gradyharp 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.

jakob13 The films of Korean director Kim Ki-duk are never easy. A student of French cinema, he has won Best Director awards at Berlin, Venice and Cannes. He is known for sparse dialogue or none at all. He, therefore, forces the film-goer to exercise her imagination to connect the dots and form leaps of imaginative fancy of things that are not verbally explicit, but also challenges an inner impediment to memory As such, his audience, voyeuristically, becomes an accomplice in the commission of his cinematic flights of fancy.There is no better example of this assertion than his 19th film Möbius (2013), which even now has been banned in Kim's native South Korea.The film's title refers to a continuous tale of a single thread that turns on its self thereby joining the other end as though it were a uniform narrative, which it is.Möbius is a fictionalized and sexually explicit treatment of castration, a capacious idea that Freud says haunts men: the loss of their manhood, sexual power and domination. And, yes, envy.Kim immediately brings us into a world that borders on eroticism of the antisocial that not only pays excessive attention to mutilation, carnal desires, rape as well as pumice stones that becomes necessary for neutered men's sexual gratification.Kim's hand-held camera will examine, for artistic purpose, gang rape, sadomasochism as it obtains to sexual relations between a eunuch and a woman, as he peels away the layers of a dysfunctional family and by extension the psychic underbelly of his own society.Straightaway, Möbius does not spare us the torture that drives the film to its final conclusion.Disassociated from reality, a mad, neglected middle-class housewife (Lee Eun-woo), driven to excessive drinking, by a promiscuous husband (Jo Jae-hyon) boldly and with determination carries out her revenge. Failing in her attempt to cut off her husband's testicle turns on her teenage son (Seo Young-ju) that she, in a Medea-like moment of folly, like Medea, slices off his penis, to take vengeance on her husband.And all this without spoken dialogue, that reflects learned helplessness of an unbearable situation, yet draws us into a vortex of pain and emotional array of angst, disgust or erotic voyeurism.As husband and wife struggle over the mutilated penis, she, in a paroxysm of rage, swallows it and then flees into the night.The father does what he can for his severely damaged son, but cannot spare him the humiliation he faces at school or joining the gang that rapes his father's mistress.Meanwhile, feeling the heavy weight of guilt, the father surfs the Internet for ways that will not deny his son the attenuated pleasures of the flesh, thus the recourse to pumice stones for sexual arousal. Yet the wages of guilt haunt the man that he has his own sex surgically removed for the day when he finds online a transplant procedure that will make his son a whole man again.In the intervening time, the mistress initiates the son into a sort of sexual excitement and fulfillment through S&M. More, they plot her revenge on the gang leader who brutally raped her, by castrating him.If this sounds distasteful, elements of Möbius can be found in films such as the black comedy The War of the Roses or sexual fulfillment without coitus in Coming Home. Have we so quickly forgotten the abused Lorena Bobbitt who cut off her husband's penis? Now restored to manhood, the son discovers that he cannot get an erection. And at that moment, his mother returns, to find a eunuch for a husband, who, despite his infirmity, tries to rape her. She seeks the bed of her son, who physically responds to her caresses, as though his "new" penis had memory of his father's bed play with his mother.And so like the Möbius band, the story comes full circle, as the theme of incest is introduced.The wife is shot dead by her husband; he, in turn, commits suicide. As this happens, the son experiences in sleep Onanist pleasure. Finding the bodies of his parents, he takes the gun from his father's hand and shots himself in the groin, as punishment for the tragedy that a penis has brought his mum to madness, his father to folly and he to no future.Few filmmakers are foolhardy to bring Möbius to the screen and to show it hors competition at Venice's La Mostra. And yet, Kim, unsubtle as this film is, ends it on a compassionate tone: for the son now has become a Buddhist monk seeking to end his suffering, his karma, by undertaking good deeds in order to escape the vicissitudes of his past life in the hope of attaining Nirvana. Another interesting point is the expression of love and sacrifice that the father has for his son.Heavy handed and taboo in theme, Möbius has faced censorship and very limited runs. It lacks the artistic quality of Oshima Nagisa's In the realm of the senses, which treats a similar theme with cinematic craft and emotional maturity and high art..

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.

necrogl To begin with, iam a massive Kim's fan and so I've seen everything from his masterpieces. But I'll try to be fair this time. I accept the fact that he's experimenting these last 2 years and I do love that he tries more and more to change his point of view. In particular, Moebius has a really lovely direction and an innovative - unusual - amazing way of telling the story, plus that it's the most realistic that it doesn't contain any dialogs / the actors are all caricatures and fit perfect in the scenery... but.. the worst thing about the movie is the scenario, which ,in my opinion, completely destroys and precipitates all the good things that this film has. There is a really annoying (after some time) obsession with masturbation, there are lots of pointless violence and the metaphors lack of any kind of connections. So, after the movie ended I really didn't understand if it held any value or made any sense. It's the worst point ever that I've given to his work and I have to say that maybe it would be best if I never saw the movie because it's the first time that this creator falls in my eyes. Please Mr.Kim, be more careful with the story that you want to tell next time. From an always dedicated fan.