Nicolas Winding Refn (Bronson, Drive) has employed images of serious violence in the past; his first team-up with Ryan Gosling featured both intimidating threats and gory action. Now we’ve got the first footage from their second film pairing, Only God Forgives, a violent revenge-thriller “western” set in Bangkok.

Gosling plays a boxer and drug smuggler pressed into vengeful action when his brother is killed. This trailer isn’t terribly gory, but it is laden with the heavy air of things just about to go really, really wrong. The color in the images, combined with the music and a sense of floating, suggest that this is a story that descends into the same psychological space as Bronson. This time, however, Refn has more resources at his disposal.

And yet, more than anything else, it’s the opening dialogue from Kristen Scott Thomas, playing the mother of Gosling’s character, that gives me chills. Compared to that, Gosling’s invitation at the end of the trailer seems almost polite.

Only God Forgives opens on July 19, reports The Film Stage.