Park Chan-wook’s Thirst is part of “Vampire Weekends” midnight series at IFC
THIRST (Park Chan-wook, 2009)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
Friday, October 14, and Saturday, October 15, midnight
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com
Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes, Park Chan-wook’s Thirst is a different kind of vampire movie. Inspired by Émile Zola’s novel Thérèse Raquin, the creepy Korean flick stars Song Kang-ho (The Host, Memories of Murder) as Sang-hyun, a friendly priest who volunteers to participate in a dangerous experimental program that is attempting to develop a vaccine for a deadly virus. Unfortunately, he succumbs to the disease, his body covered in nasty boils, but he surprisingly arises, reborn, with a deep desire to suck some blood. However, he still is the same friendly priest with a moral soul, so he is unwilling to kill to fill his belly. As he gains superhuman strength, he grows closer to Tae-ju (Kim Ok-vin), the virtually imprisoned adopted sister / wife of a goofy childhood friend (Shin Ha-kyun) who is cared for by his doting mother (Kim Hae-sook). But as Sang-hyun and Tae-ju get hot and heavy — one particular sex scene is among the hottest in a good movie since Jean-Jacques Beineix’s Betty Blue in 1986 — their thirst threatens to overwhelm them and everyone around them. Eschewing standard vampire lore — don’t look for garlic, crucifixes, bats, wooden stakes, or a Van Helsing-like character — Park (Joint Security Area, the Vengeance trilogy) examines the complex spirituality and sexuality of a man of the cross, a figure always dressed in black (reminiscent of Count Dracula) who is forced to challenge his faith and humanity. At 133 minutes, Thirst is a half hour too long, with several scenes that could have served as an ending, but hang in there; no one can tell a story like Park Chan-wook, even if he is an acquired taste — like, say, blood.
Thirst is screening at midnight on October 14 and 15 in the IFC Center series “Vampire Weekends,” consisting of half a dozen horror favorites being shown in conjunction with the release of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire on AMC/AMC+. The series continues through November 5 with Tony Scott’s The Hunger, Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk til Dawn, and Michael Rymer’s Queen of the Damned. Park’s latest film, Decision to Leave, which earned him Best Director honors at Cannes, was a selection of the sixtieth New York Film Festival and opens at Lincoln Center on October 19.