Film: Thirst :: Wessex Scene Online

Film: Thirst

18th December 2009
Megan James

About this film

Title	The Thirst (2006/I)
Director	Jeremy Kasten
Release Date	22 October 2009
Certificate
Genres	Horror
Our Rating	4.0/5.0

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Thirst is a South Korean film in which priest Sang-hyeon selflessly volunteers himself for a dangerous medical test, in order to find a cure for a deadly African virus.

When the vaccine he trials turns him into a blood-craving vampire, he must fight his inner monster, and battle with the temptations of violence and sex. He is seduced by his friend’s wife Tae-joo, who he eventually turns into a vampire: one that is more brutal than he ever was. Together they wreak havoc in their self-destructive quest for blood, pleasure, and thrills.

It’s about time the vampire genre was given a revamp, and who better to take on this task than Korean director Park Chan-wook, best known for the graphic Oldboy, the second film in his ‘Revenge Trilogy’. Quentin Tarantino hailed Oldboy as a bloody masterpiece, and it won the Grand Jury prize at Cannes. Now Park has turned his directorial hand to vampires, though Thirst is no ordinary horror film. It’s more of an ironic parody of the current craze for vampire movies. As Park himself notes, “there are no bats, no stake through the heart, no fear of garlic or the cross”. And no fangs. Where Park innovates is his refusal to revert to clichés. The contemporary urban setting ensures the film is miles removed from classic portrayals of vampires such as Dracula and Nosferatu.

Thirst is not for the faint of heart, or shiny-vampire loving Twilight fans who can’t get enough of Edward Cullen. Instead, it’s an antidote to sanitised teen gothic horror, with bucketloads of blood, sex, and violence. The film came under fire in South Korea, not for the scenes of murder and torture, but for the first ever shot of full frontal male nudity to feature in a mainstream Korean film. There are also prolonged graphic sex scenes between protagonists Sang-hyeon and Tae-joo, so Thirst is probably not a film you want to watch with your little sister.

Nevertheless Thirst is not without flaws. It lacks the stylistic flourishes found in Park’s previous hits, and never quite reaches the twisted heights of Oldboy. The film does manage to slide in some inventive dream sequences and surreal moments though. The film’s slow pacing builds up to what feels like a climax, only to unfortunately limp on to a dragged out final act. Snipping off half an hour of Thirst’s self indulgent 145 minute running time would have produced a much more engaging narrative. Finding yourself checking your watch during a film is never a positive sign. Ultimately Thirst is a draining experience, but worth the investment, especially for the strangely moving ending.

Thirst is also saved from drowning under its own weight by Park’s surprising and freshly original bursts of comedy splattered throughout an otherwise relentlessly bleak film, such as the vampire couple’s humorous bickering. Such eccentric comic moments are to be expected from a director who’s previous film was a quirky rom-com about a girl who believes she’s a robot and talks to vending machines (I’m A Cyborg, But That’s Ok).

Park has succeeded in creating a film that could arguably never be made in Hollywood today. Overlong and inconsistent, Thirst is nevertheless an original and engaging experience, and has given me back my appetite for vampire films.