Only God Forgives

In Nicolas Winding Rifn's film 'Only God Forgives', a senseless act of violence initiates Paleolithic vengeance protocols, retaliations escalating in a sad, silent procession of carnage that no one seems able or willing to stop. Forgiveness is left to God, as everyone else accepts this primeval madness buried in the human evolutionary base-code. The protagonist, Julian, is played by Ryan Gosling, reuniting the actor-director team from 'Drive'. Beautifully shot, NWR lets the blood flow freely throughout a claustrophobic warren of streets and alleys in modern-day Bangkok. Red sets and oversaturated lighting add to the dream-like atmosphere and symbolism. Julian attempts to cut the fuse before the bomb goes off, showing an unexpected mercy after finding the man who killed his brother, Billy. This mercy goes unforgiven. Gun in hand, he listens to the killer's story, and learns that his brother raped and killed a teenage girl.Enter Chang, often accompanied by a squad of loyal cops, who apparently view his backalley judgements and punishments as Divine Will. His attire is instantly recognizable to locals as the uniform of a retired policeman, and he wields a Kachin Dha*, a tool, weapon and traditional executioner's sword. Known as 'The Angel of Death', he grows more terrifying as the film continues, an ancient and preternatural arbitrar of judgement and retribution. Chang involves himself as an interlocutor in the language of barbarity, with the purpose of cutting the circle of revenge and providing an end-point, an exit, a way out. He leads the girl's father to the room where his daughter's corpse and her killer were both waiting, and lets the father beat Billy's head to splinters. He then takes the father to a place of judgement, and inscrutable negotiations about the price of justice take place in their native tongue. Chang assesses the man, his cold eyes weighing the father's soul to decide on the cost. His decision made, the sword flashes and he cuts off the father's arm. Justice is meaningless to Chang. He treats crime like a financial problem, bartering with bloodshed as cheaply as possible to keep Bangkok from becoming a slaughterhouse.Julian was in a brothel the night his brother died, and NWR presents us with more of the prophetic visions/foreshadowing he seems so fond of, framed in the gorgeously inimitable style of Valhalla Rising, Drive, and his newest, The Neon Demon. As Julian watches Mai, the fierce-eyed prostitute watches Julian back, with a mix of unease, contempt and fascination. Mai has bound his wrists lightly to the armrests of a simple wooden chair with scarlet silk -- one of several moments foreshadowing the grisly end -- while he's sits unmoving. Then he is touching her, with a crude restraint and tentative, uncertain motions; like she's a porcelain doll he might shatter with the force of his passion. He drifts off, to find a dream-version of the brothel. There's a doorway leading into a room that isn't really there, opening into a blackness that is almost physical. The room represents Judgement. He walks toward it, tentatively reaching into the black, when the Kachin Dha flashes and severs his forearm. A day later, after questioning the man who killed Billy -- the man whose daughter was raped and murdered by his brother, the man who took his vengeance and paid for it with his right arm -- he understands -- or intuits -- that someone cut the circle when they took that arm, giving him a way out. He releases the grieving father, and goes to find his grieving mother.While Julian and Billy ran a Muay Thai Boxing club as a front for selling cocaine and heroin, it's their mother who really runs things, from the other side of the world. Kristin Scott Thomas lends a regal air to the thoroughly contemptible character of Julian and Billy's mother, Crystal, a Lady Macbeth on crack. Her imperious demeanor and provocative behavior explains what we know of Billy, but Julian remains a soft-spoken enigma to everyone but Chang. The implacable, Zen-like calm that Gosling projects so brilliantly actually hides a deeply-rooted and barely contained rage. NWR gives us shots of his hands opening and closing into balled-up fists, and those hands come to symbolize the anger that threatens to overwhelm him. His mother berates him for failing to avenge his brother, and proceeds to humiliate him in front of Mai, whom he brought to meet mom as his pretend girlfriend. Kristin Scott Thomas's rant is a