Only God Forgives (2013)

This is a movie that’s beyond your stereotype Hollywood movies that you’ve seen about drug trafficking or any activities going in the underworld of any city, but it’s more as an art movie than a popcorn movie. From the first scene in the movie you can sense that this is not your typical Hollywood movie, although some star names are included into it, but it’s more divert and unexpected. Once you get into the movie mode, you notice that it’s a different mindset than anything you’ve ever seen before. It talks about a badass American guy who went to Thailand and merged into the underworld boxing fight managing his own fights by using a Thai fighter to fight his part while pushing drugs into the boxing arena with his big brother.

Soon we realize that the big brother has a thing about prostitutes, where he takes one and beats her to death, and when the police arrive at the scene, we see the main antagonist (a captain) with the police whom he calls the victim’s father to take his revenge on the American, and he did.

The little brother played by Ryan Gosling knows about his brother’s death while his mother comes in town – Thailand- which makes things worse for him on every scale. The relationship between Ryan and his mom is somewhat sick and perverted, and then we know the backstory about his big brother and his mother. In general the movie has a lot of gore scenes that not everyone will take it easy, where I’ve seen several people leaving the movie before ending it, plus their expectations I believe to see an action back to back scenes, but this wasn’t the case.

Details
Initial release: May 22, 2013 (France)
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Cinematography: Larry Smith
Screenplay: Nicolas Winding Refn
Languages: Thai, English

I rate 7/10
I rate this movie 7/10, three reasons why I like the movie:
Thai storytelling.
Strong theme.
An unexpected twist in the end.