Thoughts on Thirst

Wednesday, November 24, 2010 8:34 PM By Simon

-Park Chan-wook. If you are a movie lover worth your shit, you need no more reason.

-Fine. A priest (Song Kang-ho, who was the dad in Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, if you care, which of course you do), grieved by the tragedies of the world, volunteers himself for a potential vaccine of a deadly, mysterious disease (where he goes is French speaking, possibly African, as they make a point of noting that only Caucasians and Asians are being affected by the disease, but as always/probably, I could be wrong). He contracts it, and gets a blood transfusion that, yeah, makes him all vampire-y (as in, all the cool traits of vampires, but none of that glittery shit). Upon returning, he falls in love with the wife (Kim Ok-bin) of a childhood friend (Shin Ha-kyun, or, uh, Ryu, as anyone listening to the beginning of the paragraph will know). And then some nasty shit happens, obviously.

-There are some great scenes in this. Like, how when the priest demonstrates to the wife (I'll name them eventually) how he can jump across rooftops, the camera focuses on her giddy face rather than the actually jumping. And how (SPOILERS) at the very end (SPOILERS) the priest and the wife are silently wrestling (LAST FUCKING CHANCE) for the car keys, then the car trunk, then the car itself, as sunrise comes soon and, while the priest, tired of the dark road he's taken, and the monster he's created, wants them both to die, and she, uh, doesn't.

-And then there's the screeching violins.

3 comments:

Alex said...

This movie is so. fucking. good. Actually my first Park Chan-wook film, after which I devoured all of his others that are available in the US. The ending is indeed an amazing sequence.

November 25, 2010 at 9:24 AM
The Taxi Driver said...

I don't get what's so good about this movie. It's good for a little while but then it gets bloated and over-stylized. Another alright entry into a career that has produced one good movie (Oldboy) and a lot of interesting ones that never really get above that level.

November 25, 2010 at 5:17 PM
Simon said...

Alex: Are there any of his movies not available in the US?

Mike Lippert: ...I encourage opinion, of course...gah...

November 26, 2010 at 6:14 PM