Almost 90min of no dialogue but certainly not a silent film.
Par for the course, Kim Ki Duk (김기덕) ROARS in this film. And as the man says himself conversation is made up of laughing, crying and screaming and there is plenty of this in Moebius, so the characters do speak!
Initially banned in South Korea this is the follow up film after Pieta which picked up the Golden Lion at Venice (1st Korean film ever) and like Pieta it's in your face and confronting but also it has some quite funny moments. Mind you I questioned myself that I was laughing (it'll be a lifelong inquiry). Moebius really does take you on a journey into the weird, the perverse, the unspoken realm of human nature. A place where things aren't quite what they seem, recognisable but broke? Sometimes the bumpy road is the track worth taking.
Lee Eun-woo (이은우) is amazing as the mother and the lover. At BIFF this year I saw her play 4 roles, 2 in Moebius, one in Godsend and as herself in 2 x Q&As. Wow, she is good. It was retrospective that I learnt she played the two roles in this film. Not for a moment watching the film did I pick it, a clear sign of good acting, being totally immersed in the character.
In both roles she plays an unhinged siren, totally seductive, totally dangerous! Neither is similar in any way demonstrating her great range, she is 100% given to this film. it is rare for me to hunt down films through their actors but in this case I will watch anything that she is in.
Cho Jae-Hyun (조재현) as the father is the instigator of this torrid tale, succumbing to carnal lust but once his wife finds out his character becomes quite weak and soon, quite literally, impotent. Another great performance portraying the horror of witnessing the cause & effect of his actions on others. He never regains his mantle of head of the family always wracked by guilt, always trying to make amends. Very powerful, non-heroic stuff.
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| Lee Eun-woo, Cho Jae-Hyun & Kim Ki Duk post Moebius Q&A BIFF 2013 |
Oh yeah that is, she chops his dick off! With no manhood he is subject to much ridicule and humiliation at the hands of many but his father sympathise (I wonder why?). He liases with dad's lover, he sleeps with mother and progressively that innocence is eroded away.
With dad's help he learns to live without that which defines a man, he learns to achieve orgasm through other means. So much has been written about the chop, his, his dad's and the local punks (how many dicks can you chop in the one film?) but I'm more interested in how they all learn to get pleasure from pain.
Google can teach you anything and in this case dad learns these dark arts from endless late night surfing.
The results are pretty gruesome. Have you ever watched someone rub themselves raw with a rock?
But it gets better. Dad's lover learns how to pleasure the son via a dagger in the back. What starts out as truly brutal turns humorous as she masturbates the dagger and soon he is overcome with ecstatic pleasure and of course it is a happy ending!
So you kinda get the idea, Moebius is pretty weird shit but it is also cloaked in ample good filmmaking, great performances, great visuals, many many great moments and after the film hearing the master talk about this film was quite amazing. Director Kim spoke of the struggle to raise enough money to make this film. Now this amazed me, even he of such high standing and achievement has to scratch in the dirt to find the funds. He spoke of the digital revolution and how he by-passed a DOP because the cameras are small enough for him to operate himself. Wow! and this helped him communicate with the actors on a more intimate and creative level, it allowed him to make the film quicker (ie less money) and it allowed him to forgo having to translate his thoughts into words in order for that DOP to then capture his vision on film. Makes a lot of sense really.
At no point was there ever a question about quality when I was watching, format or craft.
Moebius.... not for everyone that's for sure but a whole lot more than a controversial film.
Kim Ki Duk.... can't wait to see what's next but will continue to view the back catalogue till it arrives.
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