As the latest Twilight fan-fic opens nationwide, it seems only fitting that I finally get around to writing something about a South Korean vampire film I watched a few weeks ago at The Uptown Theatre. Now most people know director Park Chan-wook for his Vengeance trilogy (Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, Oldboy and Lady Vengeance) or possibly for his segment from the horror film Three Extremes making him one of the better known foreign language film makers in the US. So when I heard he’d be making a vampire film, I was excited at the possibilities, but I got something I never expected.

Thirst follows the story of a priest who undergoes an experimental treatment, during the course of which a blood transfusion transforms him into a vampire. Soon he discovers that if he doesn’t feed, that his disease will return, thus he must soon abandon his morality in order to survive. But that is scarcely his furthest fall.

You see, our priest has a secret, he’s in love with his friend’s wife. And his hunger isn’t simply for blood, but for other things just as carnal. Thus, our intrepid hero must slowly abandon his faith in order to satiate his growing desires. And that’s when Thirst truly blossoms into a modern masterpiece of film making.

While Thirst is a morality play to be sure, and it is full of horror elements, at its heart it is a romance, though a very twisted and dysfunctional one to be sure. As our priest falls deeper in love with the woman of his desires, he makes a rather foolish step that propels the two of them into an unending struggle for dominance of their lives, their relationship and of their hunger.

Following in the footsteps of last year’s outstanding vampire film Let the Right One In, Thirst creates complex and realistic characters that are thrust into worlds they can scarcely imagine let alone control, try as they might. These are people with faults and flaws, and simply craving the taste of blood won’t change that, but it just might amplify their flaws. Thirst simply isn’t just the best vampire movie of the year, its one of the year’s best movies, period.

Tags: film, Foreign, foreign language, Horror, horror film, lady vengeance, Let the Right One In, movie, Movies, oldboy, Park Chan-wook, South Korea, sympathy for mr vengeance, The Uptown, The Uptown Theatre, Thirst, three extremes, trailer, Twilight, vampire, vampire film, vengeance trilogy

Quick and easy entry this week as my choices are pretty close to universally awful. The obvious film to see this weekend is American Teen. This is an outstanding documentary on a group of Indiana High School seniors living out their last year of High School. It is a great little film that truly deserves a huge following. But being an Indie documentary it is probably bound to live in obscurity.

The other interesting film to watch is Midnight Meat Train, if you can find it. Suffering through multiple release delays and a change in directors (controversial Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamura is now in charge) the film was slated for a direct-to-dvd release but is now getting some rather odd treatment by Lionsgate. They have now chosen to have a very small release for the film, 100 screens nationwide, and all of them will be on the secondary market. Meaning you will have to find your local dollar theater and hope they have it, because the odds of the film lasting more then a week are incredibly slim. Is the movie any good? Who knows? But the studio seems terrified of it so that has to account for something, right?

As for DVD releases, The Counterfeiters, the Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language film finally gets a release. While not the best foreign film of last year, it is still a very good movie that is easily worth a rental. Which is more then I can say for Nim’s Island.

As always trailers are after the break! (more…)