Hello again Cinema Threads Members!

After a few action movies we've got a gig promoting an Asian Horror flick, which is my thing, so I'm really excited to be working on THIRST, the new movie from Old Boy director Park Chan-Wook.

I'm a big fan, both of his vengeance movies and the goofy and romantic I'm a Cyborg, which didn't get the exposure it deserves. Now Wook is back with Thirst, a unique Korean take of the vampire myth. With Vampires seemingly taking over youth culture (Hello Twilight) after the Zombie Wars of the last decade, this film has the potential to do really well.



Here's the press release...

(You can read the same copy on the Cult Labs blog, which includes text links to all the related Thirst info you'll ever need here:

Thirst - Info, Clip and more... - Thirst Movie's MySpace Blog | THIRST

Trailer Link:

YouTube - Thirst Trailer - In UK Cinemas 16th October

"THIRST COULD EAT ‘TWILIGHT' FOR BREAKFAST… THIS IS EASILY PARK'S BEST FILM SINCