Only God Forgives

A brilliant, macabre and ultraviolent anti-revenge film by Refn. The film has deep character development, little dialogue, extreme violence mixed with soft music.  Julian (Ryan Gosling)  is an American living in Bangkok , Thailand  who runs a boxing club , which is actually  a front for a massive drug smuggling operation.  Respected in the underworld  ,deep inside, he feels empty.    Lieutenant Chang , known as the "Angel of Vengeance"  kills Julian's brother for raping a woman.   Julian's mother Crystal  (Kristin Scott Thomas)  arrives in Bangkok and demands Julian to find the killer and  kill him.    Chang is shown as God's representative on earth.   Julian seems to be mesmerized by the near -mythical "Angel of Vengeance" .  It is Chang who glides through the film with mysterious precision and ambiguity .  Pansringarm doesn't have dialogues but is terrific as a violent cop who respects the sanctity of justice  but defies the law and even ethics to maintain justice.  Also the film is about oedipal issues of Gosling's character ,whose mother is played to excellence by Kristin Scott Thomas.  She even calls Gosling's beautiful girlfriend a "cum dumpster".  Refn's direction , Larry Smith's cinematography and Beth Mickle's production design are all superb.  Refn approaches violence like sexuality and considers a film as a build up to a climax.  Considering the impressive balance of violence ,sex and ideology in his films ,he is a very good director.