A "Thirst" for Vampires

Here we go again. Another vampire movie, is the fist thing that comes to mind.
A strong curiosity strikes me, what's with the fascination for vampire movies. Vampires are great mythological creatures, but never have they dominated the popular culture as much as they do this year.
The whole mania started out with "Twilight" went on with "Let the Right One In" and moved further to TV with the series "The Vampire Diaries" and "True Blood". It's a whole different topic to talk about the quality and greatness of each of these titles. But now we come to a point where the whole vampire phenomena becomes questionable. "Let the Right One In" is an outstanding movie, and a comment for it will follow sometime, but "Thirst" or "Bakjiwi" (it's original title) takes the whole saga (my use of the word for this chain phenomenon for vampires) to a whole different level. Chan-wook Park is on top of his game.  He could make a movie about Barbie and everyone would be amazed by it's depth. And so he took the present most popular theme and turned it in to something, that will, perhaps together with "Let the Right One In", make it to the movies worth while remembering from this whole vampire phenomenon.
This is a new way of telling a a vampire story, we all know vampires have feelings (thanks to "Twilight"), vampires can be dangerous and vampires can also look like a young innocent child. Those are three things we take away from the previously mentioned movies. And what do we take away from "Thirst". The title may suggest, the thirst of a vampire for blood, which is true when we take Tae-joo (Ok-vin Kim) into account. But more interesting in this movie is the actual leading role, the priest Sang-hyeon (Kang-ho Song). A priest becomes a vampire. A priest becomes something that he usually, fights against or stands against. This priest Sang is a really kindhearted man. He spends a lot of time volunteering at the hospital and provides ministry to patients who mostly face a deathly illness. Not content with himself, thinking it's not enough only watching people die, he volunteers for an experiment to find a vaccine for the deadly Emmanuel Virus, hoping to be able to save a lives. It seems that the experiment was anything but successful, until he makes a full recovery. People begin to believe that he poses the gift to heal people. This is how he finds his way into the lives of Tae-joo's family. She was taken in by the family as a child and later was married to the son of the family, Kang-woo (Ha-kyun Shin), at the same time an old school friend of Sang. The family invites Sang over for a weekly mahjong night. It's here he comes to realize that something is immensely wrong with him. He becomes ill again, coughs blood, faints and realizes in the morning that he is a vampire, since his skin burns, the moment he stand in the sunlight. It's also there, where he falls for Kang-woos wife Tae-joo. Not able to cope with his new him, he tires to kill himself which does not work. Tae-joo at the same time become fascinated with him being a vampire and is eager to become one herself. But she will be a vampire with a different character. She is a girl with a lot of anger and hate in herself, she seeks ways to still this thirst for anger, being a vampire would give her, her absolution. Sang is still trying to do the right thing. Right thing as far as it applies to his condition. He does not want to go and haunt down people. He rather seeks out blood from the hospital, or people who want to commit suicide and seek help for it.
Yet a kind person with an attraction to a women with full of hate and great methods of swaying people, things become different than anticipated.
This is a go and see movie, and might be different form other Park movies. This movie shows less revulsion and more feeling than other movies of his.
Well known for "Oldboy" this movie might just as well make it on the list of must remember movies by Chan-wook Park.
This is a must see if you are a fan of his and a must accept (the new style) if you are a fan of his. A new style, because this movie is the perfect counter example to "Twilight", showing one vampire movie, how a real vampire movie is really made.
It's a movie, with a different sort of HAPPY ENDING, depending on what your understanding of a happy ending is.