From The Director of Ong-Bak: Prachya Pinkaew’s Chocolate Trailer
Wow. Although I’m not the biggest fan of martial arts movies, even I have to stand up and take notice of a trailer like this. Prachya Pinkaew, director of Ong-Bak and Tom Yum Goong (aka The Protector) has returned with a new flick called Chocolate (a pretty far cry from the Johnny Depp movie Chocolat). Tony Jaa is nowhere to be found (apparently he had a falling out with Pinkaew because he wanted to direct Ong-Bak 2 himself), but instead they have upped the ante by introducing the world to a brand new phenom, female action star Nicharee “Jeeja” Vismistananda.
From what we see in this trailer, this is every bit as brutal and real as Ong-Bak… to the point where they thought it would be worthwhile to include some outtakes in the trailer showing Vismistananda and some of the other actors getting injured. These movies almost seem to be progressing to a Jackass level of insanity where the actors are taking massive risks and hurting themselves on purpose, and yet there’s no question that there is a ton of talent involved and the fight choreography is stunning. Sure the story sounds ridiculous (an autistic girl who needs money to help save her sick mother, ends up crossing paths with the wrong gangs), but you can definitely count me in for this whenever it finds its way over to North America. Thanks to the good folks at Twitch for bringing this to our attention.
Comments (14)
This trailer looks badass! I thought Ong Bak was okay in the action department, but rather lacking in story. Also, I’m not a huge fan of kung-fu movies, but I’m pretty excited for this one based solely on the trailer.
Posted by Rian on January 7th, 2008Oh yeah. I’m really excited to see this. On Twitch, they are saying its coming out in Feb., but I haven’t seen any release dates saying so. You guys have to watch The Protector. Don’t let the “Quentin Tarantino Presents” fool you. It’s a very fun movie to watch and will be a great appetizer before seeing Chocolate.
Posted by Primal on January 7th, 2008I liked Ong-Bak, but still haven’t seen The Protector. Someone lent me the movie and I tried to watch it but all I remember is that there were some scenes at the beginning with elephants and it put me to sleep. I know… I should probably give it another chance.
Posted by Sean on January 7th, 2008Ong Bak was alright but the real one to watch is warrior king. Its a bit boring for the first hour but once it skips to the fight sequences they are awesome, and I have to disagree I think jackie chans fight team have been putting crazy stunts together for years that are just as bad as anything in that trailer, but ill bet his fight team get away with a lower percentage of stunts to accidents ratio then most any other fight teams.
Posted by evil homer on January 7th, 2008I lent you The Protector Sean, and it’s awesome!
Posted by Matt on January 7th, 2008Not just with fighting but the action scenes in general are great. There’s one fight sequence, that lasts around 6 or 7 minutes, that is all one shot. Crazy!
Yes the fight scenes are full contact, but the stunt people wear protective pads under their shirts, and use other little tricks to soften the blows or make them look more intense.
I’m down for this.
What looks real about this? It’s filled with slow-motion wire-fu.
I’d rather watch The Matrix, at least it has high production values. But I guess if you love Kung Fu you need new fights to keep you interested.
Posted by Henrik on January 7th, 2008Slow-motion, yes, but I’m pretty sure there are no wires involved in any of this stuff.
Posted by Sean on January 7th, 2008I thought some of the jumps looked alot like there was wires involved. The one at around 2:30 looks especially ‘floaty’.
Having re-watched the trailer to find this point I have to say that the bowl of candy is a nice touch. Reminded me of the classic ending of The Three Ninjas. But another thing that definitely makes it seem completely fake is the extreme sound effects. It sounds like a Bud Spencer/Terrence Hill soundtrack.
Posted by Henrik on January 7th, 2008The woman was a former Muay Thai kickboxer. She is no Carrie-Anne Moss and it looks like this lady has the chops to do alot of the Jackie Chan-esque sequences.
Not having Tony Jaa in the movie sucks. From what I’ve read, there was some wire work in Ong-Bak and there were little in The Protector(Helicopter scene comes to mind). I didn’t think the trailer showed any wirework. I’ve seen Tony Jaa pull this off this crazy stuff in the several movies I saw him in. One of the reasons I love kung-fu movies is that I love watching people who are born to fight fighting than actors trying to fight.
Matt, I’m sure your talking about the spiral staircase scene, right? One of the greatest 1vs.many scenes ever.
Posted by Primal on January 7th, 2008That’s the scene alright.
From watching the special features for The Protector, I’m pretty sure they’re are no wires. The helicopter scene was just a 20 foot drop or something onto a soft landing surface; through the window was shot separately. Editing, woo!
The Asian and North American releases for these films (Ong-Bak and The Protector) are somewhat different. They show all the same stuff, but the Asian release has cheesy sound effects. On the other hand, the North American release generally has a really crappy soundtrack, filled with industrial/rapcore stuff.
Posted by Matt on January 9th, 2008“What looks real about this? It’s filled with slow-motion wire-fu.
I’d rather watch The Matrix, at least it has high production values.”
Man, if you want to watch some Yuen Wo-Ping wire-fu insanity, The Matrix is the last place to look. High production values mean nothing without actors who actually know how to move.
Posted by Steven on January 9th, 2008I just saw this movie over the weekend, and I highly recommend it. I personally preferred this movie over Ong-Bak and The Protector, I think mainly because I prefer to see a woman kick ass (and head, and knee, and chest, etc.).
They do use wires (actually, cables) in this movie, but they’d be crazy not to during the fight on the side of the building.
The woman fighter looks really young. I couldn’t tell if she used a stunt double at any time.
She makes it cool to be autistic; the heroine character could be a role model for autism. (I hope I’m not getting myself in trouble again with political incorrectness.)
I never thought I would be impressed with a martial arts film again after Hero and House of Flying Daggers, but Chocolate was really entertaining. The cheesy sound effects help, I think.
The movie has the best fight scene with kids that I’ve ever seen.
I’d love to see her take on those UFC wimps like the Gracies from Brazil.
Posted by Reed Farrington on June 16th, 2008Leave a Reply