The second collaboration between Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn and leading man Ryan Gosling after 2011's acclaimed crime thriller Drive, Only God Forgives receives its eagerly-awaited UK release this Friday (August 2nd), and thanks to James Kleinmann we've got an exclusive interview with the writer-director, which you can watch below...Bangkok. Ten years ago Julian [Ryan Gosling] killed a cop and went on the run. Now he manages a Thai boxing club as a front for a drugs operation. Respected in the criminal underworld, deep inside, he feels empty.
When Julian’s brother murders a prostitute the police call on retired cop Chang – the Angel of Vengeance [Vithaya Pansringarm]. Chang allows the father to kill his daughter’s murderer, then ‘restores order’ by chopping off the man’s right hand. Julian’s mother Jenna Kristin Scott Thomas] – the head of a powerful criminal organization – arrives in Bangkok to collect her son’s body. She dispatches Julian to find his killers and ‘raise hell’.
Increasingly obsessed with the Angel of Vengeance, Julian challenges him to a boxing match, hoping that by defeating him he might find spiritual release… but Chang triumphs. A furious Jenna plots revenge and the stage is set for a bloody journey through betrayal and vengeance towards a final confrontation and the possibility of redemption.
Only God Forgives opens this Friday. Read our ★★★★★ review here.