There aren't many movies I'd classify as revisionist vampire movies. Thirst would fit such a description. It would be a great antithesis to The Lost Boys in that instead of vampirism being fun it really sucks. Vampirism in this movie is like being a diseased addict, but with added superhuman powers. I've always said vampirism is an allegory for addiction and this takes that premise fully. It combines it would the idea of vampirism being a disease. Blood is the medicine, but how you get it is the addiction part. There are many different themes in this movie as well. Survivors guilt, worship of someone who isn't as great as they seem to be, power corrupts, right to life, all of those are things you can find in this film. It also has an interesting, but dysfunctional love story at it's center with the vampirism complicating it. It's not just a great horror movie, but has some good romance, dark comedy, and a noir femme fatale vibe as well.
Sang-Hyun (Song Kang-ho) is a catholic priest who volunteers at a hospital. Sang-Hyun is dedicated to his faith but secretly suffers from doubts and loneliness. There are some scenes early on of him beating himself with a belt. After contracting a virus that kills many others he miraculously survives after receiving a blood transfusion of an unknown donor. At first everything seems normal and many people attend his services and view him not only as a miracle but as a saint. People visit his congregation believing he has a healing power. Among those who visit him is his sick childhood friend Kang-woo (Shin Ha-kyun) and his family.
Kang-woo invites Sang-Hyun over to his house for dinner. Sang-Hyun develops an infatuation with Kang-woo's wife Tae-ju (Kim Ok-bin). Tae-ju was found by the family as a child an adopted into it and eventually marries Kang-woo probably for some security. She is treated by the family similarly to how Harry Potter is treated by the Dursleys. Maybe not quite as bad, but on that level. I like how Sang-Hyun's vampirism is activated when he smells or senses Tae-ju's blood while she is on her period. That starts the string of some weird connections between blood, bodily fluids, sex and vampirism in this film. For example when Tae-ju and Sang-Hyun start their affair he gets a certain thrill, and she reciprocates, from biting her. Their whole relationship and his transformation into a vampire started with blood transfusions and it leads to everything he does with her. She is drawn to him at first because he is much more physically able than her husband.
Meanwhile because his vampirism has been activated Sang-hyun struggles to contain the effects of the virus as he needs more blood to contain it. That is why blood in it's own way is medicine to the virus in this film but how people go about to get it could be seen as the addiction allegory. For example, Sang-hyun usually steals blood transfusion packs or sometimes drains blood from dying patients at the hospital. That could be seen as someone only having indulging in lighter drugs. At the same time the head of his congregation wants to become a vampire so he can see. After telling him everything he has to do in order to sustain himself Sang-hyun is disgusted at this so he leaves the congregation.
Spoiler Section
When him and Tae-ju plan to runoff together, Sang-hyun finally tells her about his vampirism. At first she is scared until he pulls a Clark Kent-Lois Lane moment and flies with her into the air. She tells him at the the supposed abuse Kang-woo has been doing to her and he agrees to kill him. They all go on a fishing trip and Kang-woo is forcibly drowned by Sang-hyun. In some darkly comedic and creepy scenes Kang-woo haunts them and they both see him at certain times like while they have sex. This guilt haunts Tae-ju enough that she begs to be killed so she can be with him again after admitting she was abusing herself and not Kang-woo wasn't touching her. This is all admitted in front of Kang-woo and Tae-ju's adopted mother, Mrs. Ra (Kim Hae Sook). That brings another scary but also darkly comedic element to this movie as she is in a vegetative state after what happened to Kang-woo. The movie does a great job of showing just her eyes moving to be apart of certain scenes which must be scary hearing people admitting to killing her son. At the same time it brings some levity because of how funny it can be at times.
Both out of loneliness and guilt, Sang-hyun brings back Tae-ju after killing her. She turns into a vampire. They quickly clash as Tae-ju is much more comfortable killing people than Sang-hyun is. At one point Sang-hyun is forced to kill his superior at the congregation to keep living. This starts his guilt trip. While at a dinner at Kang-woo's friend's house Mrs. Ra finds a way to communicate during a game that Tae-ju and Sang-hyun killed Kang-woo. This results in Tae-ju killing two of the people and Sang-Hyun sparing the other but making it seemed like he killed the other one. They agree to leave. Before leaving, Sang-hyun out of guilt goes to the camp of the many people who have the virus. He pretends to rape a woman so they no longer see him as a saint. Again this is another darkly comedic sequence. He tricks Tae-ju into going to an isolated area where they will die near the sun. Every way Tae-ju tries to make sure they will be covered by darkness he thwarts. In a final scene they sit together accepting their death proving that while dysfunctional they did love each other.
I don't always like to tell the whole plots on my reviews but I found it necessary here because the different themes relate to different parts of the plot in this movie and moments of tonal shift come at certain moments. You do finally get some more bloody vampire carnage toward the end of the movie but really this has so much more than that. The vampire disease being a sort of allegory for something like AIDS or some incurable virus. The femme fatale noir type storyline with Tae-ju and her manipulation. The worship of someone who is actually not what you think, which goes both ways with Sang-Hyun and the blind priest and also how the people with the virus see him. In addition, the survivor and murderer's guilt that builds on him throughout the film. Lastly the addiction allegory where Tae-ju is like a hardcore drug addict Sang-Hyun cannot control. This is a vampire movie that is about so much more than typical vampire movie with many elements in it's story that you just don't see in other vampire movies. In the case of must Korean films it is a little long but certainly worth the time.
Rating: 9/10
Trivia: This was the first mainstream Korean film to show full frontal male nudity
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