Thirst (2009)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Did you people see the same film I saw?

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

I am continually amazed at Korean movie endeavors, they really really get it, and take it all and turn it up a notch.The depth of all the vampire principles... sex... violence... hunger... corruption of innocence...Wow guys.All that, and a thread of humanity.Originality in all areas. From the unique cinematic violence, to sex, love story, camera perspective, and poignant horror.I'll be watching this a few times, it is such a new take I feel I must have missed things, it is so different and yet so familiar. "refreshing" is somehow the right word.You know what I mean if I say Pacific Rim turned it up a notch for Japanese monster movies ? ( but lower budget like, The Host ) We have something like that going on here for vampires.They don't need a bigger budget. They are already in the sweet spot. ( Pontypool ) I would add "Jaws" but they didn't quite have the Oscar moments / character of Robert Shaw. Pontypool is thus closer in a right-brain/artistic way of comparison; where Pontypool was zombies, here we're talking vampires.Recently I saw Only Lover's Left Alive and while that had powerful actors and amazing story telling... here we had a similar but slightly different perspective that did not need to rely on the Oscar caliber actors. In native Korean language maybe I could relate it better, but for an English speaking audience I can't go to Oscar performance. Good, solid, and even great. Sure.I have to imagine if you like the vampire genre you have no choice but to be nodding your head and going "yeah! that was cool! whoa..." out-loud in amazement as you watch this one too.

(I'm not from South Korea so maybe that's why I didn't like this film that much) This film was weird. The scenes between the characters was weird. The sexual scenes were particularly weird. However, throughout the film I was never bored. In a strange way I wanted to keep on watching the film despite it not being that good.It wasn't really a good film. It didn't really make any real sense. It was an extremely weird film to watch. I felt no connection towards any of the characters and some scenes were confusing.Overall, I wouldn't recommend this film. It was somewhat boring but once you started watching it you want to keep on watching it because it's so weird.

More excellent film-making from Park Chan-wook, who shows no signs of flagging in his quest to bring his unique brand of inventive and unique movies to the world. This is his version of a traditional vampire movie, and while it's not quite as quirky as I'd expected from this director, it certainly packs a punch and proves a breath of fresh air in a cinematic world inundated by the latest Twilight movies.Put simply, THIRST holds your attention. The storyline, about a priest who finds himself infected with a blood virus and then is slowly transformed into a bloodsucker, is never less than thoroughly entertaining. It goes without saying that the direction is flawless – every scene and sequence is expertly crafted, leaving no margin for error. Emphasis is on characterisation throughout, which is always a strong point, and the actors have the talent to fully bring their roles to life; the main actress is particularly fascinating.Overall, this is a gruesome, gripping, melancholic look at the world of the vampire. Be warned, it's explicit and often in your face, but as with the rest of the director's output, this is a film that sets out to challenge assumptions and overcome cliché. It works a treat.

I felt that this movie was weird weird weird, and that's no easy statement especially when the movie in question is directed by the guy who did Oldboy, Lady Vengeance etc. This has got to be one of the strangest movies I've seen in a long time. I know that vampire movies inherently have a strange streak through them, but in this case - in my opinion - was detrimental to the movie as a whole. We get what we've come to expect from the director: dark, moody sets; humour as black as tar; quirky characters all playing to a baroque-style strings accompaniment, with a healthy splash of the old vermilion. A vampire movie should be prime Park material, but I think he seems to have over-indulged himself a little bit here - the movie was just way too long for its own good, and nothing much really happens for the first 3/4 of the movie, and then all the necessary action just seems to be crammed into the last 1/4. I was really looking forward to watching this for a long time, but truth be told, i was slightly disappointed - feels too much like a perfect opportunity was missed.