Year Of The Vampire: In Thirst, Park Chan-Wook Took The Lust For Life To Its Bloodiest Limits – /Film

In "Thirst," the two central characters are governed by repressive forces. For Tae-ju, it's her family, which literally locks her in at night. For Sang-hyun, it's his religion, which necessitates resisting temptation.

Tae-ju says she's not a shy person implying that she's inhibited more by circumstance and as the movie grows more twisty and twisted, we see just how true that is. Sang-hyun wants to run away with her, but she manipulates him to her own murderous ends. Despite this being a vampire movie, she's ready to pull a "Place in the Sun" boat maneuver on her husband.

Becoming a vampire by way of a warped "birthday" party reveals how truly monstrous Tae-ju (and human nature in general) can be when left unchecked. In contrast to Sang-hyun, Tae-ju doesn't believe in hell, so she has no compunctions about killing. If anything, she enjoys it, since for her, blood taken rather than given tastes better, whereas Sang-hyun goes for the easy blood in hospitals.

At the beginning, "Thirst" registers as sarcastic in its portrayal of priestliness, with Sang-hyun reassuring a sick patient that his good deeds will be remembered "absoposilutely." Yet by the end, he's ready to do some good deeds of his own: saving the innocent Filipina, freeing people of their belief in a false saint, and ridding the world of two beings who can only live by feeding on human blood.

"Thirst" takes it vampires on a journey of liberation, allowing them to leap from rooftops and away from social constraints until bloodshed erupts and there's nowhere left to go but into the sunlight. For all its abandon, Park's film recognizes that there is such a thing as drinking too much of life, and it finds a certain bittersweet resolve in being stuck with each other.

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Year Of The Vampire: In Thirst, Park Chan-Wook Took The Lust For Life To Its Bloodiest Limits - /Film

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero