islandclaws

Bummer no deleted scenes. I wanted to see the extended ending.

bluetoast

If you can find the script, it has a lot more dialogue and some elements are made clearer. Pretty interesting.

PenguinJoe

I fell asleep partially during the movie, it was so slow. I'm not sure if it was good or bad though.

d2cheer

I'm not sure what it says about a film that you have to read the script and watch a youtube video to have it explained to you. I got the movie just fine and all the deep meaning etc...that didn't keep it from being one of the worst I have seen this year though.

bluetoast

Well I liked it before reading the script, but I appreciated it a bit more after. Didn't watch the youtube video.

TheySentYou

finally saw it. the characters try too hard to stand too still for too long. not even the seductive cinematography, Western influence, and cool bursts of graphic violence could save this film. and the film abhorrently smashes your head against the wall with obvious symbolism... so much it's silly. i admire when film fanboys make movies that look cool, but that's all this is worth.

inri222

Watched the Blu-Ray last night and IMO it is Nicolas Winding Refn's best film.

5/5

Tarantino

Definitely disagree with this. It was good, but absolutely not his best.

OldBoy

i couldn't even get through this. too stylized for my tastes.

TheySentYou

it was pretty to look at. and i liked the Lynch-ian karaoke performances.

and after spending a week in Bangkok last month, this film does capture the city in its honest and seductively trashy light.

buttttt... can't say i liked the film as a whole much at all.

Tarantino

Not surprising, but shitty that they didn't mention Vithaya Pansringarm's name on the cover. He was really the main character and the one who carried the movie.

RichC2

This is now on Netflix streaming.

Mike86

I blind bought this when it was released on Blu-ray but just got around to watching it last night. I have to say I thought it was pretty damn good. I was a bit skeptical on it since I didn't really like Drive and this is from the same director but something about it seemed appealing to me. I'm glad I picked it up, Gosling's character was interesting despite hardly speaking in the movie at all. Some of the torture/death scenes were pretty messed up but I found the violence in this movie to be more effective than it was in Drive where it seemed like the film was just using violence excessively for reasons I didn't quite fully understand or agree with. The imagery in this film was pretty amazing too and I could barely look away from the screen at all. Overall I'd say it's worth watching and maybe picking up. I know it seems to have gotten a lot of mixed reviews though so maybe most would want to rent it first.

Solid Snake

What didn't make sense about the violence in Drive?

Mike86

I just remember feeling like the violence in Drive was excessive just for the sake of being violent. Also I haven't seen the film in a while but I remember thinking the story was kind of stupid. The driver fell in love with his neighbor, her husband gets released from prison and she makes it clear that she's not really into him anymore, and then he goes on a crazy rampage basically to help the guy even though he's not going to get anything out of the relationship with the neighbor and is just going to get himself in trouble. Despite the fact that he says at the beginning of the film that he's just the wheel man and doesn't take part in the violence.

I understand that Gosling's character obviously was supposed to have somewhat of a criminal past and probably was a bit sketchy but to me it just didn't work that he suddenly went full blown psychopath basically because of unrequited love or something. I should probably re-watch the film but I remember thinking it was one of the most overrated films of the year that it came out.

Why So Blu?

Watch it again.

He says that he's just the getaway driver when he's driving. Outside of that context the dude throws down. He doesn't go on a rampage, the rampage comes to him first.

Mike86

But the rampage only came to him because he was helping the woman's husband which I didn't completely get why he was helping him anyways. It's not like he was going to win her over by helping him or something

SuckaMC

Surprisingly I liked this much more than Drive (which I did not like)

Goslings character didn't seem too bad and he did save the investigators kid. Not sure why he submitted himself to the chop.

Way better than Drive, still just ok

DaveyJoe

Refn's films are highly symbolic and aren't really driven by narrative. The characters are often metaphors. The cop in Only God Forgives is God and the Driver is the scorpion. The stories are very thin just to give the "characters" a platform to exist. Drive has more of a storyline than his other films, which made it much more accessible to audiences, but also undermined the abstract nature of the film, which is why you liked Only God Forgives more. You're thinking too much about the plot with Drive.

hanshotfirst1138

Refn describes Drive as a Brothers Grimm fairytale: the Driver is the night in shining armor, the Albert Brooks character is the evil king, Mulligan is the damsel in distress, Cranston is the knight's aide, and the Driver is a mythic hero who wander from place to place, nameless and without origin. He consulted with Gaspar Noe on how to depict the violence as explosive and shocking. Incidentally, I've been bouncing a dozen e-mails back and forth because my UV copy is in the wrong aspect ratio. This was one of the most visually stunning films I've seen in quite some time. I knew Thomas Newton Siegel was good, but I didn't know he was that good.

