Julian, who operates a boxing club in Bangkok, is pulled into a spiral of vengeance after his brother's death. Confronted by a ruthless police officer and his domineering mother, he descends into a world governed by ritualized violence and silence.
Minimizing narrative in favor of image and sound, Only God Forgives pushes Refn's style toward abstraction. Saturated reds and symmetrical compositions enclose the characters within fatalistic spaces, where violence unfolds like ceremony. The film stands as one of his most daring and divisive works.