Moebius
Moebius
NR | 01 August 2014 (USA)
Moebius Trailers

A wife, overwhelmed with hatred for her husband, inflicts an unspeakable wound on their son, as the family heads towards horrific destruction.

Reviews
Incannerax What a waste of my time!!!
LastingAware The greatest movie ever!
Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.
Murphy Howard I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
christopher-underwood Unable to find the subtitle option in the DVD menu, I held on to the remote with my finger poised over the subtitle option, ready to bring them up if they were not embedded. They were not embedded. There were none. There is no dialogue. That was only shock number one. As this incredible but very difficult film progresses, the shocks keep coming. Others have written most eloquently of this film so I will not dwell upon the Freudian and Buddhist overtones suffice to say this is not a frivolous or exploitative movie even if I did have to turn away once or twice. Many point out the humorous nature of this but smile though I did a few times it is difficult to laugh with a pistol pointed at your penis and a knife in your back. So, there is castration, self mutilation, rape, incest, genital surgery, sex and violence. All fairly explicit but in fairness to this great director, also very much to the point.
redrobin62-321-207311 Wow! What a jolt of caffeine was this! I guarantee you that you will see quite a few scenes in 'Moebius' that you will not see anywhere else. Boy, are these Korean filmmakers getting daring.I'll try my best not to lay any spoilers in this brief review because that would ruin the joy of discovery for you. Suffice it to say, Hollywood or Bollywood would never touch a script like this with a ten foot pole. As a matter of fact, I didn't know what I was getting into when I acquired this film. I figured, well, it's Korean horror so I should probably prepare myself.I'm glad I saw this film; it really made my day. It is a must see because of its originality. I'm not going to say what makes it so unique, but you can tell from the high ratings it's received on IMDb that it's worth the price of admission.
johnnymurphy15 If you are slightly squeamish or easily offended, then nothing can prepare you for the shocking and subversive content which permeates pretty much the entire film. Although it does seem like an exercise of shock value and bad taste, there is a twisted Buddhist parable to be found beneath if you see the penis symbolising desire and ego, which in Buddhist belief must be eradicated. I think you see what I'm getting at!Korean Director Kim Ki Duk uses some strange stylistic choices, most notably the fact that there is absolutely no dialogue in the film, only gasps, screams and moans of pain and pleasure. Personally, I found it a bit jarring at first, but after a while, you get used to this as there is a lot of action and content which do all the talking. For me it also shows social disconnection in society. People in this film use each other for sexual pleasure or are in some sort of emotional or physical conflict with each other, signifying a world where people only serve their ego's.Kim Ki Duk also wastes no time into getting down to the nitty gritty. Within the first ten minutes, most men in the audience will be sitting cross legged and wincing in general discomfort. It starts with a seemingly normal family consisting of a man, wife and son (with the lack of dialogue, you never learn their names). Man goes to meet his younger mistress (Also played by same actress who plays his wife!). While they have sex in a car, the wife sees them and notices the son is also there watching them and getting turned on by it. In a fit of jealous rage, wife attempts to cut off man's penis when he returns home. After failing that, she proceeds to cut off her sons penis while he sleeps, eats it, then runs away!Now that the son has no penis, he finds it hard to act upon his intense desire he has for his father's mistress who he regularly visits in the shop she works in. With the forced removal of sexual pleasure, he tries to find other ways to experience this feeling with his father's assistance. After some internet research, father finds out that extreme friction of the skin can bring a man to orgasm as well as stabbing instruments. We see scenes of son and father rubbing their skin with a stone and experiencing pleasure, but as soon as the pleasure sensations fade, they are left with the intense pain which follows the temporary pleasure. Son starts to have an intense sexual relationship with mistress which involves her stabbing him in the shoulder with knife and digging it in him, causing the friction needed to bring him to orgasm. This signifies again the lack of human compassion and warmth during intimate moments, giving way to human cruelty and it's projection through self loathing and insecurity.When a surgical procedure takes place involving the father's penis being transferred to the son, the son has to face the Freudian nightmare that he has sexual feelings for his own mother. It is interesting how the same actress plays both the mother and the younger mistress as I think it means the son has discovered that the woman he wants is a projection of his mother. Kim Ki Duk does not shy away from the incest theme here as he continues to make the audience feel uncomfortable. When events inevitably lead to tragedy, son finally realises he needs to remove his desire (penis) and then lead a monastic and happy life. One of the principal teachings of Buddhism is to eliminate desire in order to have a non-judgemental understanding of the world without emotional attachment which only seeks to distort your perceptions and happiness. Of course there are probably nicer and more palatable ways of illustrating Buddhist principles, but I personally find it admirable that Kim Ki Duk made these shocking choices without compromise. It is baffling, uncomfortable, intense and graphic, but never dull and full of symbolic possibility.
politic1983 When I saw 'In the Realm of the Senses' in the otherwise respectable BFI, the scene - you know the one - where a hardboiled egg is lovingly inserted into a vagina and then eaten didn't half make me feel a bit awkward, particularly when sat in a near-full screening. The fact that a man's penis were later cut off only added to this - in the film, of course, not the BFI.Many film reviews will describe films as 'this' or 'that' and how it will be an emotional journey, that will make you 'this,' 'that' and 'throw up.' But actually, do we ever experience these things when watching films in public spaces? I don't, but then I'm a cynical bastard. Kim Ki-duk's latest offering - controversial as ever - is a film, however, that actually does stir a bit of emotion in the audience. There may not be any hardboiled eggs involved, but there is certainly some of the other.To summarise the plot line would be to give a huge spoiler alert, and to detract from the impact of the film when watching, so I won't bother - and not just because I'm lazy. But essentially, this is a film about a modern family in a similar vein to Kurosawa Kiyoshi's 'Tokyo Sonata' or Miike Takashi's 'Visitor Q'. With all of Kim's films, there has to be a layer of controversy and possible religious undertones. There's less on the religious here, and much more on the controversy. Banned in Korea initially, the film comes with notoriety on its sleeve. But all that nonsense aside, 'Moebius' is an interesting and creative film. There is no dialogue in the whole film, bar the occasional screams of anguish, and as such the film is constantly in a state of flux to push the story along, as opposed to being a string of long, languid, art house shots. The pace is frenetic and comes across as a constant stream of consciousness. Kim doesn't leave you too much time to reflect on anything you've seen as things have already moved on. In a film without dialogue this works well to tell the story, showing (almost) everything and explaining nothing. This also shines a light of comedy among the darkness for the viewer, as the constant changes create a sense of disbelief at what you may, or may not, have just seen. I watched this feeling, at times, quite uncomfortable, but surprisingly not at the scenes I may have thought - Oshima obviously desensitised me to certain things. I never thought the typing of 'orgasm without a penis' into Google would leave me quite so weak at the knees. 'Moebius' certainly isn't an easy viewing, with a 'silent' film provoking the audience to spurt out words in reaction. 'Oh, he's not...'Kim's films may be varied in quality, but they are always thought provoking and definitely create talking points, ironically so for 'Moebius'. His films will never be the best you have seen, though they will certainly stick in the mind. Thankfully, there's enough good about this film to alleviate the controversy and make some decent enough thoughts stay in your mind, if not uncomfortable ones under your skin.
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