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FROM MTV.COM: A movie about a priest who's transformed into a vampire might inspire some deep noodling about Catholic liturgy, no doubt. And that could be what Park Chan-wook, the waywardly brilliant South Korean director (and onetime philosophy student), had in mind in making his latest film, "Thirst." But just when we've set our brains on ponder, the picture muddies all hope of contemplation with flashes of the fearlessly eccentric imagery for which Park has become famous, and some of the slurpiest sex scenes to be found in any recent R-rated movie.

Park's narratives are ... challenging, you might say. Here, the virtuous priest, Sang-hyun (played by frequent Park associate Song Kang-ho), after volunteering to be a test subject in the search for a cure for a mysterious disease, finds himself developing a taste for blood. At first, being a gentle soul, or possibly just lazy, he siphons it out of comatose patients at the hospital where he ministers. Then he becomes involved with Tae-ju (irresistibly ornery Kim Ok-vin), the unhappy wife of his childhood friend Kang-woo (Shin Ha-kyun, another Park vet). Tae-ju eventually learns the priest's secret and is intrigued ("Vampires are cuter than I thought"). Soon he puts the bite on her — but quickly regrets it. Tae-ju has none of Sang-hyun's spiritual conflicts about bloodsuckery (she's not Catholic!), and before long she's mocking his nonviolent approach to slaking the ancient thirst. ("You easy-blood-drinking coward!") An instinctive traditionalist, she eagerly embarks on a round of throat-ripping depredations among the local populace, resulting in the sort of problems that a hundred years of vampire movies might lead you to expect.

Continue reading 'Thirst': Drinking Problem, By Kurt Loder

Tags Park Chan-wook, Thirst