Saw this last night, I loved the direction and the cinematography and the music was just stunning....when the three came together, it worked so well, the build up to the shootout, the scenes just after dawn with Chang and the sword, the way the hotel was shot, it was dope as fukk. The fight scene between Chang and Julian was ill too, when Jullian flipped on those two in the club, the red lighting and soft background of some the scenes....wow. But, the scenes with Gosling, his mother, and Mai, were almost unbearable, the oedipal themes were just over the top, gratuitous, overt and just odd, Kristin Thomas looked good for a women close to 50, but she played the role like a comic book villain,and I liked the first two karaoke scenes, but to end the movie on it? And not more gorgeous shots of Bangkok at night? Thought it stilted the ending and kinda undercut the movie, with a strong ending I would have liked it more. The torture scene was good conceptually, but I thought it kinda didn't pay off in the end, felt cartoonish. I was kind of reminded of 'Suspria' in some parts, felt like a beautiful, dread filled nightmare, but choppy scenes that didn't flow well, and the directors odd touches hurt it more then I could accept. 'Drive' was kind of a dark, dreamy urban fairy tale, this is a hellish, sweaty, red nightmare, but just not as compelling as 'Drive'. And I liked Goslings performance for the most part, the director did less with it then I would have liked. Need to grab that score/sdtk, Cliff Martinez is masterful at creating these dark, atmospheric, brooding scores.
the whole time.
