Moebius (2013) User Reviews

If you like Jennifer Aniston movies. Turn back to the multiplex now, this is not the path for you.

[individual-297-994063 · 7/10 · 30 September 2013]

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

The Essence of Emasculation

[ratzzila · 7/10 · 15 June 2014]

You have to love Asian cinema. It never holds back on any topic no matter how insane. Here we have an entire film about a father and son who are basically neutered by the woman of the household out of revenge for adultery. The rest of the film is about the agony of men dealing with life bereft of their penises, and how they try to get their penises back. Keep in mind this film has no dialog whatsoever which is not an unnatural as you might think, but it is still quite odd and seems a bit unbelievable at times. Perhaps there is some connection between speech, the word, and the penis? Yet it also creates a kind of emotional intensity that sets the film apart. Like Pieta, I wonder what the point is of all the perversity in this film. I suppose if you want to tie it into Freudian psychology, Greek tragedy etc that is one approach. Perhaps it is an absurdist tale about modern nonsense. Perhaps the black comedy satire this film is, somehow helps us come to terms with out repressions in the modern age not to mention our materialism, and hypocrisy. There is a repeating theme in Kim-Ki Duk's films of redemption through religion. The son who is castrated finds redemption in the Buddha. The son pays for the father's 'sins' at the hands of the mother. The mother corrupts her son further through incest to spite the father. In Pieta, the only character at peace with themselves is the one who gives up materialism and seeks the Buddha. I notice a pattern in the films of Kim-Di-Duk. The agent of justice is as 'bad' as those they punish for their transgressions. The ideal of a heroic moralist is lost in this Korean film. Instead everyone continues to fuel the fire of their own personal karmic retribution getting deeper and deeper, never really getting to the end, just deeper. Of course I may see this idea through the western lens of morality, while karma is more of an inherent, impersonal law of cause and effect, that no one controls. It is a force of nature really, assuming our interpretation of it is correct.

But enough theory. The acting is strong in this film. The story line is captivating. This film makes insightful points about human 'nature' such as the intermingling of pain and pleasure, or the amorality of the human animal. The extreme topic of this film may be a bit gratuitous and make you wonder what the point is though. The actors portray their pain and suffering in a believable, compelling way. The dark subject matter makes the film unapproachable by most though. I don't mean dark in some emo, Gothic poser fashion. It is harrowing watching the actors go though their pain. Perhaps that is the point of this film...to watch people suffer and feel sorry for them while being repulsed at the same time.

Psychosexual spirituality.

[ocosis · 7/10 · 19 December 2020]

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.

What to expect for the rest of the movie, when the first 10 minutes has been so shocking!

[alshwenbear1 · 25 September 2013]

So you love your kid, but you will hurt him so cruelly just to get back at your cheating husband? As I always try to do: no spoilers on this review, because you got to see it for yourself, but fairly warned, this Korean movie is not for the squeamish! I felt compelled to stop watching, I felt my face with a cringing gesture, because I don't know if the writer is in the borderline of insanity and perversion. Is not an easy watch, and to make it more difficult for the viewer the lack of music and dialog, yes there is not a single spoken word from the protagonists, and there's nudity and rape scene so you are warned again. When I was a eight years old, the grownups talked about a shocking movie, that none of us the kids were allowed to see or discuss, as I grew up I watched the movie and read the novel "Los Cachorros" by Mario Vargas Llosa, wow! I never forgot the story and undoubtedly the film in question takes on a different "remake" from the Mexican film and the Peruvian novel, with some added twists and shocks! watching the first part of "Moebius" gave me a shiver, and made me remember "Fatal Attraction", I could mention Lorena Bobbitt but if you don't know who she is don't Google her, not before watching this movie! And remember do not mess up with an angry woman! I hope you get curious because I am writing nothing else, if you are brave enough, watch it if not yourself with a grownup, in no way whatsoever this can be a movie for young audience, anyway, whatever your judgment is, you may fell compelled on watching some innocent cartons to recover from "Moebius"

You'll either love this hate it or stare in utter disbelief

[dbborroughs · 6/10 · 2 June 2014]

If you want safe go elsewhere. Anything approaching a normal film American family drama go elsewhere. If you want anything that isn't offensive go elsewhere.

