The best of times, the thirst of times: Park Chan-wook's exotic horror

Thirst
(Park Chan-wook) Song Kang-ho, Kim Ok-vin
Running time: 133 minutes (18)
Rating: 4/5

THIS vampire movie could only come from the distinctive lens of Korean auteur Park Chan-wook. The master goes for the jugular here with his exotic horror. There is little hint of Park's baroque style early on. Saintly priest Sang-hyeon (Song Kang-ho) volunteers for a medical experiment that goes wrong: it turns him into a vampire. Meanwhile, an encounter with the clearly batty Tae-joo (the wonderful Kim Ok-vin) throws him into an adulterous dilemma along the lines of Zola's Thérèse Raquin. The story drives a stake through Sang-hyeon's willpower and he turns Tae-joo into a vampire too.

As the horror thickens, the film becomes more ornate, not to mention insane. Park constantly throws ideas of religious purity up against corporeal disgust. He marries sadism to sensuality. He veers between the horrific and the comic with natural ease. And he revels in Grand Guignol. It's full of inspired images: one of my favourites is Sang-hyeon sucking blood from an IV drip like it was a spaghetti noodle.

This is the bloodiest screwball ever made: the vampire couple go at each other hammer and tongs. It might also be the zaniest take on film noir. You have to admire Park's cinematic daring, his ability to fuse genre and concept into something entirely his own. But audacity aside, it is at times gracelessly edited and over-wrought. Park has shown before he has a problem knowing when to stop. Sometimes too much is just too much.