Only God Forgives

"Time to meet the Devil."

2013 1h 29m EN

😐

5.8

MID

★5.8TMDB · 2,649

DramaThrillerCrime

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Julian, who runs a Thai boxing club as a front organization for his family's drug smuggling operation, is forced by his mother Crystal to find and kill the individual responsible for his brother's recent death.

“Time to meet the Devil.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Ryan Gosling
Julian
Kristin Scott Thomas
Crystal
Vithaya Pansringarm
Chang
Rhatha Phongam
Mai
Gordon Brown
Gordon
Tom Burke
Billy
Byron Gibson
Byron
Sahajak Boonthanakit
Kim

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Writers: Nicolas Winding Refn
Languages: English, Thai
Countries: Denmark, France, Sweden, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

89 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $4.8M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 13 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Thai.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 4 countries: Denmark, France, Sweden, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, shot by Larry Smith. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Cliff Martinez. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Matthew Newman shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Nicolas Winding Refn directs. Larry Smith behind the camera. Cliff Martinez scores. Matthew Newman cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Profitable at the box office. Produced in Denmark, France, Sweden, United States of America. Dialogue in English, Thai.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

189 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
2Shot for just $4.8M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
3Released 13 years ago.
4Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Thai.
5International production across 4 countries: Denmark, France, Sweden, United States of America.
6Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, shot by Larry Smith. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Original score by Cliff Martinez. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
8Editor Matthew Newman shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
9Ryan Gosling and Kristin Scott Thomas and Vithaya Pansringarm carry the top of the cast.
10Marketing tagline: "Time to meet the Devil.".
11IMDB entry: tt1602613 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
12Classified under 13 themes, including "bangkok, thailand", "surrealism", "punishment", "suicidal".
13Released under 18 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Larry Smith
Original score: Cliff Martinez
Editing: Matthew Newman
Production design: Beth Mickle
Costume design: Wasitchaya Mochanakul
Makeup / hair: Pattera Puttisuraset
VFX supervisor: Martin Madsen
Sound: Eddie Simonsen
Stunt coordinator: Seng Kawee
Runtime: 89 min · 1h 29m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $4,800,000
Box office: $10,300,000
Return: 215% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Only God Forgives (2013)

Awards

Sitges Film Festival Best cinematography

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Nicolas Winding Refn

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Dark Jedi2018-07-01
★ 5/10
It is an artistically very interesting movie. I would say that the benefit of watching this movie is entirely from the visuals were it excels. Unfortunately after a while the blood-red and, often, bizarre scenes become a bit boring. The story, well you have it in the movie blurb above. There is not much more to it and it is just used to tie the string of artistic expressions of the director/writer together. This is a quite violent movie. The old cop, Chang, gets more than one opportunity to use various sharp instruments, mostly his sword, on various criminal elements and the effects are frequently shown in all their gory glory. What about the actors and their performance? Well it is quite good for this type of movie but having said that the acting mostly consists of various people silently staring at each other. I had quite a bit of difficulty in deciding what rating I should give this movie. If I would go by the visuals only it should be very high but if I would go by the rest of the content it would be rather low. In the end I decided that although I appreciated the artwork I did not really like the movie as a whole that much. Thus it gets 5 out of 10 stars.
RustyBoi2020-08-21
★ 8/10
A challenging piece of cinema. Definitely not for everyone. The cinematography is breathtaking, and the violence is stomach turning. 8/10
r96sk2022-03-01
★ 7/10
It has all the ingredients that I'd usually love in a film, but the pacing lets it down for me. <em>'Only God Forgives'</em> is pretty dark and strikingly gory, with the stylish cinematography really shining through to set the right tone. Ryan Gosling, meanwhile, is good in a role which is similar to his one in 2011's <em>'<a href="https://letterboxd.com/film/drive-2011/" rel="nofollow">Drive</a>'</em>, which was also directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. Kristin Scott Thomas is solid, though I couldn't get away from the thought that her character was made to be portrayed by Toni Collette. Vithaya Pansringarm plays it cool as his character. All in all, I enjoyed it. I just didn't love it. It's a little too stop/start for my liking, as in it felt like I was watching a series of events as opposed to a fully fleshed out plot; I don't mean that the scenes feel unconnected, it just feels like every scene is too much its own thing in terms of storytelling.