The easiest and least exploitative way to explain the plot is to say a couple is having martial difficulties which explodes and ends up crippling the son. Where the film goes from there is the film.

(Spoilers follow)

Actually where the film goes from there involves castration,rape,incest, masochism ,violence, murder, and riffs on the legendary films PERCY and PERCY's PROGRESS. There are more twists and turns than any sane mind would make.

Oh and did I mention there is no dialog in the entire film?

How is it?

I have no idea. Horrifying? Silly? Strange? I was staring at the screen in disbelief even while I was laughing at the proceedings. Its a whacked out mix of things that kind of almost works and kind of almost doesn't. Its a bold attempt at doing something.

I don't think its successful- but it is interesting in a kind of road accident sort of a way.

Should you see it?

If you like the real off beat and don't mind disturbing things give it ago. On the other hand if you're sensitive or easily offended stay away.

A WTF Film Sure To Challenge

[gregsrants · 7/10 · 13 August 2014]

I don't get many WTF moments when watching film. Not anymore. I guess spending decades searching for the most bizarre, scandalous and banned films from around the world has resulted in my flatline response to scenes and screen situations that others might find shocking. It's a true pleasure when I do come across a film that solicits a bottomless jaw reaction. A Serbian Film, Cannibal Holocaust and even to a lesser degree, The Human Centipede were all films that caught me off my usual guard. And in a good way. Now, as of yesterday's screening, my small list of WTF's has increased by one.

Moebius stars Lee Eun-Woo and Cho Jae-Hyun as a married couple with emotional problems beyond repair. The wife (the characters are not given names) is enraged over the husband's infidelity and her descent into madness results in a knife attack where she attempts to remove her husband's err….ummm….manhood. With her efforts thwarted, the woman moves to her teenage son's room and with less resistance she cuts off her son's penis while he is sleeping. The husband hears his son's cries and bursts into the room where he and his wife again wrestle with wild abandon. The husband attempts to retrieve the severed appendage from his enraged spouse, but she is able to dispose of the detached organ in a way that gave me the first of my many WTF moments.

And this all happens in the first 10 minutes.

The son is rushed to the hospital but without the item to be reattached, there is little the physicians can do. The son returns home and is confronted with a life of ridicule from classmates and street thugs aware of his err….ummm….situation. Meanwhile, the father scours the internet looking for information to give him hope that his son could receive a successful penis transplant or in some way have the feeling of a male orgasm.

Not yet at the film's half-way point, the son takes a keen liking in a beautiful shop girl that is more than willing to bare all for her admirer. The father and son learn through internet searches that inflicted pain during sexual encounters could lead to a heightened faux-orgasmic reaction. Knives and sharp rocks provide scenes that will again incite orated "WTF's" as the son and father explore a sick mix of simulated sex and pain.

By the time you get to the film's final act you realize there will be no let-up from writer/director Ki-duk Kim. The final reel contains even more stunning events within the family that are beyond full description let alone comprehension. The relationship between son-father-mother continues off the rails leading to a crescendo every bit as perverse as the previous 80 minutes leading us to the end credit's conclusion.

Ki-duk Kim is no stranger to controversy in his films. In 2000's The Isle, Kim included scenes of animal cruelty that included a frog skinned alive and live fish that were mutilated. These scenes resulted in the film being delayed from its intended release. But The Isle can't hold a candle to Moebius wherein each new scene a demented and perverse story of mutilation, cannibalism and awkward sexual decadence is displayed with peacock feathered pride. And it is all accomplished without a single word uttered by any of the on-screen characters.

To simply shock an audience is easy. Eli Roth and Takashi Miike have been doing that for years. But to shock, engage, repulse and captivate while still producing a watchable (even if it is between your fingers) and recommendable film, well, that is a talent that is ambiguous at best. Moebius is that film.

www.killerreviews.com

No Words ...

[Foutainoflife · 7/10 · 2 January 2019]

Can describe this film, which is sort of poetical since there aren't any words said throughout the entire film.

