Nicolas Winding Refn’s experimental action movie about revenge and the struggle with imaginary gods. It was shown in the main program of the 66th Cannes Film Festival.
American Julian Thompson, accused of the brutal murder of his own father, is in hiding in Thailand. In Bangkok, he is involved in drug trafficking under cover of a Thai boxing club. He runs the business with his older brother Billy, who one day mercilessly kills a 16-year-old sex worker. This sets off a chain of acts of revenge involving the father of the murdered girl, a local policeman, Julian, and his mother, who is the head of an international crime network.
Only God Forgives by Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn is an A to Z of genres and quotes connected to the idea of revenge. He uses formal characteristics typical of Japanese anime, action movies, classic Westerns, and arthouse thrillers, turning the story of Julian into a cascade of ultraviolence and bloodletting with elements of surrealism and classic scenes of pursuit and revenge. Painstakingly weaving them into the canvas of the film, Refn consciously transforms every character except Julian into a function. He is caught between the evil and violence that has surrounded him since childhood and divine justice, a refined form of which is represented by a local police officer known as the Angel of Revenge. Julian, who is deceptively lifeless and alienated, is played by Ryan Gosling, the star of Refn’s previous film, Drive.
The deliberate artiness and sketchiness of the film is underlined by the soundtrack of Cliff Martinez, who also wrote the music for Steven Soderbergh’s Sex, Lies, and Videotape. The music in the film is based on rhythms and melodic sketches used in documentaries.
The film will be shown in English and Thai with Russian subtitles.
Only God Forgives
Director Nicolas Winding Refn
Denmark, France, 2013. 90 min.
18+