DVD Review: Excellent ‘Thirst’ Deserves Better Treatment

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CHICAGO – Easily one of the most interesting and original films of 2009, “Thirst” deserves at least the basic Blu-Ray treatment being given nearly every theatrically released film in the current market or, failing that, at least a special edition DVD. Instead, Focus/Universal has gone the baffling route of releasing a bare bones disc featuring only the film. The movie itself is great enough to warrant a look, but that’s in spite of its home release.

DVD Rating: 4.0/5.0

From the director of “Oldboy” and “Lady Vengeance,” Park Chan-wook’s “Thirst” is an inventive and daring examination of desire, faith, sacrifice, and sin. With “Thirst,” Park cements his status as one of the most interesting filmmakers of the ’00s. Forget “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” or even “Let the Right One In,” “Thirst” is a truly unique entry in the genre, a use of the vamp mythology to comment on all desires or “thirsts” that are forbidden. He almost treats vampirism as a gateway drug to other sins. When we cross the line of drinking human blood, what’s left to stop us?

The protagonist of “Thirst” (Song Kang-Ho) has denied himself temptation for his entire life in his role as a Roman Catholic priest. He volunteers for a medical experiment of which he is only survivor. The problem is that his survival is due to a transfusion that turns him into someone who needs to drink blood to survive and communal wine just isn’t going to cut it any more.

Thirst was released on DVD on November 17th, 2009.
Photo credit: Universal Home Video

Our hero drinks the blood of comatose victims to stay alive until he meets the practically captive Tae-Ju (Kim Ok-vin) who awakens something deeper inside of him. Soon, he is making passionate love to this young woman and the two form a twisted pair, she fascinated by what this creature has awoke in her and how it can save her from her miserable life and he by going further and further to feed all of his thirsts – of the blood and of the flesh.

The dramatic crux of “Thirst” is the moral dilemma of a man of the cloth given into carnal and morally reprehensible pleasures by what is essentially a disease given to him through no fault of his own (in fact, it was a charitable act that led him down this road). Vampire mythology is almost always about an innocent giving into temptation before being turned. Not this time. And the moral gray areas examined by the film makes for riveting cinema, especially for a genre entry. There are more interesting ideas in twenty minutes of “Thirst” that dozens of other vampire movies combined (yes, that includes “Twilight”).

But “Thirst” is far from just a philosophical exercise. Park’s visual eye is one of the most amazing in the world of cinema today. Some of the imagery in the film is jaw-droppingly creative and should have been made available in HD on Blu-Ray. Shame on Universal for checking the “DVD only” box on this one.

“Thirst” has a bit of a pacing problem and a bit of a sense that Park may be trying to do too much in one film. It takes awhile to build up steam and shouldn’t run 133 minutes. There’s an amazing 110-minute movie buried in this very good 133-minute one. Although the final act is an amazing thing to behold. The ending alone is a work of art that makes “Thirst” worth a look.

Park Chan-wook is a daring, innovative director. Tartan Video understood that and turned his vengeance trilogy (“Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance,” “Oldboy,” “Lady Vengeance”) into must-own special editions (all of which will be released on Blu-Ray early next year and we hope to have a review of them then.) Sadly, Focus doesn’t give Park the treatment that Tartan did. At least not yet. After people see this film and word-of-mouth builds like it did on “Oldboy,” don’t be surprised to see a special edition down the road. Movies this good don’t disappear with shoddy treatment like this.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com