Thirst is yet another genre-merging, tongue-in-cheek breath-of-fresh-air from South Korean cinema. Earlier this year, Kang-ho Song played the fool in Ji-woon Kim’s colourful “noodle eastern” homage The Good, The Bad, The Weird. Here, though, he takes on the role of the straight man in a world about to turn very unorthodox on him.
Simply put, Kang-ho’s character is a caring and morally upright Catholic priest called Sang-hyeon. Born of a desire to help others, he volunteers for an experimental medical treatment that may cure a terrible and fatal disease. However, when he then suffers massive internal haemorrhaging as a result of the experiment, Sang-hyeon is given a blood transfusion that, unwittingly, has been contaminated with vampiric cells. As these take hold of Sang-hyeon, he struggles desperately to maintain control over his growing thirst for blood, not to mention the other pleasures of the flesh that he is now tempted by. Unfortunately for him, though, the pretty but married Tae-joo (Ok-vin Kim) threatens to be his downfall.
As you may have already guessed, director Chan-wook Park, like the aforementioned Ji-woon, is not especially bothered about coming up with an award-winning plot for this film. For that matter, he does not appear to be too concerned about dialogue or the editing process either, with the latter, in particular, looking like it was carried out by three blind mice and a carving knife in places. Rather, what the audience gets here is a film that gleefully derives strait-laced humour out of everything from slurping sex to bodily mutilations and from religious faith to domineering matriarchs. Throw in some fine mobile camerawork, some nicely composed shots, and some clever (and often surreal) visual flourishes, and there is plenty to admire here.
As a vampire movie, there are scenes that the squeamish may not care for too much. However, the preoccupation in Thirst is less to do with gristle and gore and more to do with the dynamism that it gives to the relationship between Sang-hyeon and Tae-joo. In this respect, some parallels can be drawn with Let the Right One In, despite their many differences in terms of tone and atmosphere. In particular, both succeed in doing something decidedly alternative yet noteworthy with a genre that is currently suffering the indignities of the hopelessly pallid Twilight trilogy, amongst other undead offerings.
Therefore, despite becoming unnecessarily bogged down in its second act, adopting a cavelier approach to scene sequencing, and being disappointing in terms of its eschewal of meaningful character development, this film deserves to be seen for its innovative ideas, tremenduous sense of deadpan humour, and a love scene “threesome” that you are not likely to forget in a hurry!
On a broader note, any chance of a South Korean cinema festival please?
Filed under: Cinema, Films, Movies | Tagged: Bakjwi, Chan-wook Park, Kang-ho Song, Ok-vin Kim, Thirst
[...] hard on finding such a solution is Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke). In a similar manner to Sang-hyun in Thirst, Dalton continues to have qualms, though, about what he has become and what it requires him to do. [...]