South Korea’s celebrated perennial provocateur Kim Ki-duk (Pieta) returns with this twisted family chronicle perched somewhere between psychological thriller, grotesque comedy, and perverse ode to the pleasures of sadomasochism.
One of the most powerful and controversial films of the last decade. Moebius is Korean maestro-provocateur Kim Ki-duk's most audacious work to date — and that's saying something. This disturbing yet cathartic film is a potent metaphor for a contemporary society morbidly obsessed with its own sexuality. It is also a reflection on incest, and that visceral bond that connects each of us to the parents who made us — in an endless loop like the "Möebius strip" suggested by the title.
Observed by their adolescent son (Seo Young-ju), a couple's fight over the husband's infidelity turns to a grotesque calamity. After failing to sever her husband's penis, the infuriated wife chooses instead to dismember her son in order to hurt his father. Family violence sparks a chain of events that culminates in a dramatic epilogue of destruction.
Not a silent film but a wordless one,
Moebius bears the clear mark of Kim's singular
genius. It's a modern Greek tragedy
bordering on psychological thriller, a pitchblack
comedy, a crazy-weird depiction
of pain-induced pleasure — in all cases, a
sheer work of art, lucid and coherent in its
shocking madness. Extracting remarkable
performances from Cho Jae-hyun as the
father, Lee Eun-woo as both the mother and
the husband's lover, and especially from Seo,
Kim once again rewards his valiant audience
with mesmerizing art. This is pure cinema —
at its most brilliantly transgressive.
GIOVANNA FULVI