Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Moebius (2013) New York Asian FIlm Festival 2014

Kim Ki duk needs to be locked away. Don't get me wrong I love the man, I own pretty much every film he's ever made but he needs to get serious help. I say that with love and as a fan.

The short review of Moebius is that its a truly twisted family drama that has no spoken words. What happens could be considered deeply disturbing by some. Others will find it in the What the F---? territory that is both disturbing and unintentionally hilarious or at least funny for the wrong reasons. What you think of the film will depend upon your tolerance for out there material.

If you don't want to know more end there and go see the film or don't. I refuse to make that suggestion (though had I seen this at home I would have scanned through it).  From here I'm going to ramble about the film and give details so if you keep reading...

This is one messed up film.

How messed up?

Well let me explain how it starts- A couple isn't getting along. The father is having an affair. After being seen by both his wife and son he goes home to bed. His wife decides to cut off his penis, but when he stops her she cuts off her sons and then eats it. The father tries to retrieve it, and she tries to throw it up to no avail. The father takes the son to hospital and the mother wanders into the night.

From there it gets even weirder as the son takes up with the mistress, rape, beatings, "the whole body is a penis" weirdness, more castrations,  penis transplants, knifing as a means of orgasming, incest, murder, suicide, prison, and some black jokes. Its f-ed up.

The thing is that I don't know if Kim Ki Duk is serious or not, not that it matters, the laughter it brought to me was the sort of belly laughs and chuckles that you get when something on screen is going horribly wrong. I have no idea if this is one of the blackest comedies on record or not...but I found I was laughing more at the film and not with it.

What was he thinking?

Several writers after the film said they were giving the film several points for daring not to use any words. Perhaps but all I can think was how off the wall funny this would have been if people had actually said something, I can only imagine what the conversation concerning penis transplants would have been or what the post rock masturbation dialog between father and son would have been.

I looked at my watch half an hour in figuring that it had to be almost over only to find  an hour remained. Where could they go for another hour? How much weirder could it get- a whole freaking lot more weirder.

This is one of those films that you'll either love (in which case you'll want more) or hate (and you'll walk out) or stare at with the deer in the headlight sort of road accident way- which is what I did.

Its an experience. If you want to experience a film go see it.

On the other hand if you don't want everyone of your buttons pushed stay away.

And by all means feel free to laugh at the film. I found it helped a great deal.

For tickets and information go to the website.

Moebius will be getting a theatrical release in August

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