In his latest outing as the loneliest dude in the world, Ryan Gosling plays Julian, an American expat living deep in the seedy underworld of Bangkok. Early on, Julian’s older brother Billy (Tom Burke) commits a horrendous crime which precipitates a bloody chain of revenge and retribution. Julian also finds himself having to manage relationships with two complex women; Crystal, his emotionally estranged mother, played in fabulously trashy bleached blond locks by Kristin Scott Thomas and Mai, a picture of dignified resignation, played by Thai pop singer Yayaying Rhatha Phongam, with whom Julian has a less than straightforward sexual relationship.
But, the real fulcrum of the film is senior police office Chang, a picture of balance of poise and menace from Vithaya Pansringarm. Chang is the arbiter of cruel and swift justice in the city’s underground and is held in reverence by the local police. Chang increasingly becomes both a threat to Julian and something of a metaphysical obsession.
Only God Forgives reunites Gosling with Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn, although this is a very different experience to their last outing, Drive (2011). This time, Refn is a much more auteur-ish mood, with cinematic references to Yasujirō Ozu, Sergio Leone, Stanley Kurbrick, Gaspar Noe, Park Chan-wook and especially David Lynch. This is stylised and stylish film-making, with captivating cinematography (Larry Smith) and a pulsing electronic score (Cliff Martinez).
Having lived as an expat in Asia for over ten years now may well have influenced the way I saw Only God Forgives. The unromantic yet visually beautiful portrayal of Bangkok’s underworld, mixed with the reflexive arrogance of the Western criminals there to exploit what they see as a lesser culture and the bitter, violent resentment of the locals at the social cost of it all felt very real, familiar and well drawn.
Only God Forgives will not appeal to all film goers. It is relentlessly bloody and violent. The characters are not all that well drawn and very little of the action is explained. But, this is a profoundly well made film and a true cinematic experience; a dark fairy-tale with some challenging moral and psychological questions for the adventurous cineast and almost certainly destined to be a cult-hit.
