All manner of puns and phrases flow from Moebius’ title to its content, and all are apt: this is a film that loops in on itself, comes full circle, and represents an unbroken thematic journey from its predecessor, Pieta, for filmmaker Kim Ki-duk. And yet, even as its story twists and turns in cycles of violence, the controversial effort also offers an unexpected departure of the tonal variety. Many of the script’s machinations are familiar; less so is its straight-faced but blackly comic mood.
Trapped between maturity, morality and mortality, Moebius starts steeped in seriousness as a father (Cho Jae-Hyun, The Weight) and mother (Lee Eun-Woo, An Ethics Lesson) fight in front of their teenage son (Seo Young-ju, Juvenile Offender), family tensions escalating when the patriarch is caught cheating with a younger woman (also played by Lee). Forgiving the betrayal is out of the question, the mother instead wreaking a winking plan of revenge predicated upon detaching the offending male member. Unable to exact her punishment on her husband, she turns her knife to the manhood of her offspring. Chaos – of the erotic, unseemly and physically inhospitable kind – ensues.
Writer/director Ki-duk is neither shy nor subtle when it comes to the acts of removal in question, and there are several; his atmosphere of relish also extends to the adopted coping mechanisms – amusing Google search terms, unusual arousal methods, unpleasant outbursts of masculinity, and explosive schemes of retribution included. Bristling darkness is the modus operandi and the comedic motivation, the obscene and offensive becoming the absurd with increasing inertia. Anything that could fall within the bounds of normality – familial relationships, first crushes, paternal protection, maternal love and more – is swiftly, satirically subverted.
Anxiety rightfully emanates as blood flies, appendages find new homes, jealousy rears its inappropriate head, sex skips societal boundaries, and attacks shock in their explicitness; so too does anarchic humour. Ridiculousness escalates to outrageous effect, always paired with forcefulness and ferocity, but nothing is hidden. The initial construct is revealed almost immediately, even its karmic undertones. Laughs are elicited from the first knife-wielding act, as is squeamishness. The added layer of aesthetic complexity – with everything playing out in guilt-ridden, groan and grunt-punctuated wordlessness – demands the audience’s focus.
Telling the brutal, bawdy tale without verbalisation is no mean feat for the cinematically verbose but varied filmmaker, the primal expression of deeds and glances forming their own language, and the importance of each and every image shining through. Shooting and editing as well as scribing and helming, Ki-duk’s style is up to the task, even as he remains as overt as the pain and passion that fills his frames. Purported philosophical, psychological underpinnings, Oedipal and Freudian, sexual and spiritual among them, are just as effectively and obviously handled. Impressive performances, each devoid of restraint but designed and delivered with emotion and amusement in mind, find similar fortunes.
Indeed, as Moebius travels round and round its circle of the despicable, its daring to push the limits in its perversity can only evoke horror and laughter. Not everything works in its study of a family embodying the extreme, the unbreakable bond between its bound-by-blood characters sometimes begging for true solemnity and more thoughtful realisation. When Moebius does hit its mark, though, it is as delirious as it is discomforting – over, and over, and over again.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Moebius
Director: Kim Ki-duk
South Korea, 2013, 89 mins
Brisbane International Film Festival
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