Moebius 2013 (Most Disturbing Movie I've Seen)

Note:

"Wow hunter, finally a formal movie review."  Yes yes, thank you. And why the fuck did I decide to choose to do this movie?  Lord knows.  But to start off, I just want to say a couple of things.

This is not a recommendation, it is a review.  If you do decide to watch this film, look up the triggers warnings beforehand and know that you're getting into some pretty fucked up shit LMAO

This review also contains a few spoilers for the movie.  

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

Okay, I think that's all enjoy ;P

My Thoughts on Moebius

“...sex is a river of fire that must be banked and cooled by a hundred restraints if it is not to consume in chaos both the individual and the group.” 

-Will and Ariel Durant, The Lessons of History. 

  Kim Ki-Duk, known for his shocking and controversial films, released his 19th feature-length film as a director in 2013. This psychosexual nightmare is titled Moebius, a film that has been under a lot of controversies since its release. Let it be known, I did not enjoy this film. The viewing experience is nothing less than tortuous; still, I think it’s important to give this film credit where credit is due.

I think recognizing the stylistic choices of this movie is a good place to start. Kim Ki-Duk is signified by many of his films having little to no dialogue. Moebius contains no dialogue whatsoever, a stylistic choice that I believe to be very impactful. It emphasizes certain scenes with isolated screams, grunts, moans, and other ambient sounds. Dialogue would undermine the character's primal emotions and irrational behavior. I also appreciate this choice because it separates the film from reality; to make it seem more like a cautionary tale rather than a true series of events. Additionally, it gives the film the gift of ambiguity. Audiences can make their personal interpretations. I truly believe the choice to absolve all dialogue made a significant contribution to the quality of this film.

Moebius was shocking to me in more ways than one. Movies like this–ones with excessive gore, scenes deliberately for shock value, and disturbing plotlines–I like to call shock horror, though they’re known by many names. Some consider it torture porn or snuff; I believe shock horror is more all-encompassing. Moebius, unlike the majority of other shock horror films, contains actual substance. Despite how disturbing and gruesome Moebius may be, it carries genuine themes that drive the plot.  

The title of this film constitutes some of the themes within this movie. A Moebius strip is a twisted loop with no beginning and no end. This inescapable and infinite cycle expresses itself in this movie as the ancient wheel of sex, death, and violence. Moebius has a feeling of inevitability driven by the most primal of emotions. One topic that’s explored is autosadism: the intentional infliction of pain on oneself for sexual gratification. It shows the circularity of pain and pleasure; that they may not be linear poles, rather a self-feeding vortex. This theme can also be seen in the first and last sequences of the movie. The first scene contains a domestic dispute between the father and mother over the husband's infidelity. They are seen rolling around on the floor, fighting like animals, pressing their palms into each other's facing. At the end of the film, they have another dispute in the same manner. Furthermore, the film begins with the mother mutilating her own son's genitals. As the film progresses, the father and son work to find ways for the son to have a normal experience. The son even ends up receiving a penis transplant, only to ultimately perform an act of self-mutilation at the end of the film; bringing him back to the same predicament he was in at the beginning. We are all walking on a Moebius strip, repeating the cycle endlessly; not knowing that at some point, we began walking on the other side.

Another theme that is presented in this movie is the nature of masculinity. Literally emasculated by his mother, the son must face difficult questions regarding the nature of his masculinity. His father, in turn, must cope with the guilt of his own sins being inflicted on his son as well as that of his behavior as a father, husband, and man. A good example of this theme being depicted would be, one of my least favorite scenes, the gang rape. The son finds himself with a group of men who begin taking turns assaulting the store clerk. Rather than standing up to his friends and risking emasculating himself, he pretends to rape the girl. Kim isn’t purposing any answers here so much as offering a series of critical observations of human nature. Although not terribly effective, Moebius has a pitiful undercurrent to all of its extremities.

Though I do have many good things to say about this movie, I do have a lot of problems with it. Given Kim Ki-Duk's history, I don’t think the underdevelopment of the female characters was a coincidence. Both mother and mistress (played by the same actress) exist purely to wreak havoc after being wronged by men, with no symbolic identities of their own. To make matters worse, the actress who played these characters reported Kim physically assaulting her and forcing her to do unscripted sex scenes. On a less serious note, I also had a certain distaste for the ending. It depicts the son worshipping the Buddha, a scene shown previously in the film. This ending is supposed to twist the film back on itself, furthering the idea of circularity, and upholding the title choice. The ending would have been much more impactful if these last five minutes were cut. Not to mention it ends on a freeze frame, which I think speaks for itself.

Moebius is presented as a silent black comedy, while underneath, is an oepidal psychodrama that screams at you without even saying a single word. Kim proves he is not afraid to look deep into the heart of human nature. Though not for the faint of heart, it has earned an odd admiration on my part. Congratulations Moebius, you’ve made it to the top of my “fucked-up movies” list to this date.