{"id":4773,"date":"2014-08-08T06:47:33","date_gmt":"2014-08-08T05:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/?p=4773"},"modified":"2014-09-30T00:04:47","modified_gmt":"2014-09-29T23:04:47","slug":"moebius","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2014\/08\/08\/moebius\/","title":{"rendered":"Moebius"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Moebius\"<\/a>
Moebius<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\nFormat:<\/B> Cinema

\nRelease date:<\/B> 8 August 2014

\nDistributor:<\/B> Terracotta Distribution

\nDirector:<\/B> Kim Ki-duk

\nWriter:<\/B> Kim Ki-duk

\nCast:<\/B> Jo Jae-hyeon, Seo Young-ju, Lee Eun-woo

\nSouth Korea 2013

\n88 mins\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Kim Ki-duk\u2019s disquieting and hyperbolic castration\/incest melodrama Moebius<\/i> caused a stir in the Korean media last summer after it was issued the rare \u2018Restricted\u2019 rating by the Korean Media Rating Board, the highest certification they bestow. Although this episode with the censors demonstrated that the controversial Korean auteur still refuses to soften his approach even as he continues to trudge into middle age, it also led to an uncharacteristic instance of compromise. Films with a Restricted rating can only be screened in specially licensed theatres (much like the BBFC\u2019s R18 certificate), but since no such theatres operate in South Korea, Moebius<\/i> was effectively banned from domestic release. After numerous failed re-submissions, two and a half minutes of problem footage featuring incest had to be removed to meet the KMRB\u2019s requirements for the slightly less harsh \u2018Teenager Restricted\u2019 (i.e. 18 or over) to guarantee wide release. This prompted angry calls of censorship and artistic suppression from fellow directors and the Korean film industry elite.<\/p>\n

Moebius<\/i> is released in the UK on DVD and VOD on 13 October 2014.<\/div>\n

But even in its cut version, Moebius<\/i> remains a dark and thoroughly depraved odyssey of sexual desire that strongly plays to Kim\u2019s preoccupation towards unusual, psychosexually informed chamber pieces. This loosely Oedipal tale focuses on a dysfunctional family: Mother (Lee Eun-woo) has turned to drink as Father (Jo Jae-hyeon) regularly fraternises with a woman who runs a local convenience shop (intriguingly, also played by Lee). Caught in the middle is their teenage Son (Seo Young-ju). Seeing Father and Mistress dining together in a romantic restaurant, Mother is sent over the edge of sanity. Later that evening, she enters the bedroom brandishing a knife; her intention is to emasculate her husband by severing his penis. He wakes up and manages to stop her. Still angry, Mother takes out her male hatred on the Son, using the same strategy (successfully this time) before disappearing off into the night.<\/p>\n

Following the incident, the Son tries to carry on as normal, but a group of kids from his school get wind of his embarrassing disability and start bullying him. Guilt-ridden, the Father takes to the internet and conducts research on penis transplant surgeries. Desperate for his Son to have a normal sex life, his search also unearths a bizarre alternative method of sexual stimulation that doesn\u2019t require a phallus. Meanwhile, the Son develops a fraught relationship with the store owner, unaware that she is partly the reason for his mutilation and, after an unusual turn of events, he also begins having strange, sexual feelings towards his own estranged Mother.<\/p>\n

When films deal with themes of castration, the act typically functions as a shocking end point to an intensely emotional, impassioned or horrifying episode \u2013 Nagisa Ôshima\u2019s In the Realm of the Senses<\/i> (1976) or, more recently, Lars von Trier\u2019s Antichrist<\/i><\/a> (2009) for instance. What\u2019s interesting about Moebius<\/i> is that the film deals primarily with the aftermath, where the surviving victim has to come to terms with the literal loss of his manhood in a society where men still choose to define masculinity by penile prowess. Kim\u2019s work has featured genital mutilation before (The Isle<\/i> (2000) made use of fishing hooks to wince-inducing effect) but here it is presented as part of a grander thesis, with the film wanting to offer something more than merely showing gross things for our bemusement. The casting of Lee as both wife and mistress, mother and lover, strongly alludes to Kim\u2019s ambitions in this regard, blurring the boundaries of the Son\u2019s and Father\u2019s desires.<\/p>\n

Like Kim\u2019s earlier work 3-Iron<\/i> (2004), Moebius<\/i> contains no spoken dialogue between its characters. It\u2019s a narrative device that works well for the subject matter, sparing the actors from potentially undermining the story with unnecessary conversation, which could very well have sent the proceedings past the point of acceptable ludicrousness. The film already walks a very fine line between the horrific and hilarious, and there are moments where you may find yourself laughing for reasons Kim had not intended. Like with other Kim films, basic character logic is often thrown to the wind for the sake of artistic statement. A group of horny young men coerce the Son into raping the store owner, which, of course, he can\u2019t do but instead pretends in order to save face. Apprehended by the police, the Son is unnecessarily embarrassed by his Father in the communal holding cell when the latter yanks the Son\u2019s trousers down to show that he doesn\u2019t have the physical capacity for rape, much to the amusement of the other rapists, when a more discrete approach could have easily been arranged. Incidentally, the mutilation never seems to be reported to the authorities, and when the deranged mother returns to the homestead after what must have been weeks of idly roaming the streets, she\u2019s allowed back in without any resistance from the Father or Son.<\/p>\n

Another aspect that threatens to derail the film is the sex substitute discovered by the Father involving the vigorous rubbing of the skin with a stone (and, later on, the rhythmic jostling of a knife in a wound), where pain macabrely functions as pleasure. The idea of a new copulation paradigm beyond standard coitus methods is evocative of David Cronenberg\u2019s equally controversial Crash<\/i> (1996), which features an audacious moment where James Spader\u2019s budding car-crash fetishist treats the yonic wound on the thigh of Rosanna Arquette\u2019s character as a new sexual orifice. Like Crash<\/i>, Moebius<\/i> could easily (and unfairly) be dismissed as vulgar, morally bankrupt pseudo-porn, designed to titillate and scandalise. Instead, the film is a startling, Freudian nightmare that, despite its faults, somehow manages to be funny, repulsive and strangely compelling all at the same time. Whether or not you\u2019re able to buy into its bizarre gender politics or dubious plotting, Moebius<\/i> is still potent filmmaking from a still potent filmmaker.<\/p>\n

Mark Player<\/B><\/I><\/p>\n

Watch the trailer:<\/b><\/p>\n