Only God Forgives
Nicolas Winding Refn
France – 2013
Screenplay: Nicolas Winding Refn
Cinematography: Larry Smith
Production: Space Rocket Nation, Gaumont, Wild Bunch Motel Movies, Bold Films, Film Väst DR/Flimklubben, Nordisk Film, ShortCut, Danish Film Institute, TV-Fond MEDIA Programme of the European Union
Language: English, Thai
Duration: 90 min
Color: Color
Synopsis: Bangkok. Ten years ago Julian killed a man and went on the run. Now he manages a Thai boxing club as a front for a drug smuggling operation. Respected in the criminal underworld, deep inside, he feels empty. When Julian’s brother murders an underage prostitute, the police call on retired cop, Chang, known as the Angel of Vengeance, to set things right. Chang allows the father to kill his daughter’s murderer, then ‘restores order’ by chopping off the man’s right hand. Julian’s mobster mother Crystal arrives in Bangkok to collect her dead son’s body and dispatches the living one to find those responsible and make them pay.
Notes:
Following the success of Drive (2011) and The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Only God Forgives is Ryan Gosling’s second collaboration with writer-director Nicolas Winding Refn, continuing his fondness for the role of an introverted criminal. Especially noted for its aesthetic qualities (according to some critics the film tends to favour style over narrative), Only God Forgives elicits the unsteady logic of a dream. Fittingly, the film is dedicated to mystic eccentric Alejandro Jodorowsky, includes a ‘thanks’ to Gaspar Noé, and flirts with surreal imagery that can only be categorised as Lynchian.
Winding Refn’s work has a reputation for violence, but for a movie about revenge and murder, there’s less gore than you’d expect. There are a couple of memorable moments where the squeamish will look away from the screen, but they will be happy to know that this film has much less blood than Drive. Only God Forgives excels in creating feelings through visuals and sound. Director of photography Larry Smith, who worked for none other than Stanley Kubrick, saturates scenes with neon hues, creating a lush, immersive vision of an underworld. A few key scenes are shot expertly through latticework, creating dappled shadows. The score by Drive’s Cliff Martinez, infused with electronica, plays off the neon visuals and embellishes the depiction of the underworld. This is a Bangkok that could never, ever be mistaken for the one in The Hangover Part II, despite both movies’ claim to show the seedy side of the city.
Notes based on Sluis, Sarah. “Only God Forgives.” Film Journal International 116, no. 8 (August 2013): 76.