Unfortunately, this is one conflict that isn't gonna be solved with diplomacy.
A 2008 Thai film about an autistic girl who goes after her ailing mother's debtors to pay for her chemotherapy.
A woman falls in love with a gangster, but they part ways after her employers disapprove... with violence. A few months after the split, she gives birth to Zen, a girl with autism. Said autism allows Zen to master martial arts moves by watching them. (She's also obsessed with chocolate, thus the title.)
When Zen's in her teenage years, her mother gets cancer and needs money for treatment. Zen's friend (and occasional caretaker) Moom finds a black book listing everyone who owes her mother money. They go out to get it... with violence.
Unfortunately, those people are with the same criminals that split up Zen's parents...
This movie provides examples of:
- Action Girl
- Badass Family - Dad's a (very good) gangster. Mom... had moves before the cancer. Their kid is unstoppable.
- Bittersweet Ending - Zen's mother is killed by the Big Bad. However, by this point, Zen has defeated everyone who stood against them... so her father doesn't have to leave again, and she is reunited with him.
- Chekhov's Gun - "Flies!"
- Confusion Fu - Zen's most dangerous enemy has Tourette's. His tics make it almost impossible for her to read his moves.
- Cursed with Awesome - Autism
- Cute Bruiser
- Disability Superpower - Zen is autistic... which gives her the ability to memorize martial arts by sight.
- Not quite. They don't treat it like magic. Zen constantly repeats actions. Early on we see her practice kicks. So apparently its more that she constantly practices.
- Everything's Better with Chocolate: Zen loves it.
- Fingore - Fun with toes.
- Hilarious Outtakes - A weird breed - they're actually footage of on-set injuries.
- Kick the Dog - Number Eight on Zen—in her face—as she tries to revive her mortally-wounded mother.
- Little Miss Badass / Badass Adorable
- Non-Action Guy - Averted - Moom actually holds his own in the fight scenes he's in.
- Pac Man Fever - Zen's playing a PS2 with a Super Famicom controller at one point.
- Reality Ensues - Subverted. Mooks swarm into the room with katanas drawn, and it looks like it's going to be an epic sword fight between them and Zen's father, until he pulls a gun and empties into their ranks. For the Double Subversion, he grabs a blade of his own and fights the rest traditionally.
- Sweet Tooth - Zen - it's why the movie is named what it's named.
- Waif-Fu - Done well for the most part. Zen has to build up momentum be able to knock back her opponents more than a few inches.
- What Happened to the Mouse? - Moom in the very final scene
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? - Zen hates flies.
- Yakuza - Zen's dad Musashi.
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