[icon ] blenderdumbass . org [icon star] Reviews

Chocolate

November 30, 2023

👁 49

https://duckduckgo.com/ : 👁 1
https://blenderdumbass.org/reviews?page=10 : 👁 1
https://blenderdumbass.org/search?text=chocolate&title=on&author=on&post=on&description=on&comments=on&tags=on : 👁 1

[avatar]by Blender Dumbass

Aka: J.Y. Amihud. A Jewish by blood, multifaceted artist with experience in film-making, visual effects, programming, game development, music and more. A philosopher at heart. An activist for freedom and privacy. Anti-Paternalist. A user of Libre Software. Speaking at least 3 human languages. The writer and director of the 2023 film "Moria's Race" and the lead developer of it's game sequel "Dani's Race".


From 3 years ago.
Information or opinions might not be up to date.


4 Minute Read



Asian cinema is different from American cinema. When in America filmmakers are often armed with enormous budgets, Asian cinema is trying to survive with what it has while still delivering the same, if not more, entertainment value. It's not that hard when dealing with dramas. There most of the time the story is about a few people in few locations, talking and crying with one another. Which is not expensive. But it's an entirely different challenge when you are trying to compete within the action-film market. c:0 ↩ Reply

There are two approaches. One is illustrated by the Indian cinema perfectly and is the source of success of such directors as S.S. Rajamouli. Basically to make everything as over-the-top and stylistic as you can. In such a way you can use a lot of not so good CGI to cover whatever you don't have the money to shoot. And if your style is cartoony enough, you can get away with it. c:1 ↩ Reply

The other approach is to sacrifice as much people as possible and focus on fight scenes and stunts. This is the way people like Jackie Chan and Tony Jaa became successful. Chocolate is from the second category. It even has a during credits montage of failed stunts and injuries. Similar to Jackie Chan's Chinese movies. c:2 ↩ Reply

Chocolate, directed by Prachya Pinkaew (Thai: ปรัชญา ปิ่นแก้ว) and starring Yanin Vismitananda (Thai: ญาณิน วิสมิตะนันทน์) is a weird kind of Asian martial arts movie. First of all, it's not made in china. It's Thai. And the protagonist is not a cool dude. It is instead an autistic teenage girl. ↩ Reply

I saw it without translation. It has Thai, Japanese and sometimes English. But I had to rely on the visual storytelling to understand the movie for the most part. The director of the film is good enough that I didn't need much verbal communication to understand things. So even if you can't find a translated version of the film, don't worry about it. Pinkaew is good enough at his job. You don't need to understand what they are all saying to enjoy the movie. c:3 ↩ Reply

The movie is violent. Kind of reminding the style of Quentin Tarantino specifically the first Kill Bill film, since it's similar to this movie, because they both have martial art scenes with female protagonists. Though Chocolate is a lot more tear-squeezing. Even though I didn't understand a single word they were saying I was crying throughout most of it. Even during the fight scenes. The actors and the director are that good. It doesn't mean though that it's not funny or awesome. It is designed very much to make you feel the full spectrum of emotions. And the director is not shy from shocking the hell out of you. ↩ Reply

The film is structured like a video-game. The main character goes to different places just for a fight scene to happen there. And each of those places has a boss person that is a kind of boss level. This movie would have been very well translated into a video-game. c:4 ↩ Reply

The main praise I could give the movie is how the main character is portrayed. You know if there is a bad-ass female warrior, she tends to wear very little clothes. Or be covered with tight leathery clothes. And while it could be awesome, it's not what Chocolate went for. I think Chocolate invented the Japanese Kawaii Metal genre popularized by the Japanese metal band Babymetal. It is a very thorough mix of brutality and cuteness. The main character Zen is insanely cute. Not sexy, cute. She wears regular kosher clothes. She wears baggy pants. And she looks like a child. And due to her autism even acts like a toddler at times. And this combined with her insane martial arts bad-assery, makes the movie very emotionally stimulating. c:5 ↩ Reply

When the movie ended I immediately wanted more. It's that good! c:6 ↩ Reply

Happy Hacking!!! ↩ Reply


[icon unlike] 1
[icon left]
[icon right]
[icon terminal]
[icon markdown]

Find this post on Mastodon

[avatar]  Troler c:0 March 20, 2026


Asian cinema is different from American cinema. When in America filmmakers are often armed with enormous budgets, Asian cinema is trying to survive with what it has while still delivering the same, if not more, entertainment value. It's not that hard when dealing with dramas. There most of the time the story is about a few people in few locations, talking and crying with one another. Which is not expensive. But it's an entirely different challenge when you are trying to compete within the action-film market.
⤴ View

You can do low budget action, it's called tokusatsu

[icon reply]
[avatar]  Troler c:1 March 20, 2026


There are two approaches. One is illustrated by the Indian cinema perfectly and is the source of success of such directors as S.S. Rajamouli. Basically to make everything as over-the-top and stylistic as you can. In such a way you can use a lot of not so good CGI to cover whatever you don't have the money to shoot. And if your style is cartoony enough, you can get away with it.
⤴ View

Wait... is that why tokusatsu is so absurd?

