Chocolate chunks European Fantastic Film Festival Asian Award at PiFAN

Awards were handed out at the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (PiFAN), with Prachya Pinkaew's Chocolate picking up the European Fantastic Film Festival Asian Award.

KoreanFilm.org's Darcy Paquet had a few things to say about Chocolate star Jija in one of the festival's daily press releases, with "Yanin Vismitananda (Remember her name)":

Many martial arts films have to establish their hulking, muscled heroes as underdogs in order to make their exploits look more dramatic and impressive. The star of Chocolate, however, needs no such handicap. Thin and pretty, she looks more like a ballerina than a bone-crunching enforcer. As it turns out, shes a little bit of both.

Vast hordes of snarling men wielding sharp objects are silenced by Yanins lightning-quick feet, knees and elbows in Chocolate, and as viewers there's little else you can do but cheer her on and marvel at the spectacle. One hopes that her career will progress a bit more smoothly than Thailand's best known martial arts hero Tony Jaa, who has faltered after his magical debut in Ong-Bak. We'll find out soon, because the trailer for her highly anticipated new film Raging Phoenix is already online. And if you find her real name difficult, shes now being re-branded as [Jija] Yanin.

Another Thai film was in the PiFAN program -- Meat Grinder. Wonder what anyone thought of it?

It was the Indonesians who really cleaned up. Joko Anwar's The Forbidden Door took the top Best of Puchon prize, while actress Shareefa Daanish won best actress for her work in the Mo Brothers' Macabre. Screen Daily writer Stephen Cremin has more about Indonesian cinema in a festival press release.

The PiFAN website has the complete list of awards, and Variety has a wrap-up.

(Via Variety)