A deranged woman, incensed by her husband’s philandering, steals into the bedroom of their teenage son, severs his penis, and swallows it. And that’s just the first ten minutes! South Korean bad boy Kim Ki-duk embraces his reputaton for extremity with this 2013 psychodrama, whose scenes of murder, mutilation, sadomasochism, and gang rape would be easy to dismiss if Kim weren’t so sincere and sober in pursuit of his Oedipal and other emotional concerns. The content is audacious, to be sure, but so is the form; the entire story transpires without a single word of dialogue, and this strategy isolates and heightens the ugly physical urges at work. This is not for the faint of heart, but to Kim’s credit, it’s not for the faint of mind either. In Korean with subtitles.
Moebius
1 hour 29 min • 2013
