Ryan Gosling - Only God Forgives# 2: Only God Forgives emerges as a triumph of stripping things down to the bare essentials - Page 2

rrr222 · 09-15-2013, 04:21 PM

^I see. Interesting

Well I've gotta say that I have found really different and quite opposite reviews/opinions about this movie. Some people seem to have loved it and some others seem to have hated it

Chris31 · 09-16-2013, 06:28 AM

Have you seen it, rrr222? Don't get me wrong. As I said I love Ryan but this is definitely my least favorite movie that he's done. I can see how some people would like it though. It is kind of edgy and different. But it's just too out there for me.

rrr222 · 09-16-2013, 08:34 PM

^No, I haven't watched it yet

I understand, one doesn't have to like every movie

Everyone likes different things.

**heaven85** · 12-21-2013, 01:32 AM

Quote:

Only God Forgives, Ryan Gosling’s second film with Nicolas Winding Refn can be best described as an intimate Opera. Set in the seedy underworld of Bangkok; drug smuggling and kickboxing are the backdrop to this dark tale. There is also a strong Oedipal theme in this mind bending psychological and disturbing film.

Ryan Gosling stars as Julien; brother to Billy – played with sick brilliance by Tom Burke who so closely resembles a young Stacey Keach that it is disturbing – and son of Crystal. Kristin Scott Thomas – Four Weddings and a Funeral and The English Patient – plays Crystal and she is terrifying as the matriarchal drug lord that Julien and Billy work for. Crystal comes across as deadly, psychotic and mad as a march hare. She has an unnatural relationship with Julien and later in the film, it is revealed that she did with brother Billy as well.

At the start of Only God Forgives Julien and Billy are in their kickboxing club overseeing bouts. Billy makes a drug trade and Julien is concentrating on the kickboxing. Later the two brothers are talking to one of their fighters and it is clear that Billy, despite his obvious drug addiction, is the alpha male of this family.

After the fights finish, older brother Billy goes out on the town and at the end of his evening, he rapes and kills a prostitute. Drugged out of his mind, he sits in the room with the body of the 16 year-old sex worker. The Thai police enter the scene and the head of local law enforcement Lieutenant Chang – played with a sombre and chilling air by Vithaya Pansringarm – brings the dead underage prostitute’s father to the crime scene and allows him to beat Billy to death.

Billy’s death sees the return the matriarch of the family business, Crystal. She tells Julien to find his brother’s killer and make him pay. Thus begins a slow, twisted dance between the three main protagonists. Each one seems to be aware of what the other is doing in a sort of languid, and disturbing, telepathy, although in Julien’s case, it seems to be a sort of visionary portent of upcoming events as well.

Article


Fan Forum > Archived Celebrities > Ryan Gosling > Only God Forgives# 2: Only God Forgives emerges as a triumph of stripping things down to the bare essentials