God forgives but the angel doesn't

The result is an ultra-violent reflection of our capital in the crime drama “Only God Forgives”, which reunites Winding Refn with his enigmatic “Drive” star Ryan Gosling.

He’s a gangster in Bangkok who runs a boxing gym as a front for his smuggling ring. When his brother is killed, the crime family’s domineering matriarch (Kristin Scott Thomas, cast wildly against type) arrives on the scene to demand he take revenge, or else. This sets up a confrontation with the “Angel of Vengeance”, a sword-wielding retired Thai policeman who dispenses his own brand of justice.
Vithaya Pansringarm, who played a sleuthing monk in the 2010 Thai mystery movie “Mindfulness and Murder” and has been featured in bit parts in foreign productions here, plays that brutal cop. It’s possibly the role of his lifetime. A soft-spoken late-bloomer actor, the 50-year-old “Pooh” Vithaya is quite a bit different from the character he plays on screen.
The cast also includes Ratha Po-ngam, a pop singer who garnered praise for her break-out film role in the remake of the erotic drama “Jan Dara” and was also recently seen in the burlesque tale “Angels”.
The film premiered in the main competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it was actually booed. Critics have continued to be divided and the polarisation is sure to be even more magnetic now that it’s on our screens.

Also opening
“Red 2” – Bruce Willis and his gang of aging spies are back for more explosive adventures. Mary-Louise Parker, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren also return for more fun, being joined by Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Lee Byun-hun as a relentless killer. Dean Parisot (“Galaxy Quest”) takes as director from Robert Schwentke.

“Man of Tai Chi” – Keanu Reeves directs and co-stars in this vehicle for his friend and “Matrix” fight trainer Tiger Chen. It also features work from “Matrix” martial-arts choreographer Yuen Woo Ping. Iko Uwais (“The Raid”) and Karen Mok are also featured.

“Turbo” – Dreamworks Animation gets revved up with a mollusc-infested copy of rival Pixar’s “Cars” franchise. Here, a snail gains superpowers after being fed through a hot-rod’s nitrous oxide system. He is then befriended by the owner of a taco truck. Ryan Reynolds voices the snail with support from Maya Rudolph, Paul Giamatti, Samuel L Jackson, Snoop Dogg, Michael Pena, Michelle Rodriguez and many others.

“Prayok Sanya Rak” (“Present Perfect Continuous Tense”) – 1990s movie star and soap actress Lalita Sasiprapha is back on the big screen. She’s an attractive fortysomething woman in a doomed relationship with a guy half her age (Setthapong Phiangpor).

l Three South Korean movies have invaded Major Cineplex branches as part of a promotion. They are the spy thriller “The Berlin File”, the rom-com “All About My Wife” and a romantic drama “Love 911”.

l There are also two new Bollywood releases at Major Cineplex, “Bhaag Milkha Bhaag”, which is Hindi cinema’s answer to “Chariots of Fire” and the crime thriller “D-Day”.

Also showing
l “Boundary” (“Fahtum Pandinsoong”) – Indie director Nontawat Numbenchapol kind of got screwed when Major Cineplex had second thoughts about showing political films. Under pressure for screening Pen-ek Rattanaruang’s “Paradoxocracy”, which featured academics speaking their minds about Thai democracy, Major Cineplex distanced itself from Nontawat’s Thai-Cambodian border documentary. They still let him show it in their theatres, but made the young filmmaker sell tickets himself. It’s showing at 7 nightly until Sunday at the Esplanade Cineplex Ratchadaphisek. For more details, see www.Facebook.com/boundarymovie.

l “Biguine” – The Alliance Francaise screens free movies with English subtitles at 7.30pm every Wednesday. Next week’s show is a 2004 musical that recounts the lively dancehall scene in Martinique in the 1870s.