me that same ‘FORWARD THIS TO EVERYONE I KNOW NOW!!!’ feeling that the first Ong Bak trailer did…

  13. PizzaBastard 01/06/2008 @ 2:17pm

    i have a feeling its gonna get sooo bootlegged as soon as it comes out like “Tom Yum Goong”

  14. emacs 01/06/2008 @ 5:16pm

    Looks like a great candidate for the Midnight Madness programme during the Toronto International Film Festival (September 4 - 13, 2008)!

    Colin Geddes, you reading this? wink

  15. Adam Lopez 01/07/2008 @ 8:47am

    Yeah I think there will be more than a few genre film fests around the world going after this puppy (hint hint!)

  16. Hewe 01/07/2008 @ 2:42pm

    I dig it.  Jeeja’s awesome. What a little killer.  Twitch, I hope you’ll let us know the release date for this bad boy!

  17. ap007007 02/06/2008 @ 2:49pm

    jesh gabesh.
    people this film is now out here in theatre. it contains beautiful sections but not fitting together all so well. i did a small review on another comment for this.

    Story is not so good und offensive for people with disability, but I expected none less from this director. She moves quite okay for female, but falls far short of Tony Jaa. I think will be quite well more for peoples curiousness than for what is in the screen. Quite typical of the good set pieces, und bad choreography, style of this director like his previous films. Stunt people are good, but the star uses wires, blu-screen, and camera tricks, so not really to compare with power of Jaa.
    Ong Bak was revolutionary, this is very much not. I enjoyed it a bit tho perhaps so wasnt so bad. For normal people who wont like action, this release not for you.
    5 out of 10 perhaps.

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