"Only God Forgives" (2013) Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

“Remember girls, no matter what happens, keep your eyes closed”.

With opening titles in Thai and complimented by English subtitles, this latest noir tinged revenge thriller from Nicolas Winding Refn immediately begins with “Julian” (Ryan Gosling) pensively staring straight ahead whilst shrouded in shadows and the colour palette of red is firmly established in the film’s opening scenes.

We cut to a Muay Thai boxing match in a club he owns and runs and the colour palette of red is again a dominating theme, from the large boxing club motif behind the ring to the winning boxer’s gloves and shorts through to the shirts of two unnamed patrons of the club standing at ring side. But the scene is soaked in the colour red, with shards of reddish light adding to the overall and eye catching red tone. A small package is surreptitiously passed hand to hand between patrons as another Muay Thai boxing match begins. We cut to “Billy” (Tom Burke) in a backstage dressing room clad in a red shirt paying the victorious boxer with a deadpan admonishment “Don’t spend it all in one place”. Both Billy and Julian are in the dressing room and both are shrouded in shadows with Julian, his back to the wall and still staring passively and pensively ahead.

The above opening paragraphs are taken from my original spoiler free review of "Only God Forgives" penned and published nearly a decade ago, transferred to my Medium blog site on 28th January 2023 and which can also be read in full and for free via my Substack blog site and the link immediately below:

https://ramblingmusings666.substack.com/p/only-god-forgives-2013-20b5b98d7149

This spoiler free review is also integral to my 7 volumes of "essential film reviews collection". Only available currently in e-book form, each exhaustive volume of spoiler free film reviews is £4.99 however, should you have an Amazon Kindle "Unlimited" package, you can read each and every volume for free:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C4HZSTTH?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tukn

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