Movie Review - Thirst (2009)

Starring Kang-ho Song and Ok-vin Kim
Directed by Chan-wook Park
--in Japanese w/ English subtitles--

In its simplest form, this is the tale of Catholic priest Sang-hyeon who agrees to take part in some experiment to see if some medication can prevent some viral infection (or something like that). The priest is the only survivor of the experiment, but the medication somehow turns him into a vampire (so, I guess he really didn't survive if he's now one of the "undead"). He keeps his vampire characteristics a secret, but he is soon well-known across the country as "the one who survived the experiment" and meets a mother whose adult son has cancer. The son is married to the young Tae-Joo who hates her husband and dreams of killing him. In his quest for blood, Sang-hyeon soon spirals out of control, falling prey to some of the deadly sins that he tried to stay away from as a mortal priest. Sang-hyeon sees Tae-Joo's desperation and soon falls in love with her. There's some kinky sex acts involved and the oddest slurping sounds I've ever heard on film. Sure, there's more than that, but I don't want to ruin it in case anyone's interested in seeing this one.

First off, Chan-wook Park's direction here is great. There are some beautiful shots, coupled with some really cool techniques. I noticed quite a few long takes here (nothing super-long, but long enough to make me notice them). I am truly interested in seeing Park's other stuff now as I was thoroughly impressed with this.

Second, I liked the performances of Kang-ho Song as the priest and Ok-vin Kim as his young lover. Granted, neither were off-the-charts excellent here, but Song started out quiet and meek and turned into some weird vampiric crazy guy. Same for Kim...sure she was playing what was essentially an annoying teenager, but there were scenes she was in towards the end of this movie where I thought she was stellar.

Yes, the movie runs a little too long and it started out a little slow. And it does get a little (okay, a lot) weird as the priest and his lover begin to spiral out of control -- which makes the tone of the movie shift from serious to almost campy...but that worked for me. This certainly isn't a movie for everyone, but if vampire lore or foreign films interest you, you may want to check it out.

The RyMickey Rating: B