Only God Forgives is a Danish-French art house crime film written and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, starring Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Vithaya Pansringarm. The film was shot on location in Bangkok, Thailand, and, as with Drive, is dedicated to Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky. It competed for the Palme d’Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.
Julian (Ryan Gosling) is an American expatriate who runs a muay thai club in Bangkok, Thailand, that is a front for a drug smuggling operation. His older brother Billy rapes and kills an under-age prostitute and is caught by the Thai police. Lieutenant Chang allows the girl’s father, Choi Yan Lee, to beat Billy, but Choi goes too far and ends up killing him. However, Chang does not care about Billy’s death; instead, Chang cuts off the father’s forearm for allowing his daughter to be a prostitute.
Julian also has his sexual hang-ups preferring to be tied up while he watches his favorite prostitute, Mai, touch herself, all filmed as if in a ballet. Julian and his crew go to Choi’s kiosk to confront him about his part in Billy’s murder but spares his life after hearing the story. Julian’s mother, Crystal, arrives in Bangkok to identify Billy’s corpse. Crystal demands Julian find and kill the men who killed Billy, but he refuses—believing that Choi had some justification for seeking retribution for the killing of his daughter—infuriating her. Julian has several visions of meeting Chang in a dark room, Chang cutting Julian’s hands off.
Julian brings Mai to meet Crystal, posing as his girlfriend. Crystal sees through the ruse and hurls insults at Mai and demeans Julian, pronouncing him sexually inferior to his dead brother. Julian humbly accepts all of Crystal’s abuse, but afterward turns on Mai, viciously humiliating her, then regretting it.
One of the fighters at Julian’s boxing club assassinates Choi at the behest of Gordon, a member of Julian’s crew, at Crystal’s request. Later, the police investigating Choi’s murder arrive at Julian’s club, but Chang concludes that Julian is not Choi’s killer. Julian recognizes Chang from his visions and follows him from the boxing club, but Chang seems to disappear into thin air.
After learning that Chang was involved in Billy’s death, Crystal meets with an associate, Byron, to arrange Chang’s assassination. Three gunmen on motorbike are sent to kill Chang at a restaurant with machine guns, and two of Chang’s men are killed in the shoot-out. Chang kills two of the gunmen and follows the third on foot, beating him with a frying pan. He leads him to his boss Li Po who is feeding his young crippled son. Chang then kills the third gunman, but spares Li Po after seeing him show affection for his son. Li Po points Chang to Byron, who ordered the hit. Chang finds Byron in a club and tortures him to get answers. Byron reveals the reasoning behind the hit, but refuses to give a name. Chang continues to torture Byron, cutting out his eyes and inserting a spike into his ear.
Julian confronts Chang and challenges him to a fight and they fight on the bare concrete floor of Julian’s boxing venue. Chang, an experienced boxer, easily and thoroughly beats Julian, who lands not a single hit in the entire match. Afterwards, Crystal tells Julian that Chang has figured out she ordered the hit on him. Fearfully, she pleads with Julian to kill Chang to protect her, the same way she asked Julian to kill his own father for her. She promises that after Julian kills Chang, they will go back home and she will be a true mother to him and take care of him. Julian agrees.
Julian shoots the guard outside Chang’s home, and his associate Charlie Ling enter Chang’s house, intent on ambushing him when he returns. Charlie informs Julian that he was instructed to execute Chang’s entire family. Charlie murders the nanny of Chang’s daughter as she enters the home, but, in an act of redemption, Julian shoots Charlie before he can kill Chang’s young daughter.
Chang and a police officer visit Crystal. She blames everything on Julian. Chang ends up cutting her throat. Julian returns to the hotel and finds his mother’s corpse. In silence, he approaches her body and cuts open her abdomen. Julian slowly places his hand inside of the wound. After leaving and having several surreal visions, Julian is shown standing in a field with Chang, who appears to cut off both of Julian’s hands with his sword. The final scene returns to Chang singing at a karaoke bar with an audience of attentive police officers, watching him in silence.
Only God Forgives (2013)
Directed by: Nicolas Winding Refn
Oyuncular: Ryan Gosling, Vithaya Pansringarm, Gordon Brown, Tom Burke, Sahajak Boonthanakit
Screenplay by: Nicolas Winding Refn
Production Design by: Beth Mickle
Cinematography by: Larry Smith
Film Editing by: Matthew Newman
Costume Design by: Wasitchaya ‘Nampeung’ Mochanakul
Music by: Cliff Martinez
MPAA Rating: R for strong bloody violence including grisly images, sexual content and language.
Studio: Radius-TWC
Release Date: July 19, 2013
Visits: 44
