To end the night of Saturday, one of the most anticipated movies of this year's Fantas, "Thirst" by Park Chan-wook, director of the brilliant "Oldboy," which has won the jury prize at the last Cannes festival. Vampire movie to disguise a tragic story of love and poetry, between a priest and a married woman and virgin united by a thirst for blood.
But if "Oldboy" is a film that smacks of perfection, "Thirst" failure to maintain the tension until the end. Sang-hyun (Song Kang-ho excellent, the same as "The Host") is a priest who, unselfish , submits to medical experiments in search of a cure for a deadly virus that almost kills him. The blood that saves his life was a vampire and man of faith will develop a voracious appetite for the pleasures of the flesh. When he meets Tae-ju (fantastic Ok-bin Kim) who has not consummated a marriage with a childhood friend of Kang-ho, will be born a bloody fascination between the two when, together, they try to break free of their burdens.
"Thirst" is a plastic strain that involves the viewer from the first minute and remain throughout the film. As a director, Park Chan-wook knows how to give the material the right tone to stand out their motivations and emotions that move the stories. Here, the problem is that even the story. If the premise has all the elements that provide an excellent film, its narrative development opens holes whose filling disperse the viewer's attention, and the bored during much of the film. I speak of the love triangle and its aftermath. Anything that involves her husband Tae-ju seems out of place and the rest of the story is not nearly as interesting as the main storyline, which takes forever to return. Since the character of the mother, and the fact that knowing the terrible secret, which provides the basis of return to conflict and its resolution, which is of the most beautiful and poetic film that gave us recently.
"Thirst" is therefore an uneven film, which could be shorter and better if they stick to the essentials. Still, there is no genius moments of overwhelming beauty and decay. The photography is magnificent and produces images that are on the senses. The special effects are modest and characterization but not perfectly suited to the intentions of the flamboyant filmmaker.
In conclusion, this has not been that Chan-wook Park repeated the brilliance of "Oldboy," but this "Thirst" is nevertheless one of the best movies you will see this year. It takes the same sort of " The Horde ", although not as well done, but whose aims were much higher.
Rating: 4 / 5
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