heart-wrenching, awful thing; she goes so far to say Julian is inferior in every way to his dead brother, utterly unfazed by the fact he raped and killed a 16-year old girl: "I'm sure he had his reasons." She then tells Mai that Julian's c@#k was a good size, but that Billy's was enormous... intimating an incestuous relationship. But Julian absorbs these attacks with the same stony reserve, the rage underneath briefly boiling over when Mai expresses disgust that he allowed her to speak to him in such a way.Crystal decides to take action herself, ordering the assassination of the man Julian pardoned; and when one of their dealers informs her that there was also a cop involved in Billy's death, she puts a hit on him as well. She tells Julian none of this, and hires someone to take his place as a dealer. Chang's uniformed cops question Julian after the dead girl's father is killed, as Chang listens, out of sight, distinguishing lies from truths in the voice, not the words. He knows that Julian had nothing to do with the murder. When Chang walks by, saying something in Thai, Julian tries to follow him, but Chang escapes. When they meet again outside a nightclub -- where Chang occasionally sings sweet Thai love-songs to an entranced audience of cops -- Julian is still desperately trying to please his mother without sacrificing his conscience, challenging Chang to a fight that the older, smaller ex-cop wins with ease. Both Mai and Crystal leave him bleeding in the dirt.What follows is a horrifying struggle that leaves Crystal alone to face Chang's judgement. Only then does she seek out her badly beaten son, pleading for him to protect her from Chang, telling him all the lies he's wanted to hear. He accepts, killing one of Chang's men. But when he learns from his Thai back-up that she gave secret orders to murder the cop's family, he's had enough. Meanwhile, Chang is secretly listening to his right-hand man interrogate Crystal. She blames everything on her son, not just betraying him, but further smearing his character like the loathsome, psychopathic, son-f@#$%^g parasite she is. After the interrogation, Chang comes to pass judgement on her, once again using his strike as a symbolic message.NWR has established himself as one of the most gifted film-makers working today, and 'Only God Forgives' is a masterpiece, every bit as brilliant as 'Drive' or 'Valhalla Rising'. Many will disagree, but... whatever. They're wrong...) Gosling's impassive, almost beatific features and restrained, subtle performances make him ideal for the kind of style and story that NWR favors, along with the director's other favorite, long-time collaborator, Mads Mikkelsen. His films are a unique, visionary experience, distant relatives to the oeuvre of Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch, and Gaspar Noe. They're also profoundly disturbing, with a seriousness and visceral brutality that makes for some of the most haunting on-screen violence I've seen since 'Irreversible' by Noe, and last year's Horror-Western debut from S. Craig Zahler, 'Bone Tomahawk'. They're also Top 20 favorites, and so is 'Only God Forgives'. Even if you failed to dance around the minefield of spoilers, don't sweat it. The bare-bones synopsis above can't come close to preparing you for the artful insanity and blood-drenched poignancy of this film.Footnotes:* ( The Kachin Dha [see photos] "is from the Jingpho or Kachin people who inhabit the Kachin Hills in northern Burma's Kachin State, and neighboring areas of China and India. The name 'dha' is used for a wide variety of knives and swords used by many people across Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Yunnan, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam"(1). It's profile varies, but it's somewhere between an Indonesian Golok -- a cultural variant of the machete, designed for both clearing paths through dense jungle -- and a Dotanuki, which is typically the shorter and heavier sibling of the more popular Samurai Katana. Like the Wazikashi and Tanto, it was often paired with a Katana; but the Dotanuki could also be an alternative to the Katana, made longer for range and trading speed for power. In Japanese historical fiction, the Dotanuki was the sword of Ogami Itto, former Kaishukunin to the Emperor, responsible for high-level execution by beheading, and tasked with serving as the Emperor's own second in the rite of seppuku, taking the Royal head cleanly and perfectly. (1) - [...]