I watch a lot of horror and thriller movies. Just sorta my thing, I guess but this is just an odd movie. I'm not sure that this could fit into either of those categories even though there is blood, violence and psychotic behavior. This situation is indeed horrific but I see this as more of a really dark drama. There aren't any "scares" in my opinion but it is twisted. I'm not gonna hand out any spoilers so I'll give the basics to try and help you make your decision to check this out.

There is no dialogue or even very much music in this. However, I think the cast in this movie did a fantastic job. You can clearly understand, for the most part, what is going on. I actually felt bad for our main character and wanted to see how they were going to deal with what was going on. If you decide to watch this the main thing that's gonna drive you through is the weirdness of the situations presented. I asked myself "WTF?" many, many times with this but I just couldn't stop watching it. I wanted to know what was going to happen. If a movie can pull you into it like that I consider it to be a good film.

I've seen where the plot of this is bases on a Buddhist belief but I don't practice Buddhism and since I didn't know what the belief was I had to take off some points. I just didn't know what was being laid out in front of me. I did however, look up information on this particular belief and after having done so I think that the movie very much spoke to it. I just wish it had been better explained or made more clear in the movie.

I gotta say that I liked it. It's "out there" for sure but the acting was amazing and it does speak to the Buddhist belief. So, if you are looking for something strange to watch, this is a great option. You'll stay engaged, disgusted and scratching your head with this one. Check it out if that's what you are looking for.

Kim Ki-Duk can do better

[necrogl · 3/10 · 24 December 2013]

To begin with, I put this grade with a needle in my heart. I'm a massive fan of Kim's work and I've seen everything from his masterpieces.

I'll try to be fair. I accept the fact that he's been always experimenting and I do love that he tries more and more to change the point of view in his movies.

In particular, Moebius takes an innovative - unusual way to tell the story. The movie doesn't contain any dialog; the actors are caricatures that fit perfectly in the scenery. The script is daring but it loses it somewhere. It lacks something. There is a really annoying (after some time in the movie) obsession with masturbation, there are lots of pointless violence, and the metaphors lack of the usually great Ki-Duk's connections.

The Oedipus-myth complex is clear from the start, but I can't see what new "Moebiuseu" is adding to the story.

After the movie ended, I was left cold and alone. I really didn't understand if it held any of the Kim Ki-Duk usual movies' values.

I thought that it might had been best if I had never seen "Moebiuseu", because this is the first time that this creator falls in my eyes.

Beneath the insanity lies a Buddhist parable.

[johnnymurphy15 · 8/10 · 10 September 2014]

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.

black comedy???IIII

[advnarayan · 6/10 · 7 January 2014]

I have been a Kim Ki- Duk fan ever since I saw Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter....and Spring. And I tend to gauge all his subsequent works with this masterpiece. and Moebius which created quite a ruckus when it was screened in this part of the world (as part of the International film festival of Kerala, 2013) is definitely not the best work of Kim Ki- duk. the director himself was a special invitee...but the theme of the movie proved to be too gruesome for some viewers. castration and its aftermath..a mother who should be confined to an asylum are the topics that this movie covers. if one were to tell the story - the oral description would be too horrible....but i can tell you the visual depiction is not as horrendous. This has been hailed as a black comedy....but I feel that the old TV movie Attack of the 5ft. 2 women starring Julie Brown was much better as a comedy. I remember laughing my guts out while seeing that movie. so do yourself a favour- go with Julie Brown rather than Kim Ki- duk as far as this topic is concerned.

The Polar Opposite of 'Nothing you haven't seen before'...

[Xstal · 3/10 · 6 June 2020]

... but not in a good way. Can more aptly be described as A Cockwork Lychee.

Kim Ki-duk's latest is a gloriously off-the-charts study in perversity featuring castration, rape and incest.

[AgentDice · 8/10 · 15 December 2013]

A gloriously off-the-charts study in perversity featuring castration, rape and incest, Kim Ki-duk's "Moebius" is right inside the Korean king- of-hackitude's wheelhouse of outrageous cinema. A twisted companion piece to the fraught mother-son relationship in last year's "Pieta," Kim's latest ups the ante with arguably his most twisted nuclear family yet, a lust-and-guilt-ridden menage a quarter.

