A truly bizarre movie, a tragicomedy that Graham Greene might have written in collaboration with Bram Stoker. But it's repetitive and overstays its initial welcome.
Thirst (2009)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:95
Fresh:78
Rotten:17
Average Rating:6.8/10
Consensus: The stylish Thirst packs plenty of bloody thrills to satisfy fans of both vampire films and director Chan Wook Park.
Rated: 18 [See Full Rating] for graphic bloody violence, disturbing images, strong sexual content, nudity and language.
Runtime: 2 hrs 13 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Theatrical Release:16-10-2009
Synopsis:
Sang-hyun is a priest who cherishes life; so much so, that he selflessly volunteers for a secret vaccine development project meant to eradicate a deadly virus. But the virus takes the priest, and a...
Sang-hyun is a priest who cherishes life; so much so, that he selflessly volunteers for a secret vaccine development project meant to eradicate a deadly virus. But the virus takes the priest, and a blood transfusion is urgently ordered up for him. The blood he receives is infected, so Sang-hyun lives – but now exists as a vampire. Struggling with his newfound carnal desire for blood, Sang-hyun’s faith is further strained when a childhood friend’s wife, Tae-ju (Kim Ok-vin), comes to him asking for his help in escaping her life. Sang-hyun soon plunges into a world of sensual pleasures, finding himself on intimate terms with the Seven Deadly Sins.
A CJ Entertainment and Focus Features International presentation of a Moho Film production. A Park Chan-wook Film. Song Kang-ho, Kim Ok-vin. Thirst. Kim Hae-sook, Shin Ha-kyun. Music by Cho Young-uk. Sound Recordist, Jung Gun. Sound Designed by Kim Suk-won, Kim Chang-sub. Costume Designer, Cho Sang-kyung. Make-up and Hair Designer, Song Jong-hee. Production Designer, Ryu Seong-Hie. Edited by Kim Sang-bum, Kim Jae-bum. Visual Effects Supervisor, Lee Jeon-Hyung. Lighting by Park Hyun-won. Cinematographer, Chung Chung-hoon. Investment Executive, Sean Lee. Associate Producer, Joon H. Choi. Co-Executive Producer, Katharine Kim. Executive Producer, Miky Lee. Produced by Park Chan-wook, Ahn Soo-hyun. Inspired by Émile Zola’s Thérèse Raquin. Written by Park Chan-wook, Chung Seo-kyung. Directed by Park Chan-wook. A Focus Features Release.
--© Official Site
Starring: Kang-ho Song, Ha-kyun Shin, Ok-bin Kim, Mercedes Cabral
Starring: Kang-ho Song, Ha-kyun Shin, Ok-bin Kim, Mercedes Cabral, Eriq Ebouaney, Oh Dal-su, Park In-hwan, Song Young-chang
Director: Chan Wook Park
Director: Chan Wook Park
Screenwriter: Chan Wook Park, Seo-Gyeong Jeong
Producer: Chan Wook Park, Ahn Soo-Hyun
Composer: Young-uk Cho
Studio: Focus Features
Reviews for Thirst
Park is clearly an exceptional director capable of being weirdly funny, quirkily fantastical, brutal and sexy, sometimes at one and the same time. There’s no one quite like him.
Park directs with his usual eye-catching skill and attention to gruesome detail, and creates a story with strong emotional resonance.
A rollicking, hysterical splatter-sex-comedy only confirms ‘Thirst’ as one of the year’s more extreme, enjoyable entertainments.
With its rapacious appetites and forceful directing style, is definitely a vampire film for grown-ups.
Red blood and black humour spurt hard as Thirst reveals itself to be one of the most deliciously skewed incisions into the vampire romance subgenre.
There’s plenty to get your teeth into – just a shame you’ve got to wait so long for the main course.
A baroque shocker of sensuous unease and cinematic excess marbled with veins of jet-black comedy, Thirst is far from a perfect film, but it might still prove to be a great one.
Chan-wook's film is as gluttonous and stylish as I'm a Cyborg, but fortunately Thirst's renewed appetite for bloodlust and self-annihilation suits the director's pyrotechnics better.
While its most dazzling scenes recall David Cronenberg’s The Fly and Schrader’s Catpeople, it topples into self-parody in spells, as if John Waters was remaking In The Realm Of The Senses.
A fresh spin on the vampire myth resulting in a wildly inventive and blackly comic horror. Pity it's got more padding than the average fat suit.
Gruesome, disturbing, definitely over-long but strangely moving, Thirst brings vivid new ideas to an overworked genre.
Once on course, he is uncontrollable. I don’t mean the hero, I mean the director. Park’s gallows wit and visual inventiveness keep us alert for an hour amid the ramshackle story structuring.
The film is way too long, and quite sick, though Park's demented lyricism will stay with you.
Unleashing torrents of stylishly shot blood-letting he mocks the anaemic approach to the carnal undercurrents of vampire lore favoured by western cinema.
An enjoyable, extremely stylish and well acted vampire drama that builds to a terrific finale, though it's also overlong, struggles to find the right tone and drags considerably in the middle section.
The over-long duration makes it a gruelling journey at times, but it's worth sticking to the end, just to see what the hell Park will come up with next.
The heart of Thirst may be a vampire film but its soul is a morality play, while its flesh is a sensuous playground of desire.
Latest News for Thirst
July 30, 2009:
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This week at the movies, we've got the tears of a clown (Funny People, starring Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen), extra-terrestrial visitors upstairs (Aliens in the Attic, starring... More...
July 30, 2009:
Director Park Chan-wook Talks Thirst - RT Interview
Thirst, the story of a priest who becomes a vampire following a failed medical experiment, was one of our favourites at this year's Cannes Film Festival. So when we had the... More...
July 16, 2009:
Park Chan-Wook Coming to Comic-Con for Thirst ![]()
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May 24, 2009:
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Michael Haneke took Cannes' top honour tonight as his film, The White Ribbon, won the prestigious Palme d'Or. It's Haneke's third major Cannes prize but his first Palme d'Or.... More...
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