Thirst The Priest Vampire

Review By Kwenton Bellette

Sang-hyeon, a priest who is questioning his faith, volunteers to help in the search for a vaccine for deadly virus by being injected himself. Almost dying, he suddenly makes a miraculous recovery. As he recovers he develops characteristics of vampirism and as he develops a relationship with a young girl he starts to embrace the pleasures of the flesh..

Thirst showcases modern horror by utilizing religious hypocrisy, the internal struggle and misguided revenge. The latter being Park Chan-wook’s specialty considering his prior work, in particular the vengeance trilogy.

The movie begins as Priest Sang-hyeon (Song Kang-ho) enters a patient’s room in a hospital. He is an extremely complicated character full in doubt and brimming with dark thoughts, but still maintains a sensible and professional demeanor. The shadows of leaves are framed in the background on the door as the patient fits into a coma after he talks about how he fed some hungry children with sponge cake. It is an auspicious and ominous beginning and this same story is later used by Sang-hyeon to justify his sin when he drinks from this man.

Sang-hyeon’s demeanor suggests that he questions his beliefs as he acts rather cynical for a man of faith. His blind and disabled ‘Father’ does nothing to quell his indecisions and Sang-hyeon’s helplessness and martyrdom become clear as he gives a heavily masochistic prayer after he dooms himself when he becomes exposed to a virus. He has made his claims of sacrifice to his god who may or may not be listening to him.

Sang-hyeon undergoes a transformation during the trial and becomes known as the “bandaged saint” covered in lesions he has technically survived the virus trials; the only one in five hundred to do so but there is a most grievous catch. Sang-hyeon has however only physically changed; his grey ethical and moral sense remains the same. The bandaged saint returns to Korea, admired by religious fanatics, but life has not changed for him, through his work at the hospital he is harassed by an old family friend Lady Ra (Kim Hae-Sook) who is from his hometown Busan. From this Sang-hyeon blesses her son Kang-Woo (Shin Ha-kyun) and becomes exposed to sin. Kang-woo’s wife can be seen in the foreground, the camera particularly attentive of her as she rolls her eyes while he suffers behind her. She is Tae-Ju (Kim Ok-bin) and is humiliated and leads a miserable life as a nurse for Kang-woo. After Sang-hyeon’s prayer, Kang-woo is unexplainably cured but remains a hypochondriac much to Tae-ju’s chagrin.

Sang-hyeon lives in agony due to his vampirism. He experiences a hyper-sensitive montage where everyone and everything is felt by him and he punishes himself if only to distract from his burning desires to drink, to taste the forbidden fruit as it were. Sang-hyeon becomes almost animalistic in his heightened senses and becomes enticed by Tae-ju.

The pacing of the film has already obscured by this point. Time begins to lose some significance and the night comes more rapidly as Sang-hyeon reels out of control trying to tame his insatiable thirst. The middle of the film is a confusing array of a relationship that sparks, revenge and desperation and is sometimes confusing as the plot feels slightly disjointed.

Tae-ju is clearly the other main element of Thirst; she is the catalyst that drives Sang-hyeon to eventually, after much horrifying trial and error, do the right thing, given his circumstance. Sang-hyeon is initially smitten by her, one scene shows him removing his shoes and placing her in them in an act of love and spontaneity, when he catches her sprinting barefoot.

She brings Sang-hyeon’s sin full-circle and makes him lose all aspects of priesthood as he and Tae-ju make love in the dress store that Lady Ra owns, directly below the home that she lives in. It is an awkward scene and Sang-hyeon tries to fight his urges, but remains mostly placid. “I’m not a shy person” Tae-Ju says to him, but this is part of her manipulation and cruel intentions, to lose control and forget about her awful life. Their partnership is very erotic as both lose control; the image of her sucking his thumb and he in tandem kissing her feet, while still in his priest attire is a searing one and the chemistry between both actors is a complicated concoction.

Sang-hyeon however continues to have a confused sense of what is right; he leaves the priesthood, seemingly to be with Tae-Ju but mostly out of guilt. His ‘father’ completely understands, broken and at wits end he even lets Sang-hyeon drink from him which leads to his own desperation and obsession. Sang-hyeon taints everyone around him; unintentionally everyone is changing for the worse except himself and Tae-ju who was unkind and damaged to begin with.

The power play shifts dramatically to Tae-ju who exploits Sang-hyeon and his misplaced love for her. She guides him to commit the most heinous act for a normal person let alone a priest, and their relationship changes drastically as both feel an overwhelming sense of guilt that is portrayed uniquely on the screen as the personification of their culpability literally interrupts their lewd love making. Why both see and feel this disturbing manifestation is not really explained but is still bizarre and interesting. Sang-hyeon lets his passion and emotions overwhelm him, and through the madness changes Tae-ju forever.

Kim Ok-bin won the award for best female actress in Cannes for this performance and it is easy to see why as her transformation from damaged slave wife to dominating psychopath is an intense and fascinating one. There are elements, albeit subtle ones, that suggests she has not changed. She uses a pair of pliers to kill and these are the same implement she used on her sleeping husband Kang-woo, as she pretended to stab his mouth repeatedly. This vicious ecstasy is the ultimate abuse of power and is also ultimately immature comparable to the restraint Sang-hyeon has shown.

Tae-ju takes full advantage of her position to be in power of the household while Sang-hyeon desperately tries to control her and there are scenes that depicts their abode as a literal house of horrors. Tae-ju’s unforgivable crimes become a turning point for Sang-hyeon and are fully understood at the films climax where he finally takes responsibility for his actions.

Besides the questionable pacing, Thirst has strong characters that propel the film. Sang-hyeon is driven to do the right thing and tries to take the morally obligated path, but is constantly interrupted by his state and internal monologue. Even before becoming infected Sang-hyeon seems to make all the wrong decisions. His personality never actually changes and he is a unique and complicated character because of this. Tae-ju on the other hand has the thirst for power and vengeance and her character only becomes uninhibited, vengeful and powerful as an enabler to help her fulfill her dark wishes. Thirst then, is not just a film about vampires. Thirst is a testament to the evils of mortals and the horrors that they inflict, the consequences of their actions and the redemption, if any, that they must endure in the face of revenge, love and madness.