Thirst – Review

Oldboy auteur Park Chan-wook’s latest film is a vampire tale that is the extreme opposite of the twinkling, tween bloodsuckers of the worldwide phenomena known as “Twilight”. No kiddie stuff here folks. This one earns its R Rating with twisted sexual imagery, geysers of blood and the religious taboos that it touches upon. But does that make for great cinema?

Sang-hyeon is a priest from a small town who volunteers for a medical experiment in hopes of finding a cure for a deadly disease known as the Emmanuel Virus, which can best be described as a horrible case of leprosy. He succumbs to the disease and is revived through a blood transfusion, and is seen as a savior by anyone who has a ill family member or friend. Unfortunately for him the side-effects are a insatiable taste for the red stuff and a sexual awakening of sorts, which requires instant fulfillment.

Opportunity comes a knocking thanks to a family that he regularly visits for dinner. His old pal has fallen ill and has to be taken care by his introverted wife Tae-joo, who has been waiting for a opportunity to break out of her kinky shell and to get even after being mistreated by her adopted “nears and dears“. The two hit it off immediately, and after a session off vigorous sex, Sang’s horrifying dilemma is revealed. But Tae is all for it. However, whereas Sang prefers to not harm innocent people and looks for alternate routes like feeding intravenously at the local hospital- Tae’s method of getting plasma is to kill anyone she can.  I don’t want to give too much of the latter part of the film away, but let me say the there is a scene involving white walls (think Tenebre) that clash very well with the bloodletting between the family unit.

What works for me was the stellar acting of the two leads, Kang ho-Song(The Host) and Ok-vin Kim(Arang). They are believable as a doomed couple who start out hot and heavy and end up getting “burned” in the end. The mise-en-scène from Park is well done throughout, but a little more of a color palette would have been appreciated. How was the gore and violence you say? You get a ripped earlobe, a hand shoved into a chest cavity, Exorcist-style blood spitting, Cronenberg-ian boils, painful burns, fingernails torn out, a snapped neck and a broken arm that rivals Jason Goes To Hell and The Fly in the “that has got to hurt” department.

Horror films work best when kept under the two-hour mark and here we have a butt-numbing running time of 133 minutes. Scenes are drawn out too long and the ending drags on a bit. Also the film shifts in tone from horror to comedy seem jarring for such a serious undertaking.

THIRST is a nice companion piece to Chan-wook’s segment of Three Extremes entitled “Cut”, which dealt with the filming of a vampire movie. I recommend this one to adventurous fans who appreciate artsy, slow-burn genre fare.

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