By | Published September 29, 2008

Variety reports that Magnet Releasing, the Asian genre division of Magnolia Pictures has acquired North American distribution rights to action director Prachya Pinkaew’s latest martial arts pic, CHOCOLATE.

The film follows in the tradition of other Thai martial arts actioners like ONG BAK and BORN TO FIGHT. It stars JeeJa Yanin, the newest discovery of Pinkaew, as an autistic girl who picks up martial arts skills from watching movies and uses them to help her ailing mother collect debts from ruthless criminals.

The big news is that Magnolia is bringing the film to theaters in 2009. As a foreign-language release with an unknown lead, it’s doubtful it will be anything but a limited theatrical run. We can still hope.

It had initially been reported that The Weinstein Company had acquired rights to the pic but for reasons unknown the distributor lost interest. They had previously snatched up and released Tony Jaa’s THE PROTECTOR in 2007.

Source: Variety

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  • Captain Boosh

    Am I the only one who sees Thai action movies as terrible? I mean. I saw Ong Bak and was really impressed. Other than the occasional, “Well, he didn’t really need to flip there or do that stunt. It looked good but wasn’t necessary.” It was pretty good. The fighting was great and chase scenes were cool but over the top.

    But then came The Protector, and was complete garbage. The scene fighting 30 guys was cool on the internet, but it really kills pacing when watching the movie. And the way it starts to get stupid how he breaks the guys hand with his crotch stuff. C’mon, someone through a baby elephant through a glass window. How stupid, not to mention extreme sports fighting (rollerblades and bikes? WTF?).

    Born to Fight, terrible. Just make a documentary of guys doing really awesome stunts and getting hurt, but don’t make a movie.

    And now Chocolate. She can’t fight. She can do a few acrobatic moves, but doesn’t look like she’s comfortable doing them (you know, out of place).

    I’ve lost all faith for Thai action (Except Ong Baak 2, which looks insane, but I don’t want to get my hopes up anymore).

    Am I alone here?

  • Captain Boosh

    BTW, I love the website and all the informative articles (like Wong Fei Hong history stuff).

    Mark Pollard is awesome.

  • matthews

    It sounds like you are saying that action movies
    in general are terrible. Your arguments were,”didn’t really need to…”"over the top..”
    Klls pacing”"get stupid”"She can’t fight” You seem to be describing every action movie ever made. No need to single out thai movies.

  • CaptainBoosh

    Granted, most action movies are mindless and just there for the action, but it seems Thai has taken it to new heights of silly.

    Fist of Legend for example is all about great fighting, but has a decent story to go with it.

    Exiled is all about bullet ballet but still has good actors.

    Jackie Chan movies are about watching Jackie Chan, but they are still good movies.

    I mean, that long ass fight scene in The Protector where he’s going up the stairs? Great that there were no cuts, but was it really necessary?

    Watch a Johnnie To film where there are no cuts for a few minutes and it really adds to how great the film is and actors skill (like pickpocketing in Sparrow).

    Hell, Crying Fist has some great boxing, but also the story is amazingly well played out.

    Maybe what I should have said is the action in Thai movies and some of the stuntwork isn’t up to par enough to hold up a terrible movie that goes with it, except Ong Baak. The best Thailand has to offer so far doesn’t even come close to other countries standards for just decent movies, except for a few death defying stunts. Action should complement the story, even if the story i lame. You might as well just watch fight scenes on the internet and not make movies then.

  • CaptainBoosh

    Maybe a viewing of Tiger Blade is in order to see my point more. Sure looks fancy in it’s 1080p Blu-Ray fanciness, but man is it terrible.

  • mathew

    Still everything you mentioned is chinese and one korean. Based on your new evidence what you should have said is that everything not chinese or korean is probably terrible. For every good chinese action movie their are hundreds that are horrible even worse in korea and the ratios are innumerable in the US. I bet that if we averaged the tomato ratings for china thailand and US based on every action movie that country every created it would be a close race.

  • Edshugeo The GodMoor

    So far, I absolutely love Thai action movies. Reminds me a bit of some of the crazier HK films from the eighties (Tiger Cage 1&2, etc.)

    Haven’t seen Born To Fight yet, but Tiger Blade is great, as was the original version of the Protector, Tom Yum Goong (didn’t see the US edit). Chocolate was awesome, and I’d love to have it on Blu-Ray. Vengeance was just okay to me. So was Ong Bak, though the stunts were great, but I didn’t see the Luc Besson edit, which I’ve read was better.

    But tastes are going to differ, and yes, if you don’t like a movie as a whole, then good action scenes will probably not save the experience. Azumi (the first one, didn’t see the second) bored me to tears, despite being full of action. But some people are quite fond of it, and that’s fine. Just wasn’t my thing.

  • Prodigy

    Hong Kong and Chinese movies are much worse when it comes to ‘over the top’ and ‘unnecessary’. Look at all the wuxia pien films where people fly around on wires doing stupid things(I love martial arts films but I think they’re trash). Ong Bak is much more realistic than most hong kong action films and there isn’t the annoying use of wires and CGI that detracts from the action and is so obvious even in the high budget american action films. Ong Bak is probably my favourite martial arts film and I have seen almost everything by Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Lee, Donnie Yen, Yuen Biao, Sammo Hung etc. I don’t even think the story in Ong Bak was that bad however The Protector was a bit stupid but still the action was great and innovative. Ong Bak 2 looks like it will be absolutely incredible as well, cant wait.

  • Boran

    i have to disagree on the first post to this thread; i happened to like watching tony jaa beat up 50 guys at once. i just think that, given the popularity of MMA in the USA, Ong Bak gained a strong following. it really introduced america to the “origin” style of muay thai, and that’s what any good fighter should know, the “origin” style. i’ll admit, tom yum goong was a little farfetched, but the fights weren’t half bad. also, i’ve seen clips from chocolate, and i don’t get what you mean by jeeja yanin being “out of place”; i don’t know much about autism, but i bet it’s hard to duplicate when you don’t have it yourself. that would explain why she looked like she felt out of place, because she’s trying to fight and be autistic simultaneously.

  • john humphrey

    I just got done watching the movie and to be honest i was a little worried about the title but i gave the movie a chance and im glad i did. I have been waiting to watch a good movie like ong bak for a really long time. I know jeeja yanin will do great in the US alot of people are starving for a great fighting movie like that. Also im really interested in watching good movies like that if anyone has any movie titles that i may like or be interested pls email me at http://www.johnhumphrey6342@gmail.com thanks