[icon reply]
[avatar]  Troler c:2 March 20, 2026


The other approach is to sacrifice as much people as possible and focus on fight scenes and stunts. This is the way people like Jackie Chan and Tony Jaa became successful. Chocolate is from the second category. It even has a during credits montage of failed stunts and injuries. Similar to Jackie Chan's Chinese movies.
⤴ View

Or or you can do both. Can't think of an example. Kill Bill maybe?


[icon reply]
[avatar]  Troler c:3 March 20, 2026


I saw it without translation. It has Thai, Japanese and sometimes English. But I had to rely on the visual storytelling to understand the movie for the most part. The director of the film is good enough that I didn't need much verbal communication to understand things. So even if you can't find a translated version of the film, don't worry about it. Pinkaew is good enough at his job. You don't need to understand what they are all saying to enjoy the movie.
⤴ View

By this logic, the best directed films are from the silent era.

I swear, talkies killed good cinemaking.

[icon reply]
[avatar]  Troler c:4 March 20, 2026


The film is structured like a video-game. The main character goes to different places just for a fight scene to happen there. And each of those places has a boss person that is a kind of boss level. This movie would have been very well translated into a video-game.
⤴ View

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolatier_(video_game)
Close enough

[icon reply]
[avatar]  Troler c:5 March 20, 2026


She wears regular kosher clothes. She wears baggy pants. And she looks like a child.
⤴ View

I know the use of the word kosher is used in other contexts other than food. But common, no way you don't want to eat Zen. Or at least take a nibble from her chocolate covered fingers.

[icon reply]
[avatar]  Troler c:6 March 20, 2026


When the movie ended I immediately wanted more. It's that good!
⤴ View

The director did more movies, they're also in Thai. And they may be good. Haven't seen them.

[icon reply]
[icon question]











[icon articles]The Inherent Instability Of Euphemisms

[thumbnail]

[avatar]  Blender Dumbass

👁 64



Often it is required of a storyteller to say less in order to say more. Steven Spielberg had to censor the most gruesome parts of the holocaust in order to make a movie that was actually watchable, and his intuition was arguably right. The movie ended up being a hit, exposing millions upon millions of people to the the holocaust. But it wasn't the horror. It was a watered down version, made so people would not be too upset watching it. The reality of the situation was so much worse that Spielberg didn't even think a movie showing the actual truth was possible. Nobody would be brave or masochistic enough, he thought, to actually see it. A similar story happened to Dunkirk, another World War II movie, this time by Christopher Nolan, who deliberately avoided the worst aspects of a war film to make a film which the audience could watch without taking their eyes from the screen, and as a result, a film that is arguably scarier because of that. Nolan's masterful management of tension is so good that the movie doesn't need violence and blood to be visceral. And yet, to some extent the movie is a watered down version of what war supposed to be. And some argue it is a lesser film because of it.


[icon articles]Developing a Way to do Action Scenes Without Money

[thumbnail]

[avatar]  Blender Dumbass

👁 86 💬 4



I'm in the middle of developing a movie in which there is a car chase. You know me I can't live without a car chase. But this time I'm trying to make the movie properly. By "infiltrating the movie industry" as some people suggested to call it. Which means ( since I live in Israel ) I need to write something that is possible to do in Israel. Getting $40 million to shoot a first feature film in Israel is not something that I can expect to happen. So instead I need to come up with something else.


#vfx #cgi #cars #blender3d #blender #b3d #movies #filmmaking


[icon reviews]Ready Player One is about Privacy, Digital Rights and Ageism

[thumbnail]

[avatar]  Blender Dumbass

👁 28 ❤ 1 💬 7



A lot of people have a mixed bag of feelings when it comes to Steven Spielberg's 2018 masterpiece Ready Player One. They dislike the nostalgia bait, and the countless references. They poke fun at logical inconsistencies. Yet nobody can deny the fact that Spielberg apparently is incapable of making a terrible movie. Still, how many of you actually looked at Ready Player One seriously? How many of you thought about it's messaging? How many noticed the politics that Spielberg is hiding in plain sight?


#readyplayerone #stevenspielberg #film #review #movies #cinemastodon #privacy #digitalrights #eff #fsf #richardstallman #ageism


[icon reviews]Lucy 2014 Pretentious or Profound ?

[thumbnail]

[avatar]  Blender Dumbass

👁 16 💬 2



On the surface level 2014 Luc Besson film Lucy starring Scarlett Johansson is a scientific thesis that is trying to say some grand truth about the world, while pretending to be an action film, to make people go see it. On the other hand though, it is an action film that injects a lot of profound-sounding pretentious pseudo scientific bullshit, to make itself appear as something better than it is: a dumb action movie. Which one of them is it? Or did I miss something?


#lucy #lucbesson #ScarlettJohansson #film #review #movies #cinemastodon


[icon codeberg] Powered with BDServer [icon python] Plugins [icon theme] Themes [icon analytics] Analytics [icon email] Contact [icon mastodon] Mastodon
[icon unlock]