WAMG First Look: Park Chan-wook’s ‘Thirst’

Park Chan-wook returns (FINALLY) with his first feature film since 2006 when he made ‘I’m a Cyborg, but That’s OK’. Chan-wook is probably best known for his revenge trilogy that includes ‘Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance’Â  (2002) and most famously ‘Oldboy’Â  (2003) which is allegedly being remade by Steven Spielberg and Will Smith. In 2005, Chan-wook would wrap the trilogy up with ‘Lady Vengeance’.

I predict ‘Thirst’ could end up being the next big foreign vampire flick in what would absolutely make me giddy to find this becoming a new trend in re”vamping” (pun intended) the vampire genre. You may have noticed my unabashed love for ‘Let the Right One In’, a Swedish vampire flick of a different nature that came out in 2008. While the video clip below doesn’t show much, it is nice to see some really early footage. It looks to have Chan-wook’s usual visual style. Also, the fact the the clip is part of a Korean news segment is actually kind of neat to watch!

Synopsis: Sang-hyun, a small town beloved and admired priest who serves devotedly at a hospital, volunteers for the new infectious disease, F.I.V.’s, vaccine development experiment and goes to Africa. The experiment fails and Sang-hyun gets infected by F.I.V. but he ends up being miraculously cured and returns home. News of Sang-hyun’s cure from F.I.V. spreads and people start believing he has the gift of healing and flock to receive his blessing. From those who come to him, Sang-hyun meets a childhood friend named Kang-woo and his wife Tae-ju. Sang-hyun is immediately drawn to Tae-ju. One day, Sang-hyun coughs up blood, dies, and comes back to life the next day as a vampire. Tae-ju is strangely drawn to Sang-hyun, turned vampire, and they have a secret love affair. Sang-hyun asks Tae-ju to run away with him but she turns him down. Instead, they plot to murder Kang-woo… [source: 24fps]

Found footage of ‘Thirst’ courtesy of 24framespersecond.net, via shocktillyoudrop.com