The story itself is stomach-turning, even with just a basic overview. A housewife and her son are well aware that the husband-slash-father has a mistress who is a much younger woman who runs a grocery store down the road.
One night, the wife can no longer take it and tries to take it out on her husband by cutting his manhood off. When the attempt is unsuccessful, she takes it out on her son and cuts his off in his sleep. Each member of the family slides down a dark hole after these harrowing events and it takes a psychological toll on them individually, causing them to lead a much darker life than ever anticipated.
Its an interesting movie. No dialogue is spoken at all, the entire time through. Heavy breathing, sound effects, and moans of pleasure or pain are all that are heard. At first its strange, but as the movie continues it intensifies the emotion of the movie, each little sound becomes as intense and important as dialogue would have been. Its a movie based around pleasure and pain and Kim made a bold decision in allowing those to be the only things we really hear throughout the course of the film.
Its hard to watch at times. Its graphic and raw, due in part to the more low budget style of production they went with, and it makes it connect more than an average film would. Some really taboo subjects are not only touched upon but brought up with very little restraint, including incest and genital mutilation. Seo Young-Joo plays the son and is easily the most talented member of the acting cast, emoting at an insanely high level and outshining his fellow co-stars. Parts end up a bit laughable and unbelievable and some of the acting is over the top and comes across a bit hammy but never enough to truly drag the film down.
Moebius is an intense movie. Abrasive, but well acted and directed. Its content honestly makes it a hard movie to sit through and even harder to digest. Its a hard line to follow, between meaningful and distasteful, but Kim rides the line in a fashion similar to Craven with The Last House on the Left.
The film arrives in theaters and on VOD August 29th from RAM Releasing.
