Curiouser and curiouser. Old Boy director Park Chan-wook returns with – wait for it - Émile Zola’s Thérèse Raquin reconfigured as a vampire flick. Mad, huh? A Jury Prize winner at Cannes earlier this year, Thirst offers a weird and wonderful comic book universe of deftly shifting tones. One minute you’re wading through Catholic variety sadomasochism, the next you’re in Cinderella, a movie by David Lynch. Sometimes, Thirst looks like Twilight; at other moments it’s the razzmatazz of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Just what on earth is going on here?
Like the source material, Thirst is, at heart, a warning to be careful what you wish for. Sang-hyun (Mr. Song) is a dedicated priest whose free time is spent volunteering at the local hospital and performing the last rites for victims of the mysterious Emmanuel Virus. To reaffirm his faith, the young minister volunteers for an experimental vaccine. Of 50 subjects, he is the only survivor and is greeted at home as a saint. Ironically, the vampire cells now coursing through his veins and keeping him alive are anything but holy. While he initially resists his new carnal impulses, the maltreated wife of an old friend (Kim) soon inspires passion and murder. If True Blood was an erotically charged killing spree, this is how it would play out. Mr. Park’s vampires get a kick out of testing the limits of their powers, trying new and dangerous things, but their immortality and recklessness dooms them to domestic unhappiness. For Sang-hyun, eternal life is endless bickering, seething jealousy, and consuming guilt.
This exciting new spin on vampire lore is not without its flaws. Mr. Park’s attempts to replicate vampire carnality onscreen too often result in over-extended sex scenes and tortured looks. But for all the vampire flicks on the 2009 bandwagon, you won’t see anything like this.