Chocolate
16 September 2008, early morning
The last film I watched at the Film Festival was the Thai film Chocolate, by the director of Ong Bak. Chocolate is in a similar vein: light on plot, heavy on lots of crazy action. Unlike Tony Ja, the start of this film Jija Yanin didn’t have any prior martial arts experience. The director told the audience she trained for three years before making the film. I would say the martial arts is better in Ong Bak. That said, the action sequences in Chocolate are still really great, and reminded me of a Jackie Chan film. There are lots of crazy stunts. The last fight sequence on the side of a building was awesome. Judging by the out-takes shown at the end of the movie, if you see someone getting punched in the face during the film, they actually got punched in the face. People falling of buildings are probably falling off buildings. Thai “special effects” apparently aren’t effects. I guess that’s also part of the appeal. Chocolate was awesome.
I’ve been bitching about how stupid the TIFF audiences seem to be this year, but I do have to say that Midnight Madness audiences can’t be beat. The Midnight Madness program seems to attract people who are sincerely interested in the films they are seeing. I’m pretty sure a good chunk of the audience probably saw most if not all the films that screened during the week. You definitely need to check out Midnight Madness to enjoy a true TIFF experience.