Synopsis
A respected priest volunteers for an experimental procedure that may lead to a cure for a deadly virus. He gets infected and dies, but a blood transfusion of unknown origin brings him back to life. Now, he’s torn between faith and bloodlust, and has a newfound desire for the wife of a childhood friend.
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Cast
- Song Kang-hoPriest Sang-hyeon
- Kim Ok-vinTae-ju
- Kim Hae-sookLady Ra
- Shin Ha-kyunKang-woo
- Park In-hwanPriest Noh
- Song Young-changSeung-dae
- Oh Dal-suYeong-doo
- Ériq EbouaneyImmanuel
- Seo Dong-sooHyo-seong
- Choi Hee-jinNurse Sa
Recommendations
- 91
Entertainment Weekly
A gaudy, daring, operatic, and bloody funny provocation of a melodrama from Park Chan-wook. - 80
Film Threat
A terrific film. Loosely based on Emile Zola's novel "Therese Raquin." - 80
Los Angeles Times
Are you hungering for that rare vampire movie with serious intellectual heft, ravishing undead, biting passion and a healthy splash of irony as well as iron in all that spilled red blood? Wait no longer, Korean auteur Park Chan-wook's Thirst should satisfy. - 75
The A.V. Club
Thirst never picks up the momentum of Park’s best-known work. But its turgid pace creates a queasy fascination all its own, drawing viewers into an ever-darkening locus of sin and obsession where even the wish for redemption comes at a terrible cost. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
Stunning production quality and the story's extremity should arouse interest beyond the specialty Asian market. - 70
New York Magazine (Vulture)
The movie's evolution from somber spiritual torment to icky body horror to fetishistic sex to wild lyricism (vampires pogoing off buildings) to Grand Guignol splatter is exhilarating. - 70
Village Voice
The most intriguing aspect of Thirst is the steady erosion of Sang-hyeon's ethics, slackened from "do not" to "do not kill" to "do not kill the undeserving" by the lure of those O+ cocktails. - 70
The New York Times
Unfortunately, it is also less than the sum of its parts -- overly long, lacking in narrative momentum and too often choosing sensation over coherence.
