Review of Only God Forgives (2013) by Grantd243 — 02 Sep 2018

Only God Forgives is not liked by a lot of people. I completely understand why people don't like it. It's slow, quiet, and as the viewer you're expected to put some of the pieces together and figure out what the film is really trying to say.

Those three things are a recipe for disaster with most viewers. I'm a big fan of Refn's other film that has Ryan Gosling, Drive. And really, Drive and Only God Forgives are very similar in a lot of ways.

The main difference here is that Drive dealt with a getaway driver who was obsessed with Hollywood and there were a couple of cool car scenes, while Only God Forgives takes place in Thailand, doesn't have any car chase scenes, and focuses on some bad people.

But, they both have a similar color palette, quiet moments followed by brutal violence, and a quiet, violent man as the protagonist. Julian (Ryan Gosling) is the main "protagonist" and he's actually a drug dealer who has a brother who rapes an underaged girl.

His brother is killed by the father of the girl, and Julian's mother wants him to avenge his brother despite what he did, and Julian doesn't want to do it. So his mother takes the quest for revenge into her own hands, while a sword-wielding law enforcement man, Chang, seeks to punish those responsible for the revenge murders.

This is a very slow moving one hour and thirty minute film, but I found myself enthralled by it. The ending is a little anti-climatic and the real meaning of this film can be interpreted a few different ways, but overall I very much enjoyed this Only God Forgives, although it's not on the same level quality wise as Drive.