Thirst (2009)

director: Chan-woo Park

writers: Chan-woo Park, Seo-Gyeong Jeong

starring: Kang-ho Song, Ok-vin Kim

genre: Drama, Horror

If you’re in the mood for a real vampire film Thirst is the proper way to go. Its not shiny, soap operarish and doesn’t have giant werewolves. Its more realistic take on the vampire genre with a romance to it and the corruption of the disease that is to be a vampire.

The story is of a deeply faithful priest Sang-hyun (Song Kang-Ho), who wants to help people as much as he can. He goes to this religious research facility that is researching on an virus that is plaguing missionaries. They administer the virus, then the vaccine on Sang-hyun and other test subjects to look for a cure. After loss of much of his blood, they put in him for unknown reasons vampire blood and from there the magic begins. Slowly his transformation to this vampiric entity will change him entirely and shake his religious beliefs. Falling in love with one his patient’s wife. The two of them will bond and in a sense will be doomed to hell.

Vampires are back once again due to the whole Twilight fad. But Chan-woo Park is not affected by the fad and actually makes a very fascinating film. It manages to tell a quirky, cool and fun tale that actually has some filmmaking to it, compared to the Twilight Saga. It's about forbidden love, lust, corruption of the mind, soul and where are actions take us. And it so happens to have vampires in it. Focusing too much on the monster mythology is what makes most monster or horror films fail. Let it be in the background if its not integral to the story.

If your not familiar with who Park is, he is the guy who made Olboy,one of the best films to come out of Asian cinema. In a way Oldboy is a masterpiece in my opinion. Thirst is no masterpiece. But no biggie. It still has all those qualities and filmmaking techniques that Oldboy had. Park's camera angles, the way he chooses his characters to act, the blood, the frenetic and surealistic story at all times keep the film fresh and constantly interesting. A lot of times due to his playful camera work and surrealistic storytelling you will be scratching your head or pondering with what’s taking place and if everything is as normal as it seems. Park is one one of those few filmmakers that manage to attract and entertain the audience with his incredible cinematic ideas and deep and provacative stories.

The fault of the film could be its quirkiness and its humor. There are a few elements of the film that are a tad weird. May they be some jokes in the film or the dialogue. But all of this could be attributed to bad subtitle translation or Korean humor. But any case its nothing too serious to distract you from the overall experience.

Thirst is the best horror film ive seen this year. There is a enough blood to go around with only gore fanatics to be disappointed. This is the vampire film to see and not Twilight, which is just a disgrace to the vampire genre and to cinema today.

Personal Rating:

Review by Paul