Only God Forgives (2013)
Certified: 18
Duration: 90 minutes
Directed by: Nicolas Winding Refn
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas, Vithaya Pansringarm, Gordon Brown, Rhatha Phongam, Tom Burke, Byron Gibson, Danai Thiengdham, Sahajak Boonthanakit
KRS release
Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn takes no prisoners and asks for no favours. He is one of the few directors who are not afraid to risk, and this has provided him with more than his fair share of success.
His Pusher films (1996, 2004, 2005) had turned the world’s eyes on the criminal world of Copenhagen; Bronson (2008) was a ride into the mind of a psychopath; and Valhalla Rising (2009) may have been about Vikings but it was a surreal piece of film-making that made for compulsive viewing. In 2011, he unlikely enough delivered a Hollywood hit, Drive, that was simply perfect in all areas.
Only God Forgives, a Danish-French-Thai production, is a visually arresting piece of film-making. This film lives, dwells on, breathes and pulsates on the theme of revenge and the alleys of violence that revenge travels in. It may star such big name hitters as Ryan Gosling and Kristin Scott Thomas, but it is miles away from the usual box-office blockbuster material. It will reward an audience that wants to analyse it, be patient with it and be ready for whatever Refn wants to put them through – whether it be numbing violence or glacial performances.
Billy (Tom Burke) is a drug dealer who rapes and kills an underage prostitute in Bangkok. Captain Chang (Vithaya Pansingarm) wants to bring peace to the girl’s relatives and thus gets the father of the girl to kill Billy, thus letting him have his peace. This brings Julian (Ryan Gosling), Billy’s brother, to Bangkok. Julian is also into kick-boxing, besides being an underworld kingpin.
Crystal (Kristin Scott Thomas) wants to avenge the death of Billy, who was her favourite son. Julian has to content his mother and starts to carry out his plans of revenge, however, Captain Chang is a weapon of cold-blooded destruction.
Julian, meanwhile, gets involved with Mai (Yayaying Rhatha Phongam), a dancer.
One cannot really like the characters in this film as they are cold and ruthless. Only God Forgives, however, delivers an icy combination of Alejandro Jodorowsky (to whom the film is dedicated), surrealism and David Lynch’s sense of the strange and wonderful.
One cannot really like the characters in this film as they are cold and ruthless
The film is shrouded in its aura of mysticism that gives it its haunting look. All throughout, it’s a descent into madness as the cast (and the audience) is pushed into a spiral that borders between the bizarre and the magical, under a score by Cliff Martinez.
The performances are almost dreamy in their presence as it is the camera that seems to do most of the work. Pansingarm as Captain Chang is impassive and stone cold, almost as if he were a statue come to life.
Gosling may look tough but his character is inherently weak as he subdues to the whims of his mother. Scott Thomas is a definition of a rabid vicious figure that seems to be incapable of love, let alone be a mother.