This director (the name is too complicated to write) is one of my favorites. The movie has a unique style. It created an atmosphere that made the gory violence even more brutal. Story wise it is pretty straight forward and simple. Overall, among all the violent movies I have watched, this one is one of the best.Now the problem: Please skip the rest if you want to avoid spoiler.Why did NOT the villain kill Julian (who killed villain's wife) at the end? What is the justification? Is there an extraordinary explanation that eluded me? This absurd decision by the creators brutally massacred the whole movie. I should NOT have given it 4 out of 5.

It's hard to be objective about a movie as polarizing as Nicolas Winding Refn's "Only God Forgives"; judging from reviews, most people either love it or hate it. Taking it a step further, some commenters apparently hate this film so badly that they're even hating on the reviewers who dare to give it a positive write-up. One thing is for certain, the movie elicits strong responses, which is what a film should do, whether it's your cup of tea or not.The loosely defined plot of "Only God Forgives" has Ryan Gosling running a boxing club that fronts a drug running operation in Bangkok. As Julian, Gosling mostly stares zenlike into some etherworld, either contemplating his fate, or calculating his taxes, it's hard to tell. His psycho brother, Billy (Tom Burke) is also his business partner, a nasty piece of work who winds up murdering and mutilating an underage prostitute. Revenge is taken and then countered as one death begets another, and then another, ad infinatum. Lt. Chang (Vithaya Pansringarm) assumes the initial investigative duties and then casually transforms himself into an "Angel of Vengeance" after Billy's and Julian's mom (a nearly unrecognizable Kristen Scott-Thomas) arrives in town. Battle lines are drawn, and death and destruction rains down on pretty much the entire cast. Lt. Chang sings karaoke to his police squad. The End.Okay, okay, not so fast. It's a little more complicated than what I've described but if that brief description doesn't entice you to see this movie then you probably shouldn't. Because, when I say "death and destruction", I mean blood and guts and torture and mutilation and, while, certainly, I've seen modern horror films that are more disgusting in that respect, this is still pretty graphic stuff, and definitely not for the squeamish. A fan of Chilean cult filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky, Refn infuses his film with a similar style of surreal violence; in fact, this film (along with Refn's earlier "Drive") is dedicated to Jodorowsky. Ostensibly, "Only God Forgives" is a western transplanted to modern-day Thailand, at least according to Refn. However, there are no heroes in Refn's film, only bad guys and worse guys. The best of the bad guys (Lt. Chang) is a formidable foe for evildoers everywhere, while (arguably) the worst of the worst (Julian's mother) is a cunning, despicable, determined adversary; both have the capacity for extraordinary violence. There are traits in Chang's character which make him redeemable, if not admirable; no such traits exist in any of the film's other major characters. Indeed, that there is no character with whom the viewer can readily identify, or empathize with, has been one bone of contention in some critical analyses of the film. Personally, I think it makes the film more interesting.In purely cinematic terms, "Only God Forgives" looks great, and that's probably its biggest asset. Larry Smith's hallucinatory cinematography highlights an exotic, garishly lit night world, shady and dangerous, populated by shadows and furtive desperation, and various instruments of death. The way in which all the images come together on film are stunning, like a painting continually in motion. Another plus is Cliff Martinez' musical score, subtley evocative without being obtrusive.The performances in the movie vary. I thought Vithaya Pansingarm did a fine job playing the seemingly omnipotent Lt. Chang. Observing deeds as either black or white, with no shades of grey, he often acts as judge, jury and executioner, yet he still exhibits signs of humanity, which elevates him above the rest of the riffraff he's fighting against. Pansingarm's "sheriff" is only a "hero" in the most nominal way in this movie, and that is only because of the actor's ability to shade his character's actions with nuances of thought and feeling. Sporting platinum blonde hair, tight pants and spiky heels, Kristen Scott-Thomas looks like a Scandinavian Dragon Lady who managed to escape from the recesses of hell (or a backstreet bowling alley). In scenes brimming with incestuous overtones, she sexually taunts Julian and guilts him with recriminations of his father's death. Without doubt, this woman is among the worst mothers ever; she's like the love child of Caligula and Lucrezia Borgia, and with the lines Scott-Thomas is forced to utter, the foul accusations and suggestions she makes to Julian and his female friend, Mai (Rhatha Phongam), she seems like she should come across as a camp figure, a disturbingly funny caricature of a female harpy. That she doesn't is probably a testament to Scott-Thomas's acting skill at conveying great evil, rather than through the efforts of the muddled script. With less screen time, but equally memorable, Gordon Brown is convincing as Julian and Mom's go-to guy for murderous mayhem. When he finally got his comeuppance, I didn't know whether to cheer or cover my eyes, but his performance is good! Tom Burke's brother Billy oozes creepiness in what little screen time he's allotted, and Rhatha Phongam is sad and lovely as the mystery woman in Julian's life. It's Julian, himself, that's problematic. Neither hero nor protagonist, Ryan Gosling is, nevertheless, the star of the film, and should, therefore, bring some star quality to Julian, but he really brings nothing. Gosling has done good work in most of his films (particularly in Refn's previous work, "Drive"), but here he's a cipher. The world seems to revolve around Julian, people depend on him, they consult him, but he may as well be a bowl of coconut curry for all the presence he has, all the power he exhibits. Only once does he lose his cool, shrieking angrily at Mai and forcing her to remove the expensive dress he's bought for her to wear to meet his mother. This is a jolting scene simply because we have become so accustomed to watching Gosling's Julian schlump around and stare off into the great beyond, that when he bursts out in anger, it's totally unexpected. The other scene where Gosling comes to life occurs towards the finale, when he actually rouses himself from his inertia and performs a heroic act of courage, but it's too late for us to care for Julian. He's watched, aided and abetted such cruelty and carnage throughout the film that we don't much care what happens to him. The movie's climax, when it comes, is so obtuse that it should leave us wondering, trying to decipher Refn's ambiguous imagery so we can determine Julian's mysterious fate. But, by that time, Julian has become, basically, a non-character, dissolving into the scenery with a whimper instead of a bang. I can see what Refn was going for with the character of Julian, but I feel like it was a big misstep having Gosling play the character as if he'd just swallowed a couple of hydrocodone tablets, and while not fatal, it really hurts the film.The script isn't great, either, and could have been tightened up and made a little more coherent, without sacrificing the inherent mystery and intrigue of the exotic "far east" and the filmmaker's artistry. David Lynch--certain elements of this film make it impossible not to think of him--managed to make small-town America exotic, intriguing and strangely coherent in "Blue Velvet" while maintaining his artistic integrity.While not for all tastes, "Only God Forgives" does not, in my opinion, deserve all the hate that it's received. It's being unfairly compared to its predecessor, Refn's "Drive", to which there really is no comparison. The two movies are apples and oranges. I do think that age, and the passage of time, will enhance the reputation of "Only God Forgives", and that it will look better to future viewers than it does to many current ones.

