After a spectacular start with Ong-bak (2003) and Warrior King (2005), things have been a little quiet of late on the Thai martial arts cinema scene, at least in terms of the martial reaching UK shores. Time then for the misleadingly sweet-titled Chocolate, the most recent film from the director of those two genre favourites, Prachya Pinkaew. And with Tony Jaa busy completing work on Ong-bak 2, we have a new star in the making in the shape of female Muay Thai fighting sensation, JeeJa Yanin. And, as with his earlier films, Pinkaew once again employs the much-lauded and unique Thai style of filmmaking that eschews stunt doubles, special effects and camera trickery in favour of full-on, full contact combat that brings a whole new level of bone-crushing reality to Chocolate's action sequences.

JeeJa Yanin stars as Zen, a young autistic girl with a sweet tooth and a penchant for Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Tony Jaa movies whose uncanny ability to mimic her heroes' martial arts skills has made her an unlikely but equally awesome fighting force. When Zen's mother is diagnosed with cancer and finds herself unable to afford the medical treatment she requires, Zen and her best friend Mangmoom set about calling in a long list of debts owed to her mother. What Zen doesn't realize is the money is owed by gangsters and killers, all rivals from her mother's days as the head of a mafia clan and none of them are willing to pay up without a fight!

Like Tony Jaa, JeeJa Yanin spent several years training under the tutelage of stunt maestro and martial arts choreographer Panna Rittikrai (director of Born To Fight and stunt coordinator on Ong-Bak and Warrior King) in preparation for the role of Zen and the results speak for themselves. Among the film's many highlights are a dynamic, crowd-pleasing homage to Bruce Lee's legendary icehouse fight from The Big Boss and a jaw-dropping finale that sees Zen taking on all comers in a breathtaking extended fight sequence that takes place high above the streets on the window sills, ledges and neon signboards of a multi-storey building. And, of course, the closing credits sequence shows, in wince-inducing detail, just what happens behind the scenes when the stars perform their own stunts in this kind of full-contact martial arts actioner.

Chocolate (cert. 18) is released by Cine Asia. The film will open at selected UK cinemas on 24th October 2008 and will be released on DVD (£15.99) and Blu-Ray (£19.99) on 3rd November 2008. No details of extra features or audio-visual details have been released as yet.