Chocolate (DVD – Magnet Releasing)

Thai martial arts pic, CHOCOLATE, find its way onto DVD and Blu-ray in the U.S. on the Magnet Releasing genre label courtesy of Magnolia Pictures. The DVD version, which was available for review, is like other Thai movie release from Magnolia, a straight forward package with few bonuses but the original soundtrack and theatrical print are intact.

Magnolia gets points for using original promotional art for their cover. Even the font on the title is suggestive of the original marketing style.

Conversely, Magnolia royally screwed up their branding of Jeeja Yanin, particularly her name. There is plenty of empty space on the cover where they could have fit Jeeja’s name but it’s not there where it needs to be, something bold like, “Introducing Jeeja Yanin.” A look on the back cover reveals only a very small credit listing “Yanin Mitananda.” That’s the name she goes by in the end credits although go online to Wikipedia or IMDb.com and she is known as Yanin “Jeeja” Vismistananda or simply Jeeja Yanin. Go to Magnolia Pictures’ web site, look under their listing for CHOCOLATE and you’ll see her listed twice using two other variations of her name including “Jija Yanin Vismistananda” and “Yanin Mitananda.”

To be fair, Romanized Thai names are notoriously long and difficult for Westerners to deal with which is one reason why Yanin has an English-friendly nickname like “Jeeja.” Yet as the U.S. distributor of her first movie it is Magnolia’s responsibility to figure out what name she is going to be known as in the English-speaking world and stick with it. It’s not that difficult. Someone at the distributor dropped the ball and needs to be called to task. Something as simple a name branding can have a significant effect on an actor’s marketability worldwide. If they didn’t know which name to go with they could have called up Pinkaew and asked him. He’s been doing a very good job of branding his actors.

The original 1.78:1 aspect ratio print is anamorphic and looks great by DVD standards. This is nicely matched with Thai or English-dubbed audio, both in either 5.1 surround or 2.0 stereo formats. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are included.

Extras

The Making of CHOCOLATE (9 minutes) – Thai-language featurette with English subtitles contains behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with director Prachya Pinkaew and actress Jeeja Yanin.

Trailers – Several trailers for other unrelated Magnolia releases are included.

Format: Region 1 NTSC DVD
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Widescreen (1.78:1)
Audio: English 5.1, English 2.0, Thai 5.1, Thai 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Length: 92 minutes
Release Date: 2009.02.10

Related Topics: Chocolate (2008), DVD, JeeJa Yanin, Magnet Releasing, Magnolia Pictures