Only God Forgives

Only God Forgives (2013). Director: Nicholas Winding Refn

Only God Forgives is a recent movie made by Nicholas Winding Refn, the director that made Drive. It also stars Ryan Gosling. This movie stirred up some fuss right from the beginning. It got booed by the audience at its premier at Cannes Movie Festival for explicit and cold-blooded violence. Many who have seen it also view it in a more negative light. I had been excited about seeing the chemistry between Nicholas Winding Refn and Ryan Gosling one more time, and all the controversies made me even more curious about this movie. After finally seeing it, I want to write down my thoughts about it.

I can understand why this movie was not well received, both by the general viewers and by the critics. First and foremost, it is a movie loaded with explicit violence. Even when violence is not happening on screen, there is always tension building up, which eventually leads to another incidence of violence. The often dark red lighting, combined with the fact that there is very little dialogue throughout the movie, makes it a very intense viewing experience. Moreover, the same general tone persists throughout the movie, which means there is basically no break from the intense, ominous atmosphere. It is not a pleasant movie to watch, but not because it is bad. It’s the cinematography and story that make it so, and I was not surprised that some people hated it.

However, I do appreciate this movie for a few reasons, and I think some criticisms are not entirely fair. First of all, it is very tempting to compare Only God Forgives with Drive, or at least to see the former as some sort of extension of the latter. But Only God Forgives is simply another movie made by the same group of people. There are shared elements between those two movies, obviously, but I think the director tries to do different things in these two movies. Drive is a much more character-based story, whereas Only God Forgives tries to create a distinct atmosphere with very stylish cinematography. Although I am indeed disappointed by the lack of character development in Only God Forgives, I also understand that presenting fully fleshed-out characters might not be something that the director cares about this time. As the director has said himself, Only God Forgives is a story about a man trying (vainly) to fight God. Given such premise, I would say the director does a good job creating a looming sense of despair throughout the movie. Interestingly, this sense of despair is not delivered through dialogue. Instead, I see it through the struggles within Ryan Gosling’s character Julian.

As little character development as there is, it is clear that Julian wars with himself about standing up against an extremely intimidating existence, and he deliberately avoids confronting this godlike man despite pressure from all sides until it is absolutely unavoidable. Julian wavers not just because of fear, but also because he doesn’t have justice as a cause to back him up emotionally. This brings me to talk about this godlike man that Julian has to fight. This man is respected and awed as God because he punishes injustice with merciless violence and that he is unbeatable, but realistically so. Watching this character reminds me of the human forms of deities in Hinduism. Those mortal incarnations of gods descend upon this earth and walk among mortals. Their appearance might not be intimidating or even impressive, but enraging them means absolute catastrophe. The Thai actor that plays this character does a wonderful job conjuring a godlike aura whenever he appears. The director also adds this amusing contrast about this character by making him do only two things in the movie: killing and singing karaoke. The performance of this actor is probably the brightest spot in this movie. 

Good things aside, there are a few things that the director could have done better with this movie. Although the cinematography suits the story very well, I do think that the director goes too far down the path of styles. The result of that is sacrificing the flow of the narrative for the sake of the atmosphere. I would also like to see Julian being fleshed out more. The obligation to fight an overpowering opponent is a very interesting material with which one can build a character. It is a bit of a shame that the director doesn’t really take the full advantage of the potential for inner struggle to give the movie more depth. Overall I still enjoy Only God Forgives, although it is not a movie that will please most people. However, I respect the director for this daring attempt after the success of Drive, and I will still look forward to his work (especially in collaboration with Ryan Gosling) in the future.