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With all the vampire hoopla in Hollywood these days it would be easy to write off Thirst as just another Twilight knock-off trying to cash in on the popularity of a genre whose better days may already be long gone. Lucky for us, Korean filmmaker Chan-wook Park has an entire ocean between him and the horridness that is Hollywood – leaving him alone to create a vampire movie that juxtaposes moral obligation with the carnal pleasures that vampires seem eternally unable to escape. And it very well may be the most beautiful love story I’ve ever witnessed.

More after the jump!
Priest Sang-hyeon (Kang-ho Song) is a simple man who spends most of
his time at a hospital blessing individuals on their deathbeds. When a medical experiment needs volunteers to find a cure for a fatal virus, Sang-hyeon signs up fully expecting to make the ultimate sacrifice. However, an emergency blood transfusion saves his life as the doctors pump vampire blood into his veins - unintentionally making the priest immortal. But along with immortality comes new problems, like the pressing need to drink blood and unfamiliar desires of the flesh.

Sang-hyeon falls for Tae-joo (Ok-vin Kim), a young girl who is engaged to Kang-woo (Ha-kyun Shin) - both of whom are a part of Sang-hyeon’s weekly Mahjong group. As the couple’s lust for each other grows, Sang-hyeon struggles more and more with the morality of the sins he is committing while Tae-joo grows increasingly more brazen and demented, urging Sang-hyeon to kill her husband and make her into a vampire so they can live together forever.

The movie is magnificently shot – there are so many long, moving shots that Park must have employed nearly every dolly in Korea to make this film. He doesn’t rely on gimmicky tricks like slow motion or split screen, instead employing raw filmmaking methods such as playing with nontraditional angles and bringing characters in and out of focus. The subject matter in Thirst is nothing new, but Park cast his characters and settings in a light that made me feel like I was seeing a movie for the first time in my life.

Song did such an incredible job displaying the wide range of despair, anger and joy that I feel silly for not discovering the Korean actor until just now. The film is subtitled, but Song showed no difficulty in transcending language with his subtle facial movements and ability to capture everyday human interaction. Kim’s portrayal of a woman stuck in her way of life is spot on, and the transformation into the blood-thirsty being she becomes is haunting. These two actors make what would have been a good film into a great film.

There are so many words that I could use to describe Thirst: dark, ravenous, thoughtful, gory, unmistakable, captivating, cruel, contemptuous, romantic, sensual, disgusting and so on and so forth. Above all the one word that captures it all is ‘Terrific.’ This film is absolutely a must see for those that have the stomach to handle it.

--Mark Collins
 


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