[Our thanks to Guillem Rosset for the following review from the Sitges Festival.]
Park Chan-wook's movies are always quite an experience. After the worldwide recognition achieved with his Vengeance Trilogy, every aspect of Park's new films are followed with expectation and he's become a usual suspect of film festivals around the globe. So nobody's surprised to find him in the International Sitges Film Festival (which celebrates its 42nd edition this year), where he's presenting his new film: Thirst.
The story goes like this: Sang-hyeon (played by Song Kang-ho) is a priest, devoted to help others and respected by his community for his rectitude and goodness. But he's not satisfied, and one day he decides to travel to Africa to offer himself voluntary for a dangerous new vaccine test. Against all odds he's the only one test subject to remain alive, only to soon discover some weird side effects: the good priest turns into a bloodthirsty vampire. The struggle between his morals and his new impulses starts getting worse when he begins to be attracted for an old friend's wife. She was taken in as a child by her husband's family, and she's been living as their servant since, treated like a dog. As their relationship evolves they begin to discover the pleasures of flesh and blood, but not everything is like it seems and they slowly start descending into an spiral of violence which Sang-hyeon will try to stop before it's too late.
Apparently this looks like an ordinary vampire film...love story? Check. Moral dilemmas regarding where to get the blood? Check. The change from human to beast? Check. But in a Park Chan-wook movie there's no place for conventionalism and he doesn't hesitate to bring the story to his territory. For starters, Park strips away the classical vampire cliches: there's no long sharp fangs, the vampires do reflect in mirrors and they're not affected by crucifixes nor holy water (of course, remember Sang-hyeon's a priest, right?). The choice the main character being a priest is by no means casual as is one of the film's main themes. His whole world's turned upside down, forced to change from drinking the blood of Christ to human blood, torn apart between his faith and morals and the thirst for blood and carnal pleasures. Park also gets rid of the stereotypical young innocent woman seduced by the charming vampire, and instead places her in the dominant role, guiding the naive unexperienced priest down the paths of sex and love.
These internal conflicts are brought to screen by the wonderful performances of the starring couple, Song Kang-ho and Kim Ok-vin. The movie mixes different moods, ranging from comedy to pure drama, and with some romance in between. There are intense scenes, charged with an eroticism that feels very real thanks to the actors' work. Kim Ok-vin can look gorgeous at times, just to look completely deranged and crazy at the next one. The film, as expected, is outstanding from a technical point of view. Park Chan-wook's visual power remains intact, offering frames of pictoric quality, combined with great camera work. There's a lot of blood in this movie, but it never gets disgusting, instead it's used to create strong visuals (the sudden red spurt of blood against the white background, very pretty).
It's by no means a perfect film. It starts with an uneven pace, where the story advances in quick bursts creating an initial confusion about what's going on. Once the main character's turned into a vampire things start to improve, but there's a couple of times when the film seems a little stretched (though it never gets boring).
As a final point, the movie won't disappoint Park Chan-wook's fans, but probably won't attract those who didn't enjoy his previous films. Park's objectives were to create a vampire's film, trying to create something original without losing his style in the process. And sure as hell he accomplished them.
Review by Guillem Rosset
Park Chan-wook's movies are always quite an experience. After the worldwide recognition achieved with his Vengeance Trilogy, every aspect of Park's new films are followed with expectation and he's become a usual suspect of film festivals around the globe. So nobody's surprised to find him in the International Sitges Film Festival (which celebrates its 42nd edition this year), where he's presenting his new film: Thirst.
The story goes like this: Sang-hyeon (played by Song Kang-ho) is a priest, devoted to help others and respected by his community for his rectitude and goodness. But he's not satisfied, and one day he decides to travel to Africa to offer himself voluntary for a dangerous new vaccine test. Against all odds he's the only one test subject to remain alive, only to soon discover some weird side effects: the good priest turns into a bloodthirsty vampire. The struggle between his morals and his new impulses starts getting worse when he begins to be attracted for an old friend's wife. She was taken in as a child by her husband's family, and she's been living as their servant since, treated like a dog. As their relationship evolves they begin to discover the pleasures of flesh and blood, but not everything is like it seems and they slowly start descending into an spiral of violence which Sang-hyeon will try to stop before it's too late.
Apparently this looks like an ordinary vampire film...love story? Check. Moral dilemmas regarding where to get the blood? Check. The change from human to beast? Check. But in a Park Chan-wook movie there's no place for conventionalism and he doesn't hesitate to bring the story to his territory. For starters, Park strips away the classical vampire cliches: there's no long sharp fangs, the vampires do reflect in mirrors and they're not affected by crucifixes nor holy water (of course, remember Sang-hyeon's a priest, right?). The choice the main character being a priest is by no means casual as is one of the film's main themes. His whole world's turned upside down, forced to change from drinking the blood of Christ to human blood, torn apart between his faith and morals and the thirst for blood and carnal pleasures. Park also gets rid of the stereotypical young innocent woman seduced by the charming vampire, and instead places her in the dominant role, guiding the naive unexperienced priest down the paths of sex and love.
These internal conflicts are brought to screen by the wonderful performances of the starring couple, Song Kang-ho and Kim Ok-vin. The movie mixes different moods, ranging from comedy to pure drama, and with some romance in between. There are intense scenes, charged with an eroticism that feels very real thanks to the actors' work. Kim Ok-vin can look gorgeous at times, just to look completely deranged and crazy at the next one. The film, as expected, is outstanding from a technical point of view. Park Chan-wook's visual power remains intact, offering frames of pictoric quality, combined with great camera work. There's a lot of blood in this movie, but it never gets disgusting, instead it's used to create strong visuals (the sudden red spurt of blood against the white background, very pretty).
It's by no means a perfect film. It starts with an uneven pace, where the story advances in quick bursts creating an initial confusion about what's going on. Once the main character's turned into a vampire things start to improve, but there's a couple of times when the film seems a little stretched (though it never gets boring).
As a final point, the movie won't disappoint Park Chan-wook's fans, but probably won't attract those who didn't enjoy his previous films. Park's objectives were to create a vampire's film, trying to create something original without losing his style in the process. And sure as hell he accomplished them.
Review by Guillem Rosset