Thirst

Few directors are as consistently thrilling as Chan-wook Park; the South Korean genre master that brought us films such as Oldboy and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. In style he is much like David Fincher, a master of camera control, texture, and subtle special effects. At the same time the content of his movies feels truly unique, perhaps it is because he mixes brutal violence and black humor with quirky characters and moments of introspective beauty. Even though he seems to make a point of not giving the viewer exactly what they want (for example his revenge tales never end in catharsis) there is no moment when he has not produced an entertaining film. Even I’m a Cyborg and That’s Ok, which is universally accepted as his least critically successful film, is still extremely well crafted in my opinion. And after experimenting with action, revenge, horror, romance, comedy, and drama he has decided to put all those genres together in one film.

As you can guess that is no easy task, so Thirst ends up with a two and a half hour running time. And despite being quite thematically ambitious this is another small vampire story like Let the Right One In. In other words don’t expect a huge undead plague, it is very much a small story with a handful of characters. Sang-hyeon (played by Kang-ho Song) is a priest with martyrdom on his mind. He submits himself to a vaccine trial for a deadly Ebola-like disease, and is somehow the only survivor. Unfortunately it seems that this miracle has little to do with God or science, instead is brought on by a transfusion of vampire blood. Don’t ask me why there is blood infected with vampirism in the blood bank though, maybe they like getting free cookies.

This grants him the reputation of a saint, somebody touched by God and capable of healing the sick. Shortly after that he starts to suffer a relapse of the deadly disease and it does not go away until he consumes human blood. Not only is his thirst for blood almost too much to bear, his new found senses awaken in him a desire for earthly things, in particular a lust for his childhood friend Ok-bim Kim, the wife of another old friend. Things quickly turn sexual and despite his saintly past his bloodlust makes the idea of wiping out anybody who stands between him and his mistress quite appetizing.

But as you would expect around the middle things get crazy, in an almost unexplained way, and while this is just a speed bump on an otherwise smooth ride I would not be surprised if most viewers turn to their dates and ask “wait, WHAT!?”. Still this movie has a lot to say about charity, love, religion, and free will. Some characters are slaves to those they love or to those who have shown them kindness, while others are liberated by an act of cruelty and betrayal. And in the last few acts it all comes together… it is at once funny, heartbreaking, and horrifyingly violent. As usual all this is paired with an extremely tasteful score and gorgeous photography, by the time it is over you will have a hard time figuring out where the last two hours went. Hopefully Chan-wook Park will make a sequel that explains why vampires donate blood.

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