The irony of advertising Chocolate (2008) as a “Prachya Pinkaew film” is that Pinkaew’s more famous martial arts films are successes almost in spite of him. Like Ong Bak (2003) and Tom yum goong (2005), Chocolate is only a moderate success because of star Tony Jaa’s charisma and the dynamic action scenes he stars in and co-choreographs. Chocolate’s romantic overplot is generic and tiresome—an autistic girl (Yanin Vismitananda) that can kick serious ass collects money to pay for her mother’s expensive medical bills—its representation of autistic kids is laughable and slightly, though clearly unintentionally, offensive (look out for the completely random and made-to-be-youtubed autistic child fight scene) but when the film lets star Vismitananda cut loose, it’s a spazzy blast. Vitmitananda’s moves are a funky fusion of the muay thai kick-boxing style Jaa uses, Hong Kong martial arts and break-dancing. Though a little unpolished at times, she definitely has what it takes to be a big name and hopefully will get the publicity that she deserves.
