Julian (Ryan Gosling) & his brother, Billy (Tom Burke) were drug dealers in Thailand. Billy was killed by a local policeman, Chang (Vithaya Pansringarm), for brutally killing a 16 year old girl. Crystal (Kristin Scott Thomas), Julian's mother, urged him to avenge Billy, thus resulting to series of clashes between drug lords & merciless cops. 

Though the synopsis seems quite intriguing, but the pacing of this movie is rather slow... Yes, there are gun fights & fist fights but they're really scarce. 

I wanted to watch this movie for two reasons. Nicolas Winding Refn, the director & Ryan Gosling, the lead. I expected that this movie would be as good as one of my favorite flicks & also Nicolas Winding Refn's work, Drive. 

Well, it certainly brings the same feel as Drive. The characters don't really say much, the music helps a lot in setting the mood & Ryan Gosling is handsome as fuck. 

However, compared to Drive, this one lacks narration... Most scenes start & finish rather awkwardly & abruptly. Besides that, there are many times when a characters are shown being still & emotionless... for no reason...

I think it's the director trying to be artsy... Well, it's screened at Cannes & we all know only indie & artsy stuff are screened at Cannes.

This movie was booed at Cannes.

If you don't like Drive, then you should definitely avoid Only God Forgives... If you love Drive, don't expect this movie to be at the same par.

I personally like this movie though... But, not as much as like Drive.

There are a few moments that are very interesting to watch like the way Julian fantasize about sexual stuff & some short moments of intense action. This movie is weird in a way that I like. Maybe I'm a bit mentally disturbed.

If you've watched this, I wanna ask you... Where did that badass cop hide his evil blade? In his shirt? Behind his back?