In 2013, Nicolas Winding Refn "Only God forgives," came out and immediately faced negative feedback from the audience and a number of "serious film critics." The drawbacks of the tape were touched again and again, and in general terms they were limited to the simple fact that the director had put all his time and energy into exposing his concept to the fore, creating a seemingly unusual narrative that visibly does not fit into the mainstream idea of what modern art should represent. The little dialogue and some of the more surreal scenes, in turn, puzzled the average film enthusiast who hastened to reject the film, as another failed, pretentious art project, to another European filmmaker overtaken by his infantile ambitious. After all, as the only positive aspect of the ribbon, the beauty of cinematography was emphasized, which no one could deny. In fact, however, all the dimensions of the entire complexity of Refn's production can not be exhausted by an epidermal critical analysis because it does not even attempt to impose and present good-digested, easy-to-digest images, nor is it a particularly realistic and linear plot. "Only God forgives" has to be seen in the logic of the concept he is building, (of course, we also take into account the craftsmanship with which each frame is shot), so it can be judged more clearly and precisely whether he has achieved his predetermined goals or not.
In general, the film presents two parallel plot lines (each with their own cinema and motifs), which eventually intertwine to synthesize a very interesting and provocative overall picture of the stylized microwaves of Refn and precisely because of this - "fair". On the one hand, the surreal image of Thai policeman Chang, who, in recognition of the director himself, embodies God. Interesting with Refn, however, is what exactly "deity" is trying to show us. At the beginning of the movie, when we see Chang in action, Billy (the brother of the protagonist Julian) buys and kills a minor prostitute, paying her father for the "service." Such a situation reveals for the first time the Old Testament nature of the Thai deity in question, which gives the broken man his blessing to avenge the death of his daughter, as he thinks fit. It is immediately evident that his maxim is the eye for eye tooth for tooth, the image of God as a policeman who comes to judge and distribute justice is the only logical answer that Refn can give to the atrocities and tragedy with which he is executed human existence. After Billy's father dies to death, Chang does not waste time and punishes him for the cowardice that allowed such a thing to come upon his daughter. He cuts off his hand with a catan that literally pulls out of nothing - an action that is almost sacral / it religious character, because the destruction of the body is the only way to truly redeem sin - only the pain of a person can actually compensate the suffering of another. This God is not merciful, he is not love (as the Christian) and appears only as the embodiment of justice. Refn even overturns one of the sign of the New Testament motif - "watching but not seeing, hearing, but not hearing." Chang tortures a criminal, finally slamming his eyes and squeezing two long needles into his ears, saying - "If he does not want to see, let him not watch if he does not want to hear, let him not hear." Existential suspicion in the movie actually comes from the collision of this deity with Julian and his mother (Crystal) who wants to avenge the death of his sadistic son at all costs. It is something like an "avatar of evil" ("probably the devil," if we allow Bresson to be paraphrased) in the band - unable to understand "beyond good and evil" the nature and meaning of both sin and love. In her eyes, Billy is innocent because she is the embodiment of the superhuman who exercises her right to dispose of the world and people as she thinks fit - she puts her power over law and justice.
Here is the second layer of the strip, which in turn reveals and outlines the intricate image of Julian, who always lived in the shadow of his older brother. Here, Refn presents the Freudian expressions and their actions. Billy's strength does not come from elsewhere, but (as his mother emphasized in a conversation with Julian and a prostitute) of the size of his penis, which always surpassed that of his younger brother. This dynamic between Crystal and her younger son begins to slowly reveal the nature of Julian's paradoxical image. For example, answering the question why he has been unable to touch a woman's body a few times in the tape. One time the prostitute binds him, and he watches her while she masturbates, and the second she imagines how she gets physical contact, but once she realizes that this is an illusion, she fumbles and beats two men. He is completely under the control of his mother, who has "castrated" him first, because he constantly compares him to his "more masculine" brother, and secondly because he manipulates Julian as younger to kill his father. This ultimate model of the Oedipus complex that Refn puts in the foreground has sinister and unexpected consequences. Deprived of a father figure to suppress his impulses to his mother, Julien becomes a slave to his distorted love for an unattainable object. This prevents him from having a normal relationship with any other woman, because he always puts first the relationship with his mother, which does not correspond to his, from her point of view, her sense of affection (of distorted but " true "love) to her.
For this reason, Julian and Chang's encounter is one of the key moments in the tape. The young man's challenge to the Thai God is his only chance to find a male figure in his life that will first defeat him and then fight with his despotic mother, thus taking the place of the missing father forever. Here Refn again relies on Freud and his idea that the concept of God is so attractive because it creates a perfect father figure (at the same time distant and loving - strong but fair), which can be constant in the mature life of the believer. The melee fight between Julian and Chang /what a brilliant scene fight!!!/ is a central point for the "catharsis" of the unsatisfied Oedipus. The God quickly defeats him and takes this quasi-role role forever, which is confirmed after the last meeting of Crystal with her son. She makes a last attempt to dominate and uses his need for approval and love - persuades him to go to the policeman's home to kill all those who are there. Julian, however, has already been released from her role as the man in the family, takes the "right" decision, and at the last moment opposes her mother while Chang is ritually killing her at her luxury hotel room. Julian's completed catharsis, however, comes at the very end of the film when he pays for all the sins he has committed because of his pathological traits and his oedipal complex. Chang, cutting his hand in a special way, creates a sense of a sort of castration, which, by its very nature, is the polar opposite of the one his mother has been subjected to for a lifetime. The body and the person are already free from the poisonous influence of the unconscious - the hero is punished and suppressed. Julian finds himself in redemption, he already has a father figure to take away responsibility for the brutal consequences of his actions (even if he pays too brutal price). Reflection with unshaken pleasure depicts this uncompromising God who uses his power to "bring order" to creation, people, and the world. That's exactly what's on his side - he's always close to us, taking a direct part in our lives. This God leaves our freedom and person inviolable, but always takes care of living within the framework of justice and truth, helping us to redeem all our sin with only one rapid movement of the katana.
