THIRST (2009)

Sang-hyun is a priest who cherishes life; so much so, that he selflessly volunteers for a secret vaccine development project meant to eradicate a deadly virus. But the virus takes the priest, and a blood transfusion is urgently ordered up for him. The blood he receives is infected, so Sang-hyun lives - but now exists as a vampire. Struggling with his newfound carnal desire for blood, Sang-hyun's faith is further strained when a childhood friend's wife, Tae-ju comes to him asking for his help in escaping her life. Sang-hyun soon plunges into a world of sensual pleasures, finding himself on intimate terms with the Seven Deadly Sins.

Genre: Drama, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Suspense/Horror and Thriller
Release Date: July 31st, 2009 (limited)
MPAA Rating: R for graphic bloody violence, disturbing images, strong sexual content, nudity and language.
Distributors: Focus Features
Production Company: Moho Films, Focus Features
Produced In: South Korea

Watch the full trailer of the movie Thirst:


The English Version Trailer:


Like his story, Park's camera wanders freely, though not in the dizzying way he favors on occasion. It will just occasionally wander around a room, frame something through a door left ajar, or otherwise capture a world that is far off-kilter. Or capture a lot of skin; in a movie about lusts run wild, Park doesn't hold much back at all (there was early speculation that relative unknown Kim got the part because doing a film with this much nudity could be a career-killer in Asia), where either sex or violence is concerned.

Song Kang-ho and Mercedes Cabral in Focus Features' Thirst - 2009

That's the basic set-up; after Park gets that in place, Thirst meanders a little. It's not that he doesn't know what to do with the story so much as once a situation has played out a little, it leads to a new situation where it might be fun to see what happens next, and so on. Yes, a far more direct path could be taken to the end from almost-the-end, but then you'd miss the demented-sitcom stuff, which contains a rich vein of gold, leading up to a final scene that somehow manages to be both tragic and playful, displaying the same this-leads-to-this-leads-to-this of the rest of the movie in microcosm. In fact, it occasionally seems that Park and co-writer Jeong Seo-gyeong are trying to make a vampire film that is everything but a horror movie - there's a lot more black comedy, melodrama, and suspense than there is fear.



Kim Ok-bin in Focus Features' Thirst - 2009

The two main characters are fine when good, and then amazing when bad. Song Kang-ho invests Sang-hyun with an almost pathological need to do good that can serve as his undoing as both a man and a vampire.