It was only a matter of time before Chan-wook Park, Korean auteur of stylish and bloody revenge and horror films, got on the vampire bandwagon. And
Thirst is stylish and bloody, with a garnish of religion and self-analysis, as Park regular, Kang-ho Song, a Catholic priest turned vampiric through a blood transfusion, agonises over what his God-given needs are now that they mostly consist of blood. Gradually, of course, his appetites start getting the better of him, though more in that sexual desire now proves overwhelming.
While Park's films are always value for money in so far as you never quite know how the next scene will play out, he may have made a mistake in choosing such a depleted genre. Nausea, sunlight, enhanced powers - the formula's growing stale and it takes more than this to revitalise it. And the director seems to have taken a step backwards with the denouement too, which is nicked wholesale from an otherwise inferior Hollywood vamp flick. Perhaps Korean cinema exists in a bubble too.
5/10
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