Three new images from Nicolas Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives starring Ryan Gosling and Kristin Scott Thomas

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

After the surprising success of 2011’s DRIVE, the team of director Nicolas Winding-Refn and Ryan Gosling will try to capture lightning in a bottle a second time with ONLY GOD FORGIVES.  The film is yet another dark tale that finds Gosling as an MMA fighting criminal out to exact revenge on those that were responsible for his brother’s death.  It will likely be a bloody affair with a series of intricate characters and a moody soundtrack, as is Winding-Refn’s style.  While some didn’t dig his commercially successful DRIVE because of that reason, others (like me) will be excited as a result of it. 

Here’s the pics:

And, here’s the synopsis:

Bangkok. Ten years ago Julian 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. 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 – 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’.

I honestly keep forgetting this is coming out, but every time I’m reminded that it is I get a little more stoked.  I love the dark and brutal tones we’re getting just from the images and the trailer tease we’ve seen thus far (see below).  My hope is that we’ll get a solid companion piece to DRIVE that could potentially evolve into a Winding-Refn/Gosling trilogy of sorts.  What, am I asking too much, here?

ONLY GOD FORGIVES is slated for release sometime in 2013.