Being someone who hates movies involving vampires, it is nice to see a movie like “Thirst” come out and put its own inventive spin on a genre that is getting really old really quick. Sure, it isn’t the greatest movie and definitely has its flaws. But at this point, with all the crap movies coming out involving vampires, it’s just refreshing to see something develop its storyline and characters.
The film focuses on Sang-hyun, played by Song Kang-ho. He is a priest who volunteers at the local hospital and provides ministry to its patients. After a troubling experience in which he watches a patient die, Sang-hyun volunteers to participate in an experiment to find a vaccine for the deadly Emmanuel Virus (EV), with the hope of saving lives. The experiment fails disastrously, and he is infected with the fatal disease but somehow makes a complete and rapid recovery after receiving a blood transfusion.
At this point, Sang-hyun becomes a celebrity, just one of the many interesting things the movie has to offer in terms of its uniqueness. Vampire films tend to have their characters not being popular to mainstream society, so seeing Sang-hyun deal with being noticeable and unable to blend in is an interesting concept to see play out.
As with most newly-discovered celebrities, Sang-hyun is reunited with a childhood friend and is quickly attracted to his future wife, Tae-ju. The two immediately click, as she lives a boring life and Sang-hyun offers her some level of excitement. The middle portion of the film is devoted mostly to establishing the two’s relationship, one that easily rivals some other vampire movie’s couple.
At this point, though, the film gets a little too comfortable. It takes too long for the film to get to the point where it shows Sang-hyun as a vampire and doing vampire things. And while the relationship at the film’s center is greatly developed, it is also carried out and shown a little bit too much. Once it’s established how great of a connection the two have, it would have been nice for it to shift gears. But it seems to focus a lot on showing the pair enjoying each other’s company. It isn’t a bad decision, just not the right one.
Once the film does shift gears, though, it becomes once again a work of genius. Producer, director and screenwriter for the film, Park Chan-wook, shows exemplary talent in the film’s last half hour. He takes the film in a totally different direction than typical vampire films do, and the result is something that is captivating and thrilling. To explain in detail what happens and how it unfolds would spoil its excellence. It catches the viewer off guard, and it pays off tremendously once the credits start to roll.
Whether “Thirst” is a memorable film, only time will tell. But for right now, it’s entertaining and unique enough to make itself worthwhile. Though perhaps a little too long, it at least shows signs of caring about the viewers’ reactions to it. It cares about being good, telling a story and making things interesting. And that, in and of itself, is commendable.
