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

REVIEW: Chocolate (DVD - Magnet Releasing), 8.6 out of 10 based on 14 ratings

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  • Senhal

    Any chance you’ll be reviewing the film soon, Mark? I’d like to hear your thoughts on it before making the plunge.

  • Bruce

    Thanks for the dvd review, Mark, guess I won’t bother with the US version (I already have the UK version which has more extras; wish somebody would’ve bothered including the director & stars’ commentary track from the thai version, would’ve been intersting with eng. subs., I’m sure). By the way, I don’t consider Chocolate quite up to Tony Jaa’s standard, but for my taste it’s still better, actionwise, than anything that’s come out of Hong Kong recently.

  • gunswordfist

    You just spent an entire review talking about a name?? You are awesome Pollard.

  • derwhood

    Marketing stuff-ups aside, is the release any good? There was nothing wrong with the Thai release and this does not offer any ‘unique’ extras, so why give this release any publicity if no comparisons are made?
    Maybe a comparative review of the video from the blu-ray release would be a more interesting and worthwhile topic.

  • WEJ

    Why is the word “REVIEW” in the title? No really, why?

  • JPV

    Am I the only one who didn’t think the action in this movie was all that great? It may have been the result of staying in character, but i could see JeeJa “thinking” between her moves. I think she has great athleticism but the choreography was just a staggered series of power moves with some light hand and foot work thrown in. The choreography in Jaa’s movies is similarly paced, but his power moves are so explosive I don’t even care.

    I’m really liking this new wave of Thai action films because I feel HK action cinema has been lacking in guts lately, but I’m hoping either Hong Kong stops putting their pretty boys on wires and calling them action stars or Thailand starts getting more intricate with their choreography.

  • action-buff

    JPV, I totally agree with you. Hong Kong movie ain’t what it use to be. The Hong Kong film industry is really dumb to use hong kong pop stars to do martial arts films. Pop Stars should just stay to pop music and that’s it.

  • http://www.kungfucinema.com/forums/member.php?u=1 Mark Pollard

    Senhal, I’m working on a full movie review. It should be published later today or early Friday.

  • Jerome

    I Don’t know some of those “pop stars” have me impressed. i think Nick Tse is an impressive martial artist and he’s done some stunts i don’t think i would do for good money. i will admit i hate wire work though, but that goes for any movie.

    To be honest I’m happy with the stuff that’s coming out lately, HK or otherwise. Especially from Donie yen. Flash Point and IP Man are some of the best martial arts movies iv seen. And thanks to the succes of MMA it seems to me the world is hungry for more. its expanding. we,ve got the guys iv seen on here making a Silat movie. that will be cool to see. Ther’s Cyril Raffaelli in France using Savet with Distric B13. Ma Boy Lateef Crowder showing off Capoiera in Tony Jaa’s Tom Yum Goon. Donie Yen showing us that jujitsu can be choreographed and exciting in Flashpoint. and i Myself, am a young film maker trying to bring Eskrima to the table.

  • Chris

    This file is definately 100% awesome

  • xxx

    I just wanted to say that, the action & martial arts movies that come from asia are at least better than the crap that comes from the states with wannabe martial artist and stupid cgi. and cheap wire work.Hollywood use lots of money for their movies,but I don’t see were there put it in?Were as HK or Thailand use less money and make good movies like Ong-Bak or Flash point for example.I think personaly the french make pretty good action martial arts movies like B13 for example.

  • WuxiaFan

    Magnolia put out a disappointly bare-bones DVD when there are so many extras that could have been included. So, there’s not much to talk about in reviewing this DVD. I give Mark credit for correctly pointing out how Magnolia really dropped the ball in marketing Jeeja Yanin’s name and this great film. I opted for the UK release from Showbox Media which IS loaded with the special features.

  • hayya

    u’re da best!!!i like ur moves!!

  • http://www.comparativeinsurance.com/ Jowel

    I just saw Chocolate in Netflix and this movie is awesome. The fighting scenes are at par if not better than Hongkong based films. I've already seen at lot of Thai action films and they're good.

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  • iarah

    hurray to yanin mitananda!!!
    She's superb… and beautiful…. One of a kind…
    She can replace Jackie Chan…LOL…. well, I love Jackie Chan movies.