Cinema has been a realm where many creators, artists, storytellers and entertainers landed their mark in the medium that both offered escapism and odd surrealism. Many of them involving different genres and themes that captivate audiences throughout different timelines. We’re used to watching movies that excites us with big action scenes or climatic battles, involving our favorite heroes that we recognize or relate to. The hero’s journey is the most common plotline used in every story. Whether it’s in literature, comics, shows, movies or plays we’re used to seeing stories presented to use with a little exposition and some obvious hints to help us understand the plot.
In Only God Forgives the movie completely removes itself from the conventional storyline and offers something more graphic and unusual. Normally any movie will begin with an open monologue or narration from the main character that emphasizes who are heroes are and what the story is about. Only God Forgives opens with none of the on screen characters or an invisible narrator talking. It only opens with a shot of Ryan Gosling’s character who goes by Julien and his brother Billy played by Tom Burke in a dark room with minimum lighting. They hardly say anything to each other and the scene closes with Billy saying “Time to meet the Devil” and leaves the room. Que opening credits. The film later cuts back to Julien holding up his arms and grasping it into a fist while it is juxtaposed with the statue behind him. Afterwards the movie cuts to Julien overlooking his underground boxing ring while his brother Billy goes to a nearby brothel in Taiwan. What makes this scene so good is that it manages to convey an idea to the audience of what the movie is about without even explaining its plot yet with only a handful of words. It completely trusts its viewers and allows them to be introduced to the narrative without using any dialogue sequences.
Once again, many movies or shows have some sort of obvious play, hints or narration that will tell the viewers what the story is about. Only God Forgives doesn’t subscribe to that but instead heavily utilizes metaphors, visual themes and symbolism to convey its story right off the bat. Director Nicholas Winding Refn not only did an excellent job at directing the movie but also showed clear and upfront confidence when conveying his vision. It’s very common for Refn to create a surreal, avant-garde movie because as it is something that he is well known for along with the violent content he depicts in his movies. He’s a director that never plays safe or is willing to downplay certain elements to his story to appeal a broader audience which is both admirable and courageous.
As Only God Forgives continues the movie becomes more clear as its narrative unfolds visually. We see Billy walk into the brothel and have an altercation with one of the people inside. This then results in the police getting involved where the chief comes in and confronts Billy. Here the chief who’s played by Vithaya Pansringarm allows the owner of the brothel to decide on how he should punish Billy for the murder of one of the workers in the brothel. The owner in response takes up a bat and uses it to murder Billy. After this occurs the chief brings the brothel owner to an open field below a bridge where he enacts his own judgement on the owner in turn. The movie than cuts back to Julien who goes to the brothel to confirm the death of his brother and begins to pursue vengeance for him. Aside from that, their mother who is played Kristen Scott Thomas also arrives to Taiwan to kill the man that murdered one of her sons. Although the mother orchestrates a hit against the brothel owner early in the movie the entire film still focuses mostly on Julien trying to find the police chief who he believes was the real culprit behind Billy’s death. As Julien continues his journey he gets repeated vision where he is in a dark minimal lighted hallway. As he walks down he confronts a dark room where the police chief emerges out of it.
As the narrative continues we see two stories diverge between the mother and Julien where both are trying to seek closure and obtain what they what. The mother wanting to accomplish her vengeance against the chief for her son’s murder and Julien trying to figure out how to escape the amount of sin and guilt that he bares on his shoulders. In the middle of the film, Julien meets a beautiful woman in a nightclub named Mai played by Rhatha Phongam and it seems that the both of them hit it off. The movie once again uses visual cues and symbols to show the unfurling relationship between the two while the mother continues her destructive pursuit in hunting the chief. She hires mercenaries to gun down the chief but fails.
This event then spirals down in a twist where the chief goes after the mother in retaliation and Julien now has fight the chief to save her. Julien and the chief end up fighting hand to hand at the boxing ring; Julien gets beat up mercilessly by the chief and fails to defeat him. In the final moments of Only God Forgives the chief finds the mother in her hotel room where she speaks her final good will to her sons and Refn shows her remorse and regret for being a absent mother in their lives. The mother is then executed by the police chief and Julien finds her corpse in her room. The movie ends with the chief singing in a live karaoke stage in front of the other officers.
After watching the movie for the first time I immediately wanted to go back rewatch it again. The movie overall seems to tell a story based on Christian themes. All of the relating to forgiveness, letting go of sin and the consequences of sin. Billy and the mother ends up facing the outcomes of their crimes by refusing to repent of their lustful ways and ends up executed. The chief is God himself who gives fitting punishments and mercy to the sinners who are willing to detach of their sins or not. The chief’s method of cutting the arms is a visual adaptation from Matthew 5:30 “And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee.” This fate is exactly what Ryan Gosling’s character faces in the ending of ‘Only God Forgives’. He gets his arms cut off and is forgiven of his sins by God. This movie manages to tackle religious undertones without being preachy and fully entrusts viewers to be immersed to the story without exposition.
