From the gala world premiere here last night at the Cannes Film Festival audiences braved pouring rain as they eagerly awaited Park Chan-wook’s latest film, Thirst. I stood among them eagerly awaiting my first trip up its famed red carpet. After what seemed like endless sessions of opening and closing umbrellas in a scene that would have made Tati himself smile, the red carpet music kicked in and the gates opened. As I walked up the carpet the flash bulbs were everywhere and non-stop with the theme of Shaft blasting all around. Tarantino walked up just right behind where I did which prompted a huge sweep of everyone to stop taking 500 pictures of themselves at the top of the steps.
Once inside the energy and anticipation for the film was nothing short of electric. When Park finally showed up with all the principal actors they received a near 5 minute standing ovation. When the film itself finally started nearly every opening credit brought about thunderous applause.
When it gets revealed early on that this is a vampire film many in the audience openly gasped and appeared to be in complete shock. Since this aspect features heavily in its marketing which has yet to fully kick into gear it’s easy to see how some might have missed this. If they had sought to completely hide that aspect of it and gone a route of complete secrecy and asking audiences not to divulge it certainly would have given the film the same jolt of surprise that it did to many last night. Note, Focus is releasing Thirst in mid-Summer in the US, well ahead of its eventual South Korean DVD release.
Despite a running time of over 2 hours Thirst is the first masterpiece of 2009. It’s horrifies you one second, makes you laugh out loud the next and deeply moved in the next. The story is dark as hell and takes you to some dark places of the soul and existence but the way the story gets told never leaves you emotionally detached and never loses its tone. Dark subject matter can be alienating as it pushes people into self reflection and as such might tend to make some uncomfortable with what they see. If the movie says anything and it does say a lot the most striking to me is you better get your affairs in order before the Sun comes up. To evoke such a wide range of emotions shows Park is at the top of his game here and for all the talk he had lost it, he certainly has proven here otherwise. It’s his most personal project to date as well as a rousing culmination of him as an artist. He doesn’t rely solely on familiar ground, devices or style but throughout this one continually pushes himself to break new ground in each and every frame. His overall footprint is there but here he is showing he is moving on to tell new stories in new ways and to top everything he has previously done (which is no small feet). I loved this movie and if you don’t more power to you as by no means is this something for everyone. Most personal films that aren’t completely following convention are going to be hard for many audiences to take or appreciate. This is definitely a film that over time and reflection will only get better. Mankind’s existence on Earth with the battle of good and evil is long since chronicled and here in this outing Park puts us at the forefront of this battle and it’s not an easy journey to sit through but it does reach out and stir up your heart in soul in ways only the best movies ever do. Where Oldboy was a roaring masterpiece, Thirst is a quiet one. Both equally affecting at haunting and staying with you long after the end credits are gone.
It has commercial and conventional aspects that will win over mainstream audiences and a jolt of energy throughout that will greatly appeal to cinephiles. Those walking in comparing it to all his other films or various vampire movies will probably be a lot more divided. Thirst isn’t JSA or Oldboy and is best experienced as its how work of art. With vampires it also is something entirely tricky as we have seem done to death in movies the tales of vampires rise and fall in every possible way. With the vampire methodology here Park fuses his own take on vampire which while at times has things we have seen before but never have we seen it done like this with so much assurance, energy and artistry. As such it places itself in vampire cinema as one of the best ever made, let alone it raises the bar so you have to wonder if any movie coming out this year will even be half as good.
The technical creativity of numerous sequences would have wow-ed Hitchcock himself and will leave many shaking their heads in disbelief at wondering how Park did it. Which is one aspect I really appreciated with the film as the genre elements of blood sucking to flying were all grounded in reality. Every part of them looked like a practical shot that featured no CGI and no wires. Take for instance flying, in most movies the second a character begins to fly you immediately can tell where CGI or some type of special effects kicks in. Some movies do a great job at masking it and few have ever done it as Park has done here where it feels like the lead actor is actually doing it himself void of any assistance or post production CGI. The level of detail in realizing most of the stunts and seemingly impossible things to do is stunning. Everything appears real and everything is shot grounded in reality. By that I mean you can shoot a movie to look real but most of the time it looks movie real and not real life “reality” real. Here it feels like a new hyper form of real life “reality” we are seeing wrapped with touches of movie real. If you think back to Hitchcock or Buster Keaton films where we see impossible things happen then that is where Park ventures into here. It was through their artistry in using the magic of movies to tell stories and bring us thrilling moments and scenes where the impossible happens and breaths to life. Park makes the impossible happen, he makes vampires real, he brings us a melodrama with passion and a use of all modern movie technology in ways that return it to its roots of wonder, thrills and escapism. Also keep in mind the flying is just one example of many!
