it was on the first page..

*facepalm*

Regardless, you coming in to bash us on a movie you haven't seen yet is a pretty low ploy to try and initiate a response from me...

Your life must be so sad.

in no way was I bashing anyone individually, just the movie itself

and insulting someone because they have a different opinion than you is "so sad"

I watched it recently. I'll give my honest opinion, though I'll tread lightly, as it seems to have some die hard fans here.

I didn't like it. I felt like they tried to put too much style, not enough substance. You can dress a soy burger with the fanciest bun, nicest lettuce, most expensive mustard, etc, but in the end, it's still just a soy burger. They try to convey the main character's emotional predicament, among other things, in an eccentric artistic sense, which felt very experimental. Only, in my opinion, the experiment failed.

I thought the characters were pretty bland. Ryan Gosling may have shown a dark side, in his abuse of his date after their encounter with his mother, but other than that, he's just a boring paragon of good and integrity. The mother is just comically evil, willing to nuke a country full of babies to avenge her son. The cop was just a stereotypical ruthless brutal villain with that small bit of depth in that he feels he's dispensing his own kind of justice (but that idea is played out IMO, and if you don't do something unique with it, why do it at all?) The story is straightforward, not much to comment on there. I feel like every bit of depth they could have given the movie was wasted on some random artistic bullshit.

But that's my opinion. Others love it, and I respect that.

Just bashing a movie you have never seen. Well done.

K, now, go back and watch the movie with this in mind. Ryan Gosling is NOT the "good guy". The Cop is NOT "the villain". Reverse their roles, and then you'll see the movie for what it really is. A brilliant way to show the perspective from a "bad guys" point of view (Gosling) and showing how when you come to a country with the intent to sell drugs, kill underage girls, and think you run shit. You get to meet the guy who really runs shit, the cop, aka "God" in this story.

You went in to the movie, looking at everything all wrong. I admit, I almost did as well, but picked up on it very early on after seeing how fucking horrid everything Gosling's character touches or is associated with turns to...

I would recommend watching the movie again to see it for what it truly is.

I don't come into a movie or show with a predetermined perspective of who to root for. What I saw was this:

Ryan Gosling spares people's lives whenever he can. The only reason he even had intent of killing anyone was to appease others, but his own compassion wins over. When he's sent to kill the cop's family, all he does is try to save his nanny, and successfully saves his daughter. When he has his brother's murderer at gunpoint, he lets the guy go instead because he saw no reason to kill. He's not the scum, he's just surrounded by scummy people (his family, etc.)

The cop, on the other hand, completely ignores the legal processes, and instead, just tortures and kills who he himself deems deserving of it. One might try to justify his actions in saying his victims deserve it (seeing as how most of his victims are pieces of shit anyway) but I don't consider that proper justification, just like I don't think Dexter (from the show Dexter) is a good guy even though all his victims are murderers.

I only judge a character's goodness based on my own moral standpoint, not their role in the movie (protagonist/antagonist, etc). From what I saw, Ryan Gosling was a pretty good guy (except for how he treated his date), and the cop was morally ambiguous, but leaning towards bad.

*****Major Spoiler Alert*****










Do you know what the Korean law is for an American to come in to their country to selling heroin, do heroin, fucking underage girls, killing underage girls, set a hit out on a police officer, and admitting to killing his father with his bare hands. Ryan Gosling's character was FAR from "a pretty good guy". Because, in my opinion, the cop was absolutely justified in everything he did. Especially for his country. And he DOES acknowledge Gosling's kindness for sparing his daughter, but cannot excuse him for his countless other crimes, including killing the officer guarding his house. Thus, the name of the movie "Only God Forgives" implies that the cop (God) shows mercy on Gosling for all of his crimes and only cuts off his hands, rather than killing him.

This was, in my opinion, a absolutely brilliantly masterful way to portray characters. Especially in todays world of lackluster storytelling in movies. I found the art direction of using a black and red filter to be incredibly subtle and breathtaking at times. The angle of which the writers chose to present the characters for the audience to interpret was nothing short of fascinating.

I'm sorry you didn't feel the same. I do respect you opinion, since you were able to present it with at least some form of sophistication and elegance that some other children on these forums were not taught.



This post was edited by The_Doves on Aug 16 2013 09:44pm

Look Nice !

i felt like gosling was the good guy cause i him his family on the other hand deserved worse.