Sydney film Festival 2013 - Film Review - Only God Forgives

Ryan Gosling - Only God Forgives

Danish director, Nicolas Winding Refn brings to the screen a visually dazzling yet brutal story set almost entirely in the neon, nightime world of Bangkok. With a notable cast including Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas and from Thailand, Vithaya Pansringarm and Yayaying Rhatha Phongam, this muscular film set against the backdrop of Thai Kickboxing and organised crime follows a theme of rage, betrayal and ultimately a form of redemption. The storyline follows Julian (Ryan Gosling) an American who runs a Thai boxing club in Bangkok and whose brother, Billy operates a drug dealing business on the side. When Billy is murdered as revenge for his killing of a Thai young sex worker girl, Jenna (Kristin Scott Thomas) the mother of Julian and Billy, arrives in Bangkok to collect her son's body and to seek revenge. Their protagonist is a senior Thai police officer Chang, also known as the 'Angel of Vengeance' who ceremonially dispatches his opponents with a Thai short sword (known as the Krabi) with a terrifying interpretation of justice. When Jenna orders a hit on the Thai police which fails, there is no doubt that little mercy will be shown.

This film has a superb element of menace, dark mood setting, controlled extreme violence with just a small element of the similar cinematic style of Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill). Although not for the faint hearted, this film has value within its genre not the least of which is the rendition of characters by the actors - Kristin Scott Thomas portrays Jenna superbly as manipulative, malevolent with elements of Oedipal tendencies, Ryan Gosling is the brooding, sexually repressed dysfunctional Julian while Vithaya Pansringarm provides the contrast with the disciplined, measured, take-no-prisoners approach to policing.