Kim Ki-duk’s Controversial ‘Moebius’ Receives Release Date
Alicia Lewis hijacks The Monsters Eye, keep reading for this fascinating story …
Nearly three months ago the news broke that Kim Ki-duk’s latest film, MOEBIUS, had received a ‘restricted’ rating from the Korean Media Ratings Board (KMRB). Effectively, the film was banned, for in Korea, R rated films can only be screened at specialty theatres. With none of these theatres actually in existence in Korea, it seemed that Kim would be unable to screen his film to the domestic market.
The KMRB gave MOEBIUS an R rating on the grounds that the film contained incestuous content that was “terrifying and harmful to underage audiences” and for containing “unethical and unsocial expressions of sexual activity.”
In an attempt to satisfy the board, Kim cut one minute and 40 seconds from the film. These changes had no effect, with the board standing firm on the restricted rating.
And so, with a further 50 seconds cut from the film, and 32 scenes edited in total, Kim presented MOEBIUS to a group of Korean critics, journalists, and scholars to get their opinion on the film’s content. Kim stated “if 30 percent do not approve of my film I will not release it in theatres.”
Thankfully, a whopping 87% of those who attended voted that the film should be granted a release, and so, on the third review, the KMRB finally accepted the now doubly edited version of MOEBIUS.
Fresh and exciting news came this week, with a date finally set for the film’s release in the domestic market. It is on the 5th of September that Koreans will be able to see MOEBIUS in theatres. Also, just two days ago, the organizers of the Toronto International Film Festival released a new trailer for the controversial film, which will be linked below.
MOEBIUS will premiere on the 3rd of September at the 70th Venice Film Festival, but it will not be shown in competition.
TRAILER