There are religious themes bound to alienate some audiences or cause some outrage but I think Park does address this issue perfectly and repeatedly. I can’t really elaborate on that as it would be venturing into spoiler territory. I admired that while religion is a heavy theme here it isn’t done in any ham fisted fashion. Park never tries to lead the audience to any religious view point but instead shows the journey of a man’s soul through troubled waters and lets the audience feel in their own blanks as to what is going on or will be. Often times storytellers seem to purposely try to manipulate or skew to get the audience to adopt their view point on an issue. Here I think Park masterfully chooses to tell the story and as I mention, let the audience feel in their own details with their own.
The blood in Thirst is by far the most I can ever remember seeing in any vampire film to date. There are gallons and gallons and gallons and gallons of blood on display in ways imaginable and unimaginable. I don’t know if it breaks the record for most blood ever in a movie but it certainly would seem to come close.
The controversy of its racy sex scenes is much ado about nothing. Everything done is this regard is done passionately as an integral part of the story. It never feels done for effect or just to have some onscreen nudity to help the film sell. Though from all accounts the full frontal of the lead character apparently did cause middle aged women in Korea to in mass see it in theaters for much of its opening run there so far.
The performances by everyone in the film are pitch and tonally perfect. The young female lead especially shines here the most and I definitely think forces everyone else in any scene with her to raise their game up and match her intensity and focus. I really cannot praise her work here highly enough… simply sensational and riveting. From the melodramatic elements to the genre elements everyone works in tune and passes through everything without missing a beat and man oh man is that rare when that happens. When everyone plays as real people instead of as just “types” in a genre movie when matched with a compelling story and amazing filmmalker… magic like this happens!
The production design like all other Park works is immaculate and very precise. There should be a lot of familiarity in this regard. I think the interesting there here is that Park is taking the level of details even further not just to sets and lighting but to showing us at times fully seeing the world as the characters see and experience them. This is by all accounts going to be a more subtle shift and subconscious element to it. Just pay attention to many sequences where we see and feel through the characters point of view. Of course he doesn’t just show you and let you feel it, he throws in all the details for being precise at to every thing in the frame. When the main character lusts for blood we see along with him the veins of others thriving with life through their skin.
Thirst marks Park at a new place and doesn’t lead us to wondering if the best has long since past but that perhaps maybe the best is still left to come. Though in 20-50 years time when audiences and critics look back on this one with fresh perspective that this might be considered his finest hour. This all does run the risk of over praise but this is simply how I personally feel about it. I know many will walk in with baggage of comparing it and viewing it within the point of view of his previous work as well as how it veers from any vampire conventions or plays within them. To see it fresh and as its own tale won’t be an easy task, but when done so through that looking glass of critical thought I think it holds up very well, especially upon reflection. The last shot alone will have audiences talking for years (well for those that catch a certain very easy to miss thing Park does here).
This apex of everything he has done exceeded every expectation I had walking into it. When I had talked to Park two years ago at Sitges he talked about Thirst as more a small little personal project of his that he considered mostly to be a sappy love story. If this is sappy please give me more as I had no idea sappy could ever be so damn good!
Seeing it at a gala premiere at Cannes felt like movie lover heaven. The spectacle and presentation they put on here is unmatched anywhere else. The love the audience gave back with their appreciation for Thirst was absolutely moving. I lost track after well beyond 15 minutes of continuous applause where it seemed like audiences were going to cheer until the early morning. This level and energy of celebrating a filmmaker for his work was incredibly inspiring and endearing. Now that I’ve seen the magic and its celebration of movies in person I get why and how this festival has continued to thrive through all kinds of adversity over the decades. As I walked out and into the night the word “masterpiece” was spoken by audiences of all variety and ages.