I used to have that podcast until my computer deleted my whole archive and dozens of them with no rhyme or reason. Where are you reading the screenplay? A local woman in this neck of the woods sued over Drive, saying the trailer misrepresented the movie, and my friend saw it and hated it, I guess they were expecting a Fast & Furious-type thing from the trailer.

Why So Blu?

He was helping her. Nice guys do that.

inri222

I love Drive but I also think that this was better.

inri222

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplayli...gives-20141001

Nicolas Winding Refn Talks 'My Life' Doc, What's Next, Dropping Studio Gigs & The Reaction To 'Only God Forgives'

When it comes to documentaries that chart the making of a particular film, some of the very best have come from those closest to the filmmakers. The most towering achievement in this regard is probably "Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse," an intense making-of documentary that follows Francis Ford Coppola and the bonkers production of "Apocalypse Now," that was co-authored by Coppola's wife, Eleanor. Following in Eleanor's footsteps is Liv Corfixen, the wife of "Drive" filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn, who took to cataloguing the production of Refn's polarizing, Bangkok-set thriller "Only God Forgives," with "My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn." We had the chance to sit down with Refn and Corfixen at the recent Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas.

The documentary is an intimate portrait of frustration and familial unrest (since they had to move the family to Bangkok), but you can tell that the bedrock of their relationship remained firmly in place, no matter where in the world they were. Sitting down with both of them (in a karaoke room in an Alamo Drafthouse theater in Austin), you could tell that they were just as close as they were before the movie was underway (and the documentary was filmed). Whenever Refn became too prickly, Corfixen stepped in and tried to get him to talk. It was a nice dynamic, and fun to observe. (If you want to read our review from the festival, you can do so here.)

So read on as we cover everything from why Refn left "The Equalizer," to the Japanese spin-off of "Valhalla Rising," to this all-female horror movie he's been talking about forever. And Corfixen lets us know that what you see on screen in the documentary is exactly what you get at home.

What inspired you to pick up the camera?

Corfixen: What inspired me was to not be a bored housewife, like to go to work. Because we were in Bangkok, I took the kids out of school and moved there and had nothing else to do. I thought it was a great way of doing something.

What did you think when she started doing this?

Refn: What was I going to say?

Corfixen: He couldn't say no.

What did you think after you saw the movie?

Refn: I didn't know what to say. This was her thing.

Were there things that you didn't include but wanted to?

Corfixen: No. I think it turned out like I wanted it to. I shot everything, almost. It's not like he didn't want me to shoot anything. There are a few times where he's tired of me. But it wasn’t like I wasn't included in certain things.

How did it become this fairly large-scale release?

Corfixen: I'm very surprised but I'm glad that it is. My producer showed it to various distributors that she had contacted, and it eventually sold in many countries.

How much of this was a reaction to the reception of "Only God Forgives"?

Refn: I feel good in knowing that everybody was wrong. Or at least that the people who were against the film were wrong and it actually competed for the Palme d'Or.

Corfixen: Yeah, I really liked the movie. I think it came out really well. I think it's so Nicolas.

Refn: That's a polite way of saying, "Oh god…"

Corfixen: No!

Throughout the film you vocalize this pressure of having to follow up "Drive" with something really great. Do you still carry that pressure around?

Refn: I carry it around for everything. Going into every movie, it's always about: how do you top yourself, how do you go further? Further out into space.

Is the horror movie still the next one?

Refn: Maybe.

This answer seems to change every few weeks.

Refn: It depends on my mood waking up that day.

Is Carey Mulligan still attached?

Refn: Maybe… Sometimes a mystery is better left unsolved until you see it. Or else what are you going to talk about?

You last said the horror movie was next because it was part of a two-picture deal with the same production company that did "Only God Forgives."

Refn: That's probably true. See. You got something.

Corfixen: And it's with women.

What is the appeal of doing a horror movie with an all-female cast?

Refn: It's sexy.

Where are you with the "Valhalla Rising" companion film?

Refn: There will be a movie in Japan in the near future.

Rival11

I never caught this smart-ass reply until just now. I was talking about things like how he pulled his sword from nowhere - just some of the smallest things people tend to take for granted in a flick.

Also, there is no way in hell you caught ALL of the symbolism in this flick either.

I'm guessing you never even watched the video I posted huh? It's all good, it's a good watch.

bunkaroo

I won't pretend to understand what the film was going for upon the first viewing, but I know I enjoyed the experience and I want to watch it again.