Since summarizing something as “f@#$ing amazing” does less credit to the quality of this movie than the range of my vocabulary, let me elaborate on that initial gut-reaction.
Chocolate is a movie about an autistic girl named Zen whose particular gift is the ability to learn whatever fighting style she observes. Zen puts this talent to use to collect past debts from her mother’s mysterious past to pay the medical bills for her mother who is now deathly ill, but as she works her way up the chain of debtors, Zen’s reputation attracts the attention of someone interested in settling a score of his own. It’s a vigilante vengeance plot with some wickedly choreographed fight scenes highlighting the muay thai style of martial arts. Nicharee Vismistananda, the talented actress and martial artists who plays the lead, lets loose with some beautiful flying knees. Fans of Tony Jaa will recognize the similarity of style and degree of star potential between these two which is because Chocolate was made by the same team that produced Jaa’s movies.
Besides the authenticity of the fight scenes and the acting, Nicharee is deserving of major credit for her commitment. The movie took 2 years. 1 year to train her in muay thai and another year to film. She does all her own stunts and the blooper reel at the end of the film attests that she has truly shed blood, tears and sweat to bring this character to life.