Touching The Void

Here's an incredible story of survival!

Touching the Void is a 2003 docudrama that will make you go "WOW!" out loud at least a few times while watching.

This is the amazing true story of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates trying to summit a very remote, very tall peak in the Andes by themselves. Oh yeah, and they're attempting this by a route that had never previously been successful.

On their descent (where most climbing incidents occur) is where they run into trouble. Joe falls and breaks his leg badly. Without the personnel of a large expedition, this is a death sentence. But Simon, risks his own life and tries to lower Joe off of the mountain. More complications ensue!

You don't need to be a climber, a survivalist, or a voyeur of viciousness to appreciate (or love, I dare say) this movie. This is captivating to anyone who's still breathing.

This movie's best feature is that it keeps the suspense. You know both climbers live - they narrated the movie. You know it's an incredible feat of survival. You just don't know how damaged the climbers become. To pull this off they use a simple and effective technique: every shot of the narrators is a head shot.

This is one of the most captivating movies, let alone docudramas, I've seen!

Chocolate

If you enjoy a good, stupid Kung Fu movie from time to time as much as I do you need to see Chocolate!

This movie defines the term "obscure". Released in Thailand (where it's from) in 2008, it only opened on SEVEN screens in the USA a year later, obviously to no advertising or fanfare.

Chocolate was directed by Prachya Pinkaew, who also did The Protector (which has, I think, the best long, uncut martial arts scene ever!) It introduces and stars, and I do mean STARS, JeeJa Yanin as Zen, an autistic young lady who can copy complicated martial arts moves just by seeing them. She uses her remarkable skill to collect money to help her sick mother - money owed to the mother from her shady past.

Yes. The plot is silly and unrealistic. But in this case, I say who cares! This is a great, stoopid martial arts film! There are plenty of other problems and plot holes, all equally overlookable.

I'm no expert, but I don't think autistics have the physical dexterity to have this skill. But, as stated at the beginning, the film was made to celebrate people with special needs. The film, indeed, does very well not to treat Zen as a freak but as an actual person. This movie is actually touching at times too!

The biggest problem with this is getting through the first 20 minutes. Slow, boring, not well written, if you can get through the back story, a real treat awaits. Stick it out!

Chocolate has some of the best, most intense martial arts scenes. Quite brutal at times (a sure sign of a good Kung Fu movie) they are amazingly choreographed. The filming of the fight scenes is great - no jump cuts, so you can see exactly what happens and how hard the blows land. They also mix up the martial arts styles nicely- Muay Tai and Kung Fu are the most used there are others too.

I'm adding this to my soon-to-come list of Best Martial Arts Flicks!