Of course, the first film I watched directed by Refn was Drive. Later, because of my interest in Danish films, I gradually watched the Trilogy and Valhalla. Only God can forgive me, I have been looking forward to it, even if it was rated at the bottom of Cannes, Rotten Eggs and Flowers Flying together did not change my curiosity.
It's certainly not another Drive, and I didn't expect it to be. Drive can be said to be Refn's most watchable movie, but compared to his earlier movies, I always feel that it was shot under pressure.
Only God can forgive the release, and Mr. Refn probably had a good time shooting it himself. In terms of pretending to be forceful, this film is also considered unprecedented in his own film, but if it is more objective, the whole film is more like a dream. What's more, it can be said that it is almost the kind of "dream" that Mr. Freud specifically refers to. It is full of imagery elements with a sexual meaning, and intermittent fragments are intertwined. The details add up to a complete story—not to mention that the story itself feels like a modern-day crime version of Oedipus the King.
God has never forgiven Oedipus, let alone Julian in this story. Julian, played by Gosling, has a beautiful face and body like ancient Greek sculptures, always puts on an ascetic expression and can't distinguish between reality and fantasy. When we thought he was a beautiful flower in the dark like Driver, only a few lines were used to lightly explain the sins he carried. This crime is not as simple as selling drugs and killing people in Refn's previous films. It is an ethically unforgivable crime. In fact, this element of killing the father is not the first time Refn has used it. Tony finally broke out and did it once as early as in Run to the End 2, but it was also much simpler and purer. Julian's family is like a lunatic, so I can only complain that the director is the only one who is abnormal. Although Julian was burdened with sins that could not be washed away, he acted like a gentleman. He let go of his brother's murderer from the very beginning, then fed the dogs on the street in the middle, chose to challenge Chang dignifiedly, and saved the little girl at the last moment. ——But in his fantasy, he saw his hands covered with blood. Uncle Chang of Mai Pa in Thailand is like a moral code. In the end, this bloody and ruthless character finally let Julian go, and his sentence may be a relief - he never has to see his own blood donation. A pair of hands.
So is Chang the so-called "God"? This Thai uncle is actually quite normal. He likes to practice knives, tell stories to his daughter, is generous and kind to the nanny, and likes to sing K to a group of colleagues. In addition, he is an old-fashioned police officer with a gangster flavor. The particularly interesting detail is that he never wears a police uniform and rarely uses a gun. The standard of his sentencing is entirely his own decision, and the tool of punishment is the knife that is so obedient that it does not know where it is hidden behind. For those who faced him, he was basically an existence close to God, or a judge would be more appropriate. But for Julian, Chang's presence is even more meaningful. When Julian asks for a fight, he accepts it and beats Julian to the teeth and walks away. He is not here to judge Julian, more like an Lao Tzu who gives a good beating to an unfilial son. The final trial is even more interesting. When Julian obediently stretched out his hands, I suddenly felt that Chang was not going to give him a knife but to slap his hand with a belt. Chang is a bit like a god to Julian, but also a bit like a father - not the presumably weak man who Julian killed and hated him so much, but in a higher sense he made boys like gods The "Father" whom I look up to and admire. It is confirmed from another angle that Chang's warmth towards his daughter makes him not always at the highest point of God, but also a relatively human point of being a father. So think about it carefully, since the age of mythology, theocracy and patriarchy in the West have been combined, and it is not difficult to understand the image of Chang, who is also a god and a father. Refn here gives a relatively vague concept that makes people guess, and it is quite clever to play.
And Julian's sin and his own confusion, on the other hand, is that he never succumbed to the mother's power. There is no doubt that he is attached to his strong mother who seems to have everything in his hands, but from the kiss and the last paragraph he gave her mother, I guess he has never really crossed the thunder pool, and his infatuation with his mother still exists in consciousness and fantasy. . It was not until he reached out his hand at the end, probably the first and of course the last time, that he completed his guilt-filled infatuation, and was able to calmly face the final judgment of patriarchy.
This movie is called only God can forgive, it is better to call it no one can forgive. Julian's sin was finally forgiven. We don't know at all. All we know is that he is in the middle point between theocracy and patriarchy. He is likely to let go of his heart when he is sentenced, but we don't know if he is It is really written off from then on to have a life. Of course, this point is too far from the film itself, just like whether Oedipus finally returned to the land of Thebes, there is no need to worry about it, these things are probably really only known to God.
In general, Refn's film's personal style has been carried forward to the extreme and has caused criticism. It is understandable, but he has never been a director who can tell a story well. The End Trilogy is unbalanced between boring and cheering segments, and while the brilliance more than makes up for the weak narrative, there's no telling the story after reading it. By the time Drive has solved the boring scenes by simplifying the plot and pretending to be forceful and beautiful, this film is even more so. Although it uses a lot of slow motion, it can be watched smoothly and without distraction. Of course, the narrative weakness is fundamental. There is no solution in the above, except for those beautiful dazzling skills and symbolic things, that is, a short film that can be shot for about half an hour. So to sum up, I can't give this film less than three stars, because although the story has nothing to do with it, the filming is not mediocre; it can't hit three stars or more, because it was entirely made by the director himself. film of words. But then again, there are a few directors who make films not for themselves but really for the audience, and there are also a few directors who can make a name for themselves and don't just go their own way.
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