Korean director Park Chan-wook (“Oldboy,” “Lady Vengeance”) and co-screenwriter Chung Seo-kyung cite Émile Zola’s 1867 novel “Thérèse Raquin” as their inspiration for this sci-fi supernatural thriller with black comic threads: a couple kills for love, with her all-seeing stroke-impaired mute in-law and foster mother (it’s not so complicated) as their only witness. Park’s mahjong replaces Zola’s dominoes, but “Thirst” undergoes more than a transplant of details to Korea. The plot is embellished to excess with material that fails to mesh. Sang-hyeon (Kang-ho Song from “The Host”) is a priest who volunteers as a test subject in an experiment to find a vaccine for the lethal, leperous Emmanuel Virus. Only Africans seems immune. By freakish providence, the martyr-minded priest survives. A cult arises to seek healing. But a blood transfusion has turned him into a vampire. At first his blood intake is strictly for medical reasons. Other tastes soon intrude. Secular temptations—Seven Deadly Sins, if you’re counting—include a friend’s wife, Tae-ju (Kim Ok-vin) who tricks her savior into believing her lout of a husband abuses her. She begs to swing in the bloodsucking lifestyle. Gothic melodrama goes nutty with theological handwringing and splattering gore. “Thirst” over-serves. With Kim Hae-sook, Shin Ha-kyun, and Park In-hwan. 133m. (Bill Stamets)
Ray Pride is Newcity’s Senior Editor and Film Critic. He is a contributing editor of Filmmaker magazine.
Ray’s history of Chicago Ghost Signs is planned for publication next year. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram. More photography on Instagram.
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Korean director Park Chan-wook (“Oldboy,” “Lady Vengeance”) and co-screenwriter Chung Seo-kyung cite Émile Zola’s 1867 novel “Thérèse Raquin” as their inspiration for this sci-fi supernatural thriller with black comic threads: a couple kills for love, with her all-seeing stroke-impaired mute in-law and foster mother (it’s not so complicated) as their only witness. Park’s mahjong replaces Zola’s dominoes, but “Thirst” undergoes more than a transplant of details to Korea. The plot is embellished to excess with material that fails to mesh. Sang-hyeon (Kang-ho Song from “The Host”) is a priest who volunteers as a test subject in an experiment to find a vaccine for the lethal, leperous Emmanuel Virus. Only Africans seems immune. By freakish providence, the martyr-minded priest survives. A cult arises to seek healing. But a blood transfusion has turned him into a vampire. At first his blood intake is strictly for medical reasons. Other tastes soon intrude. Secular temptations—Seven Deadly Sins, if you’re counting—include a friend’s wife, Tae-ju (Kim Ok-vin) who tricks her savior into believing her lout of a husband abuses her. She begs to swing in the bloodsucking lifestyle. Gothic melodrama goes nutty with theological handwringing and splattering gore. “Thirst” over-serves. With Kim Hae-sook, Shin Ha-kyun, and Park In-hwan. 133m. (Bill Stamets)
