Thirst
By Chan-wook Park
Chan-wook Park has done it again—he crafted a wonderful genre film that defied its genre. Essentially Thirst is a vampire film, but in actuality it’s completely different from that genre. Sure general ideas of vampire-ism is there, but the main character is afflicted more with a moral battle than one of finding blood. Kang-ho Song returns in his third appearance in Park’s work (the first being Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, and again in Lady Vengeance) as Sang-hyeon, a priest who volunteers for a medical study to find a cure for a fatal disease. The disease in question appears to be similar to leprosy as the victim is covered in ghastly boils all over their body, and eventually dies from it. On the compound he dies as do most other participants, yet on the operating table after his death is declared Sang-hyeon comes back to life, and is deemed a miracle.
He returns to his position as a priest giving last rites to terminal patients at a hospital, but is now more sensitive to daylight and has heightened senses, and has an unusual thirst for blood. It’s not really explained how he becomes a vampire, but just sort of is. The boils return to his body throughout the film and can only disappear after he’s consumed blood—usually through an IV via his comatose patients at the hospital. After a run in at the hospital he reconnects with an old childhood friend and begins to visit him and his family to play Mahjong at their home. It’s quickly discovered that this family is quite dysfunctional and the wife of his childhood friend (Tae-joo) becomes quite attached to Sang-hyeon. After a torrid love affair Tae-joo and Sang-hyeon discover each other’s secrets and form an even closer relationship when Sang-hyeon eventually turns her into a vampire.
What makes this film more interesting than any other film of this genre, is that Sang-hyeon is not your typical vampire, he’s afflicted with moral dilemmas and does not typically willingly feed on his victims he does so to survive, not to fulfill his thirst. Tae-joo on the other hand is the opposite, and enjoys too much her newly acquired taste for blood. Sang-hyeon must teach her responsibility, and ultimately ends in disagreement and a very poetic death between the two.
Park has always been very good at bringing his characters close to violence and other situations of extremity yet provides a point of view that doesn’t alienate the audience from those actions. You really participate in Sang-hyeon’s moral dilemmas and hope he makes the right decisions. Despite being a vampire/horror film, Park provides emotional clarity and focus to the issue at hand—if you became a vampire could you bring yourself to commit acts of violence and depravity to survive.