Starring: Song Kang-ho, Kim Ok-vin, Kim Hae-sook, Shin Ka-hyun
Director: Park Chan-wook
Category: III (Korean)
In the preface to his novel Therese Raquin, Emile Zola states his intention of demonstrating the 'total absence of the soul'. His story of a sanguine man's affair with an unhappily married woman, the Frenchman writes, is a 'scientific' study of the clash of human temperaments, with the aim of seeking the animal in human characters that are 'devoid of free will'.
If only Park Chan-wook had heeded those words when he used Zola's story as the basis for his vampire drama, Thirst. Park's film starts as a poised piece about religion and redemption, but soon spins out of control through a mix of awkward melodrama and goofy comedy.
Thirst begins brightly as the protagonist is introduced. Gentle, dutiful priest Sang-hyun (Song Kang-ho, above right) is a tortured soul, his benign appearance belying his struggle to comprehend the workings of a cruel world. His confusion is compounded by his dual role as spiritual mentor and hospital worker, prescribing both prayers and pills to his parishioners-cum-patients.
As his melancholy slowly segues into depression, he makes a move akin to suicide: he volunteers to head to Africa to take part in an experiment seeking a vaccine for a deadly disease.