Thirst DVD Review

2009 Korean Thriller Directed by Park Chan-wook

Nov 17, 2009 Martin G. Wood

Thirst by filmmaker Park Chan-wook (Oldboy), co-written by Seo Gyeong-jeong, is a creepy vampire movie and a psychosexual love story fused into one.

In Thirst, Sang-hyun (Song Kang-ho) is caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.

As a priest who happens to be a vampire, he finds himself conflicted between his carnal desire for flesh and blood and a spiritual obligation to heal the sick and dying.

The priest discovers his true nature when he is stricken with a deadly disease, and learns in order to go on living he must heal thyself, with the blood of others.

Exquisitely rendered love story

When Sang-hyun meets Tae-ju (Kim Ok-bin), a beautiful young woman living in misery within a family that neither respects nor cares for her, the priest feels her pain, and is compelled to save her.

Is Sang-hyun's initial attraction to the troubled Tae-ju born of a priest's empathetic want to heal or a vampire's lust for blood? The answer lies somewhere in between, as evidenced by the priest's feeding on the life-blood of Christian confessors with suicidal tendencies.

Once Sang-hyun and Tae-ju's passionate longing for one another is consummated through blood and sex, Thirst transcends the conventional horror film and becomes an exquisitely rendered love story; daring to flirt with scandalous notions of sadomasochism and animal desire.

The symbiotic relationship between the lovers, each dependent on one another for their very lives, produces some of the most stylishly erotic sex scenes in a horror film since Tony Scott's The Hunger (1983).

Song Kang-ho equaled by Kim Ok-bin

Veteran star of stage and screen Song Kang-ho gives a terrific performance as Sang-hyun. Wrenching every ounce of angst from his role, his character's psychosexual dilemma turns him into the most morally conflicted man of the cloth since Father Ralph from The Thorn Birds (1983), as played by Richard Chamberlain (Shogun).

Song Kang-ho is equaled by newcomer Kim Ok-bin. The subtlety of Kim Ok-bin's performance is impressive, given she has the more challenging role, that of an emotionally-damaged nymph who transforms dramatically into a rapturous femme fatale.

Maniacally twisted morality tale

The final act of Thirst shifts gears slightly, and veers into Stanley Kubrick territory.

Not simply because director Park Chan-wook chooses to stage the climactic action sequences against a backdrop of brightly lit, sterile settings. But because in true Kubrick fashion, Park Chan-wook completely sucks every last drop of sentimentality from the characters, as the lovers' intimacy evaporates.

And like Kubrick's most maniacally twisted morality tale, A Clockwork Orange (1971), when Thirst reaches its climax, Park Chan-wook deliberately leaves the viewer in the most precarious of cinematic states, emotional ambiguity.

Thirst on DVD:

Unfortunately, the initial release of Thirst on DVD comes sans special features; but, a film so popular will almost assuredly receive the deluxe special edition treatment sometime in the not too distant future.

  • Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
  • Language: Korean
  • Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
  • Rated: R
  • DVD Release Date: November 17, 2009
  • Run Time: 134 minutes

The copyright of the article Thirst DVD Review in Foreign Films is owned by Martin G. Wood. Permission to republish Thirst DVD Review in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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