Only God Forgives Score Review

Only God Forgives

Directed by:               Nicolas Winding Refn

Produced by:             Lene Borglum

Written by:                Niccolas Winding Refn
                                    Vithaya Pansringarm
                                    Kristin Scott Thomas

Music By:                   Cliff Martinez

Cinematography:      Larry Smith

Editing by:

Mathew Newman

FilmDistrict

Gaumont

Release date:             2013

The film, is about young man’s (Juilian) brother Billy is beaten to death because of his actions. Billy rapes and kills an under-age prostitute and as a result, is beaten to death. The movie then follows Julian through his journey as he attempts to avenge his brother.

Cliff Martinez composed the score for the film Only God forgives” with the help from Gregory Tripi and Mac Quayle.The mood of the score is created by the chosen instruments that include: twanging guitar, brass, relentless rainy-season percussion similar to Japanese Taiko drumming and pizzicato strings.  the composer recreates a Thai pop style, and the metallophone tones of Indonesian gamelan in this score.

The score for the opening title immediately establishes the main theme through submarine-deep thuds, brass gurgles, and tympanum thunder. This then leads into the second track "Ask Him Why He Killed My Brother," on the soundtrack compiled of gongs, chimes, strings and timbres. “Sister Part 1”, immediately delivers a gorgeous, calm and surreal feeling.  “Wanna fight” is made from anxious synth arpeggios mixed with pipe organs and a guitar line that seems to reverberate from a chasm.  

“Do as Thou Will”, gives an almost intimidating feel. The strings and brass instruments deliver a shaky and dark theme. On "Ladies Close Your Eyes," the drums are featured,  though this time the plucked strings turn harrowing, scraping and shrieking. That skin-flaying sound soon disappears into a daydream through gongs and chimes for the track's latter half.

"Can't Forget” consists of instruments such as a rolling piano, and woodblock clops accompany actor Vithaya Pansringarm's turn on the stately ballad. The vocalist in the song, is one of the biggest factors that give the track a Thaienese feel to it. All the strings and silken guitar lines of the "Falling in Love” track,  draw closer to the extravagant Chinese pop than more rustic Thai molam.

But while the latter drifted through dark ambience, the violence of title sequence  was refined by the cristal baschet's sublime timbres; this score merges the brutal and blissful hayness throughout the films. The theme of anxiousness and violence that the score evokes lead into a graceful closer "You're My Dream," those  rhythms now transformed into gentle tympani and a Thai lullaby. It provides a classic happy ending to a film that is anything but this, a well-scored movie indeed.