The taut drama Only God Forgives has been released on Blu-ray with Nicolas Winding Refn delivering another strong performance by Ryan Gosling. The surreal dreamlike presentation makes it voyeuristic and compelling even with the brutal and butchery subject matter. While the performance by Gosling is stellar, Kristin Scott Thomas steals most of the scenes making her character wicked and demanding.
The film centers on Julian (Ryan Gosling) who runs a fight club in Thailand with his brother Billy (Tom Burke). But, Billy has been taking drugs and sinking into psychological horror pit and he turns that into a brutal rape murdering a 16-year-old Thai girl in the process. With the laws in Thailand controlled by the police with penalties doled out as they see fit, head policeman Chang (Vithaya Pansringarm) brings the father of the girl to the crime scene and allows him to kill Billy.
Julian gets word of the death of his brother and corners the girl’s father allowing him to speak. He lets him go after finding out the details of the tragedy. When Crystal his mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) finds out about the death of her son she flies to Thailand and takes out her vengeance on all those concerned, even Julian who she feels should have put the killer in his grave.
Her money does the talking as she works her reprisals one by one holding back none of the bitterness of losing her first born son. Director Nicolas Winding Refn who gave us the dark crime drama Drive also starring Ryan Gosling provides an equally dark stage for his second collaboration with the star. Here he spools out his film with a very dreamlike pace using reds and psychedelic colors to develop a trance like state. He adds eerie music by Cliff Martinez as Julian navigates the alleys and corridors on the back streets of Bangkok looking for the killer of his brother.
The performance by Kristin Scott Thomas as the headstrong matron who has a sinister history with her sons is extremely good showing another level of her acting ability. Very scary at times, she keeps her character unforgiving and treacherous on a mission to get revenge and satisfaction. But, up against the brutal martial arts expert Chang her tactics start a war between the police and her hired henchmen. With an amazing show of acting Vithaya Pansringarm as Chang gives Scott Thomas the perfect adversary in her duel of death. Pansringarm turns his character into something even more evil than Crystal pitting power against motherly love.
Only God Forgives gets a little too dreamlike and the slow pace mixed with the Thai music droning in the background causes it to be overly trance like. I found my mind wander off at times although it was jarred back quickly with some very brutal scenes. Keep with the film no matter how it’s played out for some terrific action moments and horrors you won’t find in mainstream flicks.
Only God Forgives has been rated R by the MPAA for strong bloody violence including grisly images, sexual content and language. Most of the sexual content is inferred, but the grisly acts are depicted very disturbing. Lock this film away from immature children as it does have many scenes that are very inappropriate for anyone under the age of 17.
The bonus features are quite good and should only be watched after you have seen the movie.
BONUS FEATURES:
- “Feature Commentary with Writer/Director Nicolas Winding Refn and Film Critic Damon Wise” I watched the film for several scenes with the commentary and found it very interesting and informative.
- “Director Interviews” Talking about Thailand with Mark Dinning and Discussing Genre Films with Bruno Icher are both attention-grabbing.
- “Behind the Scenes” goes into twelve areas and talks about them including staging the brothel scene, prepping the shootout, on the sets with Refn, kendo techniques and more
- “The Music of Only God Forgives with Cliff Martinez” Martinez shows his very unique musical instrument and the scenes with which he had to work his magic.
The Blu-ray video quality is very good with 1080P Widescreen 1.85:1 played on my HD Television through the Blu-ray player. The image fills the whole screen so you do not have to see those black bars top and bottom and no loss of image side to side. The colorful film show with reds and dark colors tends to give off a psychedelic aura that does bleed into the film at times, but effective none the less. The picture clarity is very good and the scenes in the Bangkok side streets are purposely dingy and dank.
The sound quality on both the Blu-ray DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is very good and if you run it through an upgraded sound system, even better. The music rules the film with the oriental tunes and deep seated melodies keeping the mysterious feel of the film. Inside the box you will find a flyer that will describe how you can download two free songs by Cliff Martinez from the soundtrack.
Specifications and additional film information:
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas, Vithaya Pansringarm, Tom Burke and Yayaying Rhatha Phongam
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn (also directed “Drive”)
MPAA Rating: R for strong bloody violence including grisly images, sexual content and language
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Running Time: 1 hr 30 min
Video Release Date: October 22, 2013
Original Film Release Date: July 19, 2013
Language: English & Thai
Format: Blu-ray
Audio: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
Video: Widescreen 1.85:1
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Number of Discs: 1 Disc
Distributed by: RADiUS TWC and Anchor Bay Entertainment
Writer, critic, film editor John Delia, Sr. has been on all sides of the movie business from publications to film making. He has worked as a film critic with ACED Magazine for more than 20 years and other publications for a total of 40 years. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Florida. John is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and Critics Association of Central Florida Send John a message at jdelia@acedmagazine.com
