U.S. release dates for ‘Chocolate’

Prachya Pinkaew’s latest Thai martial arts extravaganza, starring Jeeja Vismitananda (as she is now being billed) will be screening in a few cities on February 6th, a mere four days ahead of arriving in stores on DVD and Blu-ray.

Magnolia Pictures’ web site lists the following screening locations.

Boulder, CO: International Film Series
Denver, CO: Esquire Theatre
New York, NY: Sunshine Cinema
Austin, TX: Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar
Dallas, TX: Inwood Theatre
Seattle, WA: Egyptian Theatre

It’s not yet clear what we can expect from this U.S. version in terms of language tracks or length. Based on previous Asian film releases from Magnolia it’s likely that the original Thai audio track will be available alongside an English-dubbed version on the DVD and Blu-ray releases.

What I am less certain of is the running time. The original Thai print is 110 minutes but I’m seeing a variety of sources suggesting the U.S. print may be more like 90 minutes. Prospects for seeing an uncut release look dim if we look at running times for other international prints of CHOCOLATE. Showbox’s U.K. release was 89 minutes and included roughly 14 minutes of deleted scenes as bonus content. The Hong Kong print is listed at 92 minutes and even the Malaysian print is listed at only 99 minutes.

There is a chance that Pinkaew had planned for CHOCOLATE to be cut for international release. His previous martial arts films with Tony Jaa contained some localized humor, dialogue and celebrity cameos, all of which would be lost on most foreign audiences. This is one significant reason why THE PROTECTOR ended up losing nearly 30 minutes of footage when The Weinstein Company released it Stateside. This was one of the few cases in which I have sided with TWC. Pinkaew’s greatest weakness in all of his films is consistently bad scripts.

Tags: blu-ray, Chocolate (2008), DVD, JeeJa Yanin, upcoming