Director: Nicholas Winding Refn
Starring : Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas, Vitaja Panslingam
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Duration: 90min
Producer: Wild Side Nicholas, an up-and-coming director of Films
who shocked the world with "The God of Sunset", made his debut in Cannes last year with his new film "Only God Can Forgive", and the comments went to two extremes in an instant. In this new film, the story is weakened, and the level of violence and blood is doubled and upgraded, making the audience shout "Only God can understand". In general, this noir film full of metaphors fails to repeat "The God of Sunset" like myth.
The dark street of crime in Bangkok
uses one sentence to describe the streets of Bangkok under the night sky in the film, that is, "the streets are full of things that are darker than the night." The bizarre electronic sounds are in a rich and suffocating monster red. The change between the blue and the icy blue makes the Bangkok under the camera exude a dangerous and unruly atmosphere. Criminals with extreme violent tendencies, showcasing women’s sex business in shop windows, and a police leader who is keen to use violence to control violence. The content of the story can be summed up in one sentence: The drug dealer who raped and killed a child prostitute was killed by the police in a violent way. , After the gangster's mother took revenge, she was killed by the police with a knife. The narrative is extremely weakened, the characters move slowly, and the lines are few. The whole movie is supported only by the pictures. The metaphors are constant, which is different from the melodrama. This is more like a short poem with a sharp edge.
Father-killing Oedipus only God can redeem
The main theme of this film is the Oedipus complex. The protagonist Julian played by Ryan Gosling is immersed in the complex of "Father and Oedipus", because he killed his father, so he fled from the United States to Bangkok. He was immersed in the guilt complex of murdering his father, and regarded his mother as a reference to a forbidden desire that could never be obtained, and he was also tormented by lust and possessiveness. The metaphor of the hands, the most obvious, symbolizes the phallus, the source of evil. So when he has sex with women with his hands, Julian always has the illusion that his hands are cut off, indicating that the desire in his eyes is forbidden, the fruit of sin, and a crime that must be judged. Why? Because his original desire was directed towards his mother, a sinful thought that could not be washed away. Julian's sudden hallucination of sewage as he washes his hands further hints that the desire in his eyes is an extremely filthy sin. Killing his father could not fulfill his desire to possess his mother. His brother was more competitive than himself, so after his brother's death, Julian could not get revenge. In fact, it implied that he didn't want to take revenge. means the exclusive mother. Let's talk about the role of the mother, who uses her son's attachment to him to control them. From the mother's ambiguous actions towards her son, it can be seen that their relationship is extraordinary. After the mother was killed, Julian put his hands into the mother's belly. This is a typical mother-infant attachment complex: at this time, he wanted to be a soft baby, return to the original warm womb, and return to the mother's body. Killing his father and loving his mother, Julian felt that his sin was unforgivable, so he chose to cut off the sinful hands. The uncle who plays the head of the police holds a long knife and cuts off the hands of guilty people at any time. The knife symbolizes the blade of judgment, and the uncle is the maintainer of order under the concept of patriarchy and the "God" who is in charge of justice and judgment. .
"World Film Illustrated"
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