The word on Thirst

By Nick Dawson On May 11, 2009

Following its high profile international premiere at Cannes this month, Korean auteur Park Chan-wook's latest movie, Thirst, will be released by Focus Features in July.

The vampire movie was released in its native Korea a week or so ago to great success, and now some word on the film has arrived from Screen International's Darcy Paquet. Here are a few snippets from that review:

"Thirst is not, as some observers expected, a return to a more audience friendly approach - Park is aiming far above the heads of mainstream viewers.  But even as it confounds some audiences, Thirst's sheer creativity and cinematic brio will drive word of mouth..."

"Intriguingly, Park takes Emile Zola's 1867 novel Therese Raquin as the starting point for his story. Sang-hyun (Song) is a Catholic priest who, in an act of moral desperation, volunteers for a dangerous medical experiment in Africa to combat a deadly disease. Contracting the virus, he is at the point of dying when a blood transfusion from an unknown source revives him. Returning to Korea, the symptoms of the disease linger, but he is able to stave them off by giving in to his new, insatiable desire to drink human blood. To his disgust, he realizes that he has become a vampire."

"Since his breakthrough with Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance in 2002, Park's work has been characterised by its visual inventiveness, dark humour, intense acting performances, and strange but compelling shifts in tone. The first 90 minutes of Thirst is a robust display of these talents, but it is anchored in a melancholic lyricism that is new to Park's oeuvre. Although the focus of its narrative movement is not always clear, in its best moments, Thirst offers something of the poetic force of cinema's timeless masterpieces."

You can read the whole review online here.