Today I want to talk about my love of movies. As a small child my parents would take us to the movies on the weekends and from there grew my love of storytelling.

I watched ONLY GOD FORGIVES on Tubi and actually have not been able to stop thinking about it. Its a visually stunning picture with its shots and locales and editing. And there is violence, a lot of it, that its almost its own entity in the film – from the actual violence of characters to other characters, to the slow, almost surreal beauty in the acts of violence that play out on the screen. There are despicable characters, Like Julian’s mother, deliciously played by Kristin Scott Thomas, who I didn’t even recognize until I looked at the film’s IMDB page. There are characters who feel ambivalent about like Chang (Vithaya Pansringarm) who is an avenging angel with an uncanny ability to find evil doers and bring them to justice. Then there are sad, pathetic characters like Julian (Ryan Gosling) who seems like he is almost sleepwalking through life, sometimes a wounded animal and yet other times something dark and sinister. Much like Nicolas Winding Refn’s VALHALLA RISING, there were parts of the film where I really had no understanding but was still able to enjoy the journey and be entertained. It’s definintely not a film for everyone but if you like this director and can appreciate non linear storytelling interwoven with symbolism and gorgeous cinematography, beautiful locations, a solid script and well acted, you might want to give this film a look. In the LEAVING SOON section on Tubi, it’s definintely worth a watch and I think the discussion after might be interesting.