Just to prove what a daring formalist he is at heart, Kim has chosen to tell this story without a word of dialog, unless you count gasps of pain and pleasure, of which there are rather a lot throughout. This means the characters are never named, and the English-language press notes describe them only as Father (Cho Jae-Hun, reuniting with Kim after their legendary collaborations on "Address Unknown" and "Bad Guy"), Son (teen th esp Seo Young-ju) and Mother, played by Lee Eun-woo, who, in a bravura feat of transformation, also plays another key role as the father's younger mistress.

As the story starts, it's clear Mom has found out about Dad's affair and is taking it badly, judging by the way they come to blows when he takes a call from his lover, a store clerk who lives nearby. The son inertly ignores the fuss, seemingly more preoccupied with comic books and masturbation, like most teenage boys. One night, when the mother fails to get at the father with a knife, she takes out her rage on her own son by cutting his penis off, eats the severed member (recalling the mother's ingestion of her son's amputated toe in "Pieta"), and then runs off distraught and hysterical into the night.

Audiences who haven't walked out by this point in disgust (although surely no one goes to a Kim Ki-duk film without knowing what they might be in for) will be treated to an even more grueling second and third act, as the shame-stricken father investigates penis transplants on the Internet, and the son ends up taking part (after a fashion, given his castrated state) in a gang rape of the mistress. The boy later discovers — with Dad's guidance, no less — how to bring himself to climax through self-abrasion and knife gouging of other body parts. And then it gets even nuttier when Mom comes home for the last act, precipitating a chain of events that make sense of the pic's titular chiral object.

Many will of course be offended by the film's very premise, and that's surely Kim's intention; always been a vicious satirist of bourgeois values, he's almost never knowingly passed up a chance to dollop a little misogynistic sadism somewhere into the plot, like the spicy kimchi no Korean meal would be complete without. And like Lars Von Trier, whose "Antichrist" the film sort of evokes, Kim is something of a professional provocateur, which doesn't cancel out the fact that he's quite serious about exploring extreme emotional states.

There's no doubt the film is meant to be funny, an extreme black comedy, and neither is there any doubt that he also wants us to feel for these poor, broken, bullshit-crazy people. They're ridiculous, but they're also somehow believable, even relatable, mostly thanks to the cast's extraordinary skills at emoting wordlessly. The decision to eschew dialog seems perverse at first, but by degrees it makes sense, creating a primal quality that harks back to ancient forms of theater, even without the intended echoes of "Oedipus Rex." Any film-studies academics out there who still like to write about notions such as the phallus as defined by Lacan and other theoreticians fashionable in the 1980s will have a field day with this one.

Moebius

[politic1983 · 7/10 · 21 August 2014]

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.

Don't Waste Your Time

[thompson62208 · 2/10 · 1 January 2015]

I always try to be open minded about the cinema and movies. This one goes way way over the line. This movie has absolutely no value for the public viewer. The wife catches her husband having an affair with another woman. I understand a wife could go insane and she does here but to do what she does to her son is above the pail. This movie would have maybe been better if there was some dialog. Though I don't know if anything written for dialog would really help decipher what transpires in this sorry movie. I don't know why the director/producer of this movie would make it this way other than to "impress" a few deranged movie goers who will call this art when its nothing but sadomasochism in the extreme. I should have shut this movie down after the first 15 minutes. I advise the rest of you to not waste your time. Having a face-to-face talk with your mother-in-law is better than polluting your mind with this trash dumpster of a movie.

You're Gonna Laugh While Your Eyes Bleed.

[CinemaClown · 24 March 2014]

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.

Still impressive

[PedroPires90 · 7/10 · 1 February 2021]

A bit disturbing and a weaker plot than 3-Iron. Either way, it's still impressive what Ki-duk Kim was able to do without any dialogue. Good pace and hard (but kind of predictable) conclusion.

shocking for the faint-hearted

[trashgang · 7/10 · 9 January 2018]

I never heared a thing about this flick but now and the, it pops up on lists were they are talking about shocking flicks or weird flicks and I can agree on both parts, it can be shocking for some and if you do watch it it is weird on other parts,

That been said it is mostly filed under horror but I can't say it is really horror because there's no gore attached, it's all done off-camera but still it do shock. It's all about a man cheating on his wife. The wife knows so she decide to castrate her husband and from there I can't say more. What I said was seen in the firts 5 minutes. From there on the story goes really beserk.

