The trailer for 'Only God Forgives' not only serves to please fans of director Nicolas Winding Refn and actor Ryan Gosling's previous collaboration 'Drive', but is a brilliant trailer on its own. We are thoroughly given a feel for the film's atmosphere and location through a number of elements that work together to astonish the audience. Like the trailer to 'Evil Dead' it begins with a red-band warning from the MPAA, already establishing that this film is likely to have adult elements such as extreme violence. The opening logos, as is the rest of the text throughout the trailer, are first (but only for a split second) presented in Thai (I believe) before translating into English. This is a reference to the location of the film, which is the city of Bangkok in Thailand, and the dual-language of the film which is English but also largely subtitled Thai. The text is shown in the style of red neon letters. Bangkok is famous for its nightlife, and neon signs are a part of that image of Bangkok that most people have in their minds.
Throughout the trailer the shots chosen have been composed meticulously, with characters shown often directly on or from the perspective of another character. There is a brilliant shot of Ryan Gosling's character and also of hands from his eyes, which involves the audiences in a way that makes them somewhat complicit in his actions, before he grips them in a kung-fu stance, suggesting that his character will be involved in a lot of action. Rule of thirds are kept in mind with the framing of these shots, and they are bathed in either very warm or very cold, saturated colours, such as red, purple or blue, again reflective of the Bangkok setting. The opening part of the trailer is sound tracked by a woman's narration, ostensibly Gosling's mother, whose word's "You were strange, you were different...they don't understand you, and I never will" establish the main character as a dangerous, unpredictable character, which will be major draw for fans of Gosling, who typically plays more relatable roles, as well as those unfamiliar with his work or who want to seem play a different type of role. This is cemented by a short, sudden, sequence in which his character violently attacks another before dragging him down a hallway by his jaw.
Then begins my favourite part of the trailer. Unusually for a violent thriller, the trailer makers have decided to use a sort of ballad-type song, sung in what I can only presume as Thai. The instrumentation of the song, coupled with the singer's calm and gentle voice, give of a kind of childlike or innocent notion that contrasts with the imagery shown, which includes guns being fired and people being killed. I believe this works really well as it helps to heighten the violence shown on screen - with most of the trailer strictly silent other than the music with the exception of dramatic sounds such a sword being drawn or birds fluttering past. The song increases in intensity when the Thai police chief character thrusts two chopsticks into the legs of another man - whose scream corresponds exactly with the music - and the trailer continues with a montage of various sequences from the film. The trailer climaxes with a long final note, as Gosling approaches the police chief and says his only line in the trailer, 'Wanna fight?', which signals the title screen. The calm manner in which he says it, as well as the choice to save any of his dialogue till the very end of the trailer, makes his character more mysterious, while the brief scene at the very end of him about to face off against the police chief gets the audience pumped to see him action without actually showing him deal any.