THIRST (includes trailer)
April 4th 2010 04:32
The Thirst a.k.a. Bakjwi
The Korean film industry hasn’t always been taken seriously, completely ignored at one point, in the last few years, films from South Korea have started getting some serious international attention, and deservedly so. Some extraordinary films like ‘The Host’, ‘Sukiyaki Western Django’, ‘The Quiet Family’, ‘Olboy’ and scores of others as well have put South Korea on the movie map. Park Chan-Wook is currently one of South Korea’s most prominent directors, he’s received accolades for his masterfully made political thriller, ‘JSA’, and the visceral ‘Oldboy’.
His new film ‘The Thirst’ is a vampire film that’s as far from the currently, fashionable teen-pop vampire films as you can get. The same can be said for the Anne Rice craze the went down the decade before this. It is my delight to be reviewing a film that might just traumatize Twilight fans for good. The Thirst is a completely original and twisted take on the vampire tale, removing all romanticism and angst, it’s able to re-invent the genre through fresh and disturbing eyes.
The Thirst tells the story of a priest, Sang-Hyun, played by Song Kang-Ho (Memories Of Murder, The Host, JSA, Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance) who at the moment might be the most prolific actor in South Korea This priest is devoted to helping the sick and he volunteers to work with victims of a strange disease carrying symptoms of tuberculosis and leprosy. After contracting the disease, he receives a blood transfusion. He dies and is reborn again in complete health but with the urge for pleasure and sin overwhelming him. By the time he starts drinking blood he’s pretty much put the pieces together. His dilemma now, is how he can satiate his thirst for blood without hurting human life.
A provocative and confronting film
The Thirst has a humorous logic to it, it completely follows through with the ideas of a vampire’s cravings in the adult world. In fact, it follows it all through in such an oddly faithful way that a lot of the time that it can become completely silly and then suddenly shift gears into the bizarre and twisted. The Thirst shows a man of God loosing his humanity and heading on a downward spiral. The film is filled with gallows humour, disturbing eroticism, sadomasochism, the downright absurd and so much blood that you can almost taste it. Song Kang-Ho is a chameleon like actor, who through his varied roles has sometimes been impossible to recognise. All you associate him with is the film you are seeing before you. He never seems to be doing much, until you see him in a new film and you slowly realise it’s him playing a dramatically different character.
Park Chan-Wook has developed an eerie, sparse, and immediately recognizable style, more so than any other contemporary director that I can think of. This style works to intensify every element of the film, the good along with the bad.
The insanity of a unique film
Chan-Wook has made some excellent films and also some very eccentric films. The Thirst is destined have a cult following and also be remembered as a film that was not his greatest work. Even in his oddball films, there was a weight to them, they felt like they carried a distinct sense of importance. The Thirst remains absent of this. It’s nowhere as good as his greater works, but it does have treasures which await you.
At The worst of times I would say that 'The Thirst' has trouble maintaining it’s steam as it heads in all different directions, executing half baked ideas, it seems to spread itself thin. It’s a film that sets out to be unique and confident in all of it’s outrageousness but then feels unsure of where to head next. What saves it is how bloody, bold and out there Park Chan-Wook’s idiosyncratic style is, there is no mistake that any one else could have created this. It's this element of his film making that is more outspoken and exciting than ever and 'The Thirst's visual wit always has a way of compensating for it’s weaker points.
Song Kang Ho in The Thirst
While it's certainly not for everyone, it's originality can't be ignored. It feels like a spit in the face toward every other vampire film ever made. The stagnant shots create a creepy feel that compliments the sometimes orgiastic blood letting and as is typical with his film’s also crafts a cold beauty. Part satire and part horror, it demands you never look away as it takes the audience to it’s breaking point. ‘The Thirst’s biggest flaw is in it’s lack of focus and it’s greatest strength is in you not finding anything quite like it. It’s a fun film and those who aren’t grossed out by it are sure to be dazzled.
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Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
I was very disappointed by this movie. You can read my own review HERE.
It was uneven and plodding, even tedious in places, with flashes of visual brilliance, but none of the resonance of Oldboy.
I had very high expectations, perhaps that was part of my problem. But I'm not the only one; a good friend of mine, and another filmmaker and cinephile, disliked it even more than I did.
Each to their own, of course.
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
Let's call this one a guilty pleasure
I know a mutual acquaintance of ours who loved it.
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
I did enjoy this farcical excursion into post modern vampism.
The more ludicrous elements worked to comment on the folklore with humour. Their was originality to be found in manipulating established truths. The ever shifting tone kept me intrigued and made for some very memorable scenes that would not have stood out in a more traditional style.
Sure its a film with faults and doesn't match OldBoy (what could?) but still a very entertaining pulp piece far more energetic and inspired than most bloodsuckers of recent years
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Comment by David O'Connell
20/20 Filmsight
Screen Fanatic
I basically agree with you. It definitely is a very uneven film and sags in the middle a bit. But for me it's so visually assured that I still admired it from an aesthetic point of view even when the film wasn't make a whole lot of sense. I like the first and last hour an hour and found the sex scenes strangely erotic. I'd rate it as a guilty pleasure too in a way, but I've got the feeling it's the sort of film I'll like much more the second time around.
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
I also saw this at Cannes originally and was at the official premier for it. Hell of an experience!