For the gorehounds or the lovers of old school horror there isn't much to catch but it do contains a lot of nudity, castration, bullying, rape, masturbation and mutilation. So you can understand that is isn't going to be a ride for will make you comfortable.

Coming out of South Korea it makes it even weirder. And don't worry, there is no spoken word throughout this sickie. So no subs needed you can pick it up all over the world.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 2/5 Effects 0/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

PROVACTIVE-CONTROVERSIAL-TABOO-WEIRD

[zach77 · 6/10 · 11 May 2022]

Enough 1-word descriptors? If not, read below if you're still on the fence about watching this film.

In a by-gone era of silent films, Ki-duk continues to impress by eking out just the right amount of raw emotion from his actors to keep the viewer immersed in the story. He is notorious for this as he continues to make the kind of films he 'wants' and not just fulfill the wishes of the production companies.

This is far from a masterpiece, yet it is still worth watching. Be prepared for something way different than you're used to. In fact, if you're watching a Ki-Duk movie, then I think you're likely ready for the ride you're about to go on... ;)

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned

[gradyharp · 5/10 · 9 February 2015]

To get the name of the film out of the way the following is offered, though it doesn't seem to relate to the film: 'Moebius syndrome is a rare birth defect caused by the absence or underdevelopment of the 6th and 7th cranial nerves, which control eye movements and facial expression. Many of the other cranial nerves may also be affected, including the 3rd, 5th, 8th, 9th, 11th and 12th. The first symptom, present at birth, is an inability to suck. Other symptoms can include: feeding, swallowing, and choking problems; excessive drooling; crossed eyes; lack of facial expression; inability to smile; eye sensitivity; motor delays; high or cleft palate; hearing problems and speech difficulties. Children with Moebius syndrome are unable to move their eyes back and forth. Decreased numbers of muscle fibers have been reported. Deformities of the tongue, jaw, and limbs, such as clubfoot and missing or webbed fingers, may also occur. As children get older, lack of facial expression and inability to smile become the dominant visible symptoms. Approximately 30 to 40 percent of children with Moebius syndrome have some degree of autism.' Alternatively, Moebius refers to a continuous one-sided surface that can be formed from a rectangular strip by rotating one end 180° and attaching it to the other end. Take your pick.

But on to the film. This is a film that will find its audience - there is so much of this sort of morbid, weird derring-do on routine movies and television that it should not really shock anyone. But the film is different. It is without spoken word and therefore relies solely on the body language and wordless reaction from the cast. Yes the story is bizarre - a married man with a son man has an affair with a young woman, the wife flips over the top and decides to destroy the husband's offending organ - an act that is aborted and the mother instead transfers her uncontrollable madness on her son, castrating him. The family naturally disintegrates, the father commiserates with the injured and disturbed son and the mother re- enters the family picture with an even more sick behavior.

The three cast members are convincing - a factor that somehow makes the film work. Yes, it is a disturbing repugnant movie but some people with a thirst for the dark in life will likely purchase the film to see repeatedly. For the faint of heart, avoid.

Gore cinema to tell a Buddhist tale

[Turin_Horse · 9/10 · 7 April 2015]

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

A typically challenging movie from Kim Ki-duk

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 6 April 2017]

MOEBIUS is another provocative effort from Korean auteur Kim Ki-duk, a man who is one of my all-time favourite directors thanks to his efforts on such masterpieces as SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN, WINTER...AND SPRING. This is more of a low budget, experimental film with the biggest twist that there is no spoken dialogue in the whole movie, although Ki-duk is such a good director that you don't even notice.

