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"Thirst" Quinches It
Ponce DeLeon - wrote on 06/03/11
I'm surprised "Thirst" doesn't get more attention. Like "Let the Right One In" it's one of the most creative and quirky of contemporary vampire films. Its combination of supernatural staples like super healing, strength, and the abillity to broad jump way far are anchored to the story of a selfless priest caught up in a fantasy he didn't create.
Director Chan-wook Park is the creative mnd behind such diverse films as "Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance" and "J.S.A. Joint Security Area (excellent film). His scenes are more character focussed in the style of Sergio Leone, than that of other Eastern directors. Anyway, the "Thirst" is a wonderfully rendered runaway horse. Park will strike obliguely at any time. The priest/saint/vampire played by Kang-ho Song is a vampire with a conscience--like most these days. He is more comfortable laying on his back with the receiving end of an IV attached to an unconscious and terminal hospital patient than preying on the human herd, a part unabashedly accepted by his girlfriend. Song is a virtuall untrained, natural actor with a wide range appearing in thoughtless and thoughtless rolds from J.S.A, the Host, and an homage to Leoni called the Good, the Bad and the Wierd.
The movie is packed with curve--pitched insights into both the human, and inhuman, conditions, and, to me, one of the top twenty vampire movies ever made.
