Here’s what the ending of Only God Forgives symbolizes. Nicolas Winding Refn broke through in a big way with 2011’s Drive, starring Ryan Gosling. This thriller featured a great cast, excellent soundtrack, and had style in spades. It’s a fairly atypical example for the director’s work, however, because while it may have been violent it was still relatively accessible to audiences. In the wake of the film’s success, Refn would turn down high-profile gigs like Spectre to pursue projects he could retain control over.
His subsequent work has received a more mixed response. This includes 2016’s The Neon Demon, which was controversial for its scenes of cannibalism and necrophilia. His miniseries Too Old To Die Young also featured a great cast, including Miles Teller and Jena Malone, but again the consensus is it was another hyperviolent exercise in style over substance. Nicolas Winding Refn tends to be divisive in critical circles for this reason, with some finding him an auteur who brings a unique style to each of his movies, while others find his work pretentious and hollow.
Only God Forgives is a prime example of how split reactions to Refn’s work can be. It was his follow-up to Drive and once again starred Ryan Gosling, who plays Julian, an American ex-pat criminal based in Thailand, who is forced by his mother Crystal (Kristen Scott Thomas, Darkest Hour) to seek revenge for his brother’s death. The setup is pretty simple, but like Drive Refn sees it as a kind of fairytale.
The key to understanding Only God Forgives - as much as it can be understood - is in Julian’s hands. The film has myriad close-ups of his hands and Crystal later reveals he killed his father with his bare hands. He has a relationship with a prostitute named Mai (Rhatha Phongam), but he keeps an emotional distance and restrains his hands while she pleasures herself in front of him. Julian is afraid of his capacity for violence and he’s shown to be brutal when forced into physical confrontations. The other key figure of Only God Forgives is Lt. Chang (Vithaya Pansringarm), who is seen throughout punishing criminals with his sword. Refn has made no secret of the fact Chang is supposed to represent God in the story, with the germ of the script coming from the idea of a man wanting to fight God. Throughout Only God Forgives Chang inspires terror in others and is shown to be somewhat invincible after an assassination attempt. He also dispenses justice as he deems fit, such as blinding and deafening a crime boss.
Julian’s mother Crystal is relentlessly cruel to her son, berating his masculinity and making no secret of how she preferred his brother, even though he was a monster. This pushes Julian to fight Chang one on one, but his hands fail him and he doesn’t land a single punch while Chang pummels him. Julian also has visions in Only God Forgives of Chang chopping off his arms, the source of his violence. Chang eventually kills Crystal after she targets his family, and when Julian finds her body he cuts open her womb - a scene suggested by Gosling himself - and feels inside. The meaning of this moment is debated, though it’s possible Julian symbolically wants to return to the only time he felt any warmth from his mother.
The final scene of Only God Forgives has Julian raising his arms for Chang, who brings down his sword to cut them off. This means Julian is choosing to literally sever his violent past and atone for his sins, and that “God” forgives him. There was originally another scene scripted where an armless Julian is fed by Mai, signaling something of a happy ending for the character, but it wasn’t shot.
Next: Will There Be A Too Old To Die Young Season 2?