The story is about a twisted family relationship that propels various characters into perversity. When an odd and unexpected castration occurs in the first five minutes you know you're in for a wild ride and Ki-duk certainly delivers in that respect. His film is frequently shocking and harrowing, and yet it seems to explore the human condition in an artistic and somehow beautiful way too. I see it best as a story of a virus initiated by an act of violence that then spreads to all of the characters involved, leading to a nihilistic outcome that is both powerful and inevitable. MOEBIUS is challenging, thought-provoking, and thoroughly engaging, just like all of the director's films I've watched.

How could anyone make such an anti-human film?

[yoggwork · 4/10 · 21 February 2019]

How could anyone make such an anti-human film? There are one thousand and one ways of telling stories, not in such an unpopular way. Directors have been shadowed since childhood.

Unprecedented Transgressive Cinema

[peacecreep · 10/10 · 13 November 2013]

Kim Ki-Duk's low budget video, dialog free, Buddhist penectomy-heavy familial gender study is uniquely transgressive and totally unprecedented in the history of cinema. It's also very funny at times. The poster reads "I am the father, the mother is I, and the mother is the father" suggesting ideas within of what exactly makes a man or woman in the modern world. If you are familiar with Ki-Duk's work you will probably love this heavy duty slice of poetic insanity. If not you may be scarred by this one as it contains gang rape, incest, murder, and severed penises. The film's take on pleasure & pain / love & violence is one that demands contemplation. The teenager in this- Young Ju Seo deserves an Oscar for his work. The shots of the crazy mother are amazing. This is a portrait of one kid's spiritual journey through the most dysfunctional family ever committed to celluloid that will likely stay with you for a long time. Highly recommended essential artistry.

Ki-Duk did it again

[joris-nightwalker · 5/10 · 19 January 2015]

Master provocateur Kim Ki-Duk did it again. A movie that made people vomit during its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, that divides its audience in lovers and haters and that will have a cult following in some years. For some reason it felt like watching Gaspar Noé's Enter the Void: I was incredibly fascinated and couldn't turn my eyes off the screen, but at the same time I was so happy when the end credits started rolling. Still in doubt about how I feel about Moebius, I can say one thing for sure: this is a film I never have to see again. I'm glad I did, but it's an experience not worth repeating. Why not? A woman catches her man cheating on her with another woman (played by the same actress). She wants to take revenge and cut off her husband's penis. Failing to do this, she cuts off the penis of their son. Wrecked by guilt, the father offers his penis to his son by transplant. In the meanwhile, the son "raped" the woman his father had an affair with (as I said, who is played by the same actress as his mother, see what Ki-Duk did there?). Once the transplantation is complete, the son begins to get sexually aroused by his mother and vice versa. Seeing this, the father wants to cut off his son's penis yet again, but fails. Eventually he kills his wife and himself. While telling this sickening Freudian nightmare, Ki-Duk refuses to let his actors speak one word (there's no dialogue in this movie) and adds some knife-in-shoulder masturbating to take it all just one step further. Yes, you really need to have the stomach for it. Unfortunately, Ki-Duk forgets to make an interesting visual movie (unlike Noé's Enter the Void) and thereby doesn't reach the bourgeois public he intends to insult and provoke. But still... This movie is unlike anything you've ever seen. Try it.

I just couldn't...

[isaacsundaralingam · 5/10 · 4 March 2021]

I have to admit, I'm so glad I didn't watch this movie in a theatre. It wouldn't have given me the option to fast forward through the second half of the movie to get it over with. Not that I think it's a bad movie, but I just feel like I didn't have the stomach for it.

But even after speed-running the latter half, I think I managed to (sort of) understand what Kim Ki-Duk was going for. And as a director, I have nothing but the highest respect for his vision. I always felt he has had a very unique perspective when it comes to issues of the societal human vs the carnal human; often told in correlation to Buddhist philosophy... which I must admit, is a pretty damn ballsy thing to do. And this movie takes all of that carnal perversity and amplifies it to its psychological and visual extreme.

A major drawback of the film in my opinion is the lack of dialogue. I understand the thematic reasons for why Kim would choose to tell the story this way (his movies usually are very dialogue light), but the fact that he had to insist on no dialogue at all just made the characters feel restricted at certain times: not from conflict, but just the director saying "do everything but speak".

Apart from what I've said, I don't think there's anything more to express. That's pretty much it.