Moebiuseu

And I thought Pietà was appalling! But the 19th film by director Kim Ki-duk really brings on screen something that reaffirms his reputation as one of world cinema's highly controversial directors. One of the most uncomfortably hilarious films I've to sit through, Moebius tells the story of a destructive family in which the husband is having an extra-marital affair, the wife is jealous plus angry & their son who ends up paying the price for his father's acts.

Written & directed by Kim Ki-duk who really has a weirdly disturbing sense of humour, the film has no dialogues throughout its runtime & even music is absent except for the final moments. There is a lot of hilarity in the film but it comes with a price that not everyone will be willing to pay. The story begins on an extreme note but never really settles down for a bit & it'll have you go WTF every few minutes.

On an overall scale, Moebius presents its notorious director going way too far with the subject matter than he did in his last feature & although as pretentious it may be, it really won't be easy to get it out of your head once you've seen it. Infused with Buddhist symbolisms that completely went over my head, Moebius is an extremely scarring cinematic experience that'll find you laughing while your eyes bleed.

Watch it at your own risk & remember what you're going in for. You've been warned.

Have you ever watched a film that brings your endurance to explicit (even sick!) blood and sex violence to its very limit while at the same time makes you laugh and depicts with smart (yet explicit!) cleverness one of the basic essentials of Buddhism?... No, I'm not trying to bring opposite worlds together, but Kim Ki-Duk did, in his film Moebius.

A truly masterpiece of cinema in its pure essence, compelling and with an stunning economy of resources: few settings, few actors, even the two female roles are played by the same actress (Eun-woo Lee) in an outstanding performance. Moebius tells a story with deep metaphysical symbolism using just images (there is no dialogs) and focusing exclusively and with dazzling clarity on the points important for the story and its meaning, namely the search for physical pleasure concomitant to the nature of every human being, and the main protagonist of this: a part of the male anatomy known as "penis".

Only after the last scene, when the young protagonist bows before Buddha, one can understand the whole meaning of the film, every piece fits then perfectly in the puzzle (emotional puzzle, we are not talking about crime and mystery here). Then we understand that pleasure (the main, maybe the only important one: sexual pleasure) comes always at a price in this world; pleasure involves pain one way or another. Not once in the film pleasure brings any kind of satisfaction or happiness, instead it causes distress, sorrow, guilt, pain, immediate or in the long term; many of the scenes in the film show the attainment of pleasure directly through pain, and with more pain as a consequence.

CAVEAT - SPOILER IN THIS LAST PARAGRAPH

But then, in the end, the young protagonist frees himself from this tie, through the most direct way: castration (well, there are actually several of these throughout the film, so WARNING for sensitive viewers!), and later, bowing before Buddha, he does something he had not done even once during the film: he SMILES, as Buddha did. He is released now from human passions, no longer slave of his desires, no longer subject to the inescapable search for pleasure of the physical body. He is now FREE

Moebiuseu. A completely wordless experience. So in line with that, my reveiw will be short.

Moebiuseu is a sexual exploration like no other. It stuns, and enlightens.

And it's not for the squeamish.

On a close look at this film, director Kim Ki Duk cannot be blamed for making a controversial fiction film about the taboo subject of 'Incest'. It is not the depiction of the social evil but the manner in which this topic is handled is strange. In the recent history of South Korean cinema, Moebius might be one of the few films where a South Korean family especially the parents are shown in an extremely bad light. The biggest problem about this film is that it does not have any dialogs. The actors are shown to perform their roles without uttering much. This has given rise to a lot of confusion as viewers might have hard time understanding the real motive of different characters. At a time when most joint families are collapsing due to irresponsible attitude of individual members, Moebius is surreal depiction of the total collapse of a family due to the neglect of the family by the male member. Kim Ki Duk's controversial film "Moebius" got a second lease of life when a ban on its showing in South Korea was lifted. There is hardly anything strange in this development as most of his films have failed to achieve popularity with domestic audiences in South Korea.Moebius is a good link to the chain of controversial films started by directors Bernardo Bertolucci and Louis Malle.

I wanted to write a review so as to somehow share what I just have seen with someone (anyone). Even if it's just my text being passed on to you the apprehensive reader.

As what happens in Moebius, stays in Moebius & I wont be able to share this over the coffee machine at work tomorrow.

I've see some weird movies (swedish, french, Japanese, south American etc etc...). I didn't think I could be made to turn from the screen & put my hands over my eyes anymore. However "Ki-duk Kim" writer/director reached deep into that dark space within his twisted soul and pulled this bad boy up for all to ponder.

So lets get serious! It's not the rape, violence & dark nature of this movie that you haven't seen before. It's the haunting way all it's been put together. The reason why you'll keep watching is as far as art concerned, the director & the actors do a wonderful performance in portraying this darker than twisted narrative. In fact if they didn't perform it so well, you wouldn't be able to watch.

Minus a musical score or any verbal communication, every sound you hear, affects the hairs on the back of your neck. It's not a horror, however you get that cold feeling as your eyes take in it all in.

The movie isn't all gore and shock throughout. There are genuine moments of tenderness when father and son come together, bonding due to the tragedy of it all. Guilt and forgiveness are exchanged within a moments glance and you feel warm as you predict the Hollywood style happy ending. Boy meets girl and again the eyes exchange their words.

I'd like to tell you more, however I struggle to describe the journey ahead without giving it all away.

You'll be adding this to your list. A well told and chair pinning watch. However I won't be watching it again anytime soon. 6.8/10