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In Moebius (2013), the son becomes a monk (or spiritual ascetic) as a final rejection of the sexual desire and violence that destroyed his family. After the father murders the mother and commits suicide, the son takes the gun and shoots off his own penis (which had been transplanted from his father). This violent act of self-castration severs his connection to the 'cycle of lust' represented by the organ. He then retreats to a life of prayer and isolation, bowing before a Buddha statue. The ending implies a 'Moebius strip' loop, suggesting he becomes the same monk seen by the mother at the film's beginning.
In Kim Ki-duk’s 2013 film Moebius, the son’s decision to become a monk is the culmination of a cycle of extreme physical and psychological trauma rooted in human desire. His journey to monkhood is a literal and symbolic escape from the "Moebius strip" of suffering that defines his family.
Here are the specific reasons and details behind his transition:
The film's title refers to a Moebius strip—a surface with only one side and no end. The family is trapped in a loop where the father’s infidelity leads to the mother’s vengeful act (castrating the son), which leads to the father’s guilt-ridden attempts to "restore" the son’s manhood. This cycle involves incest, rape, and murder. By becoming a monk, the son attempts to "break" the loop by removing himself from the worldly desires (lust and vengeance) that fueled his family's destruction.
Because the son was castrated, he spends much of the film seeking alternative ways to experience sexual or physical sensation, often through pain (specifically, skin-to-skin friction or self-harm). He eventually realizes that the pursuit of physical sensation only leads to more agony. In the final act, he turns toward spirituality as a way to transmute physical pain into a form of ascetic endurance.
The son is forced into horrific situations, including a sexual encounter with his own mother (who is suffering from a psychotic break) and being complicit in the death of his father. The weight of these "sins"—though he was often a victim of circumstance—drives him to seek a life of total penance. The monastic life serves as a way to atone for the moral collapse of his household.
The central conflict of the film is the obsession with the male organ—both as a source of pleasure and a source of shame. After the father commits suicide and the mother disappears/dies, the son is left with the physical reminder of his father’s attempt to "fix" him (the transplant/prosthetic). By choosing the life of a monk, he finally rejects the importance of the organ and the physical body entirely, choosing to focus on the spirit instead.
In the film's closing sequence, the son is seen in the mountains. He buries the symbolic object of his family’s obsession (the phallus/gun) and walks toward a Buddha statue. This act signifies the burial of his past identity. He replaces his civilian clothes with monastic robes, signaling that he has abandoned his role as a "son" or a "man" in the traditional sense to become a genderless, desireless seeker of peace.
In summary: The son becomes a monk because it is the only way to exit a world where physical existence is synonymous with torture. He chooses spiritual isolation over the horrific interconnectedness of his family.
The summary sanitizes the ending by claiming the son 'buries' the phallus/gun, whereas he actually shoots his penis off.
The summary glosses over the mother's death as 'disappears/dies', omitting that she was murdered by the father.
The summary describes the pain as 'sensation' or 'ascetic endurance', omitting the crucial plot point that it was a method to achieve orgasm.