I really enjoyed the movie 'Drive' - therefore I had high hopes for this film.Unfortunately, it doesn't work. Ryan Gosling's tried and tested formula of saying little and staring into space reacting to events around him, quickly becomes tiresome and ultimately contributes to what becomes an irritating movie.The script is off, disjointed and in place unconvincing. Whilst the set designs are well done, the overall sense if that there is too much style at the expense of everything else. Kristen Thomas' lines and character aren't convincing and it's not clear what the themes are here, never mind what the movie has to say.The best character in the move is the police chief who is really the most entertaining character in the film.Overall I found this quite a frustrating movie to watch, as if the director had some half baked ideas that weren't fully realised.

I have seen Ryan Gosling in a LOT better films.This was an 18 rated and has violence BUT the rest is just staring, creeping about and would probably classed as a genre or film noir, found it boring but stuck with it, now regretted.

Nicholas Winding Refn wrote and directed some great films. The Pusher Triology was highly entertaining. Bronson was enjoyable (Tom Hardy) and Drive was a masterpiece. 'Only God Forgives' is cinematic flatulence.Currently on this website it has 47% one stars reviews, and 23% five star reviews.

but a bit on the arty side for me.. Slow in other words.. But entertaining if you enjoy the technical side of films as it`s beautifully crafted.

I wasn't quite sure what I was expecting when I watched this. One of the most violent films I've seen (on a par with Ichi The Killer). Will definitely watch it again. Not for the squeamish though, even I had to look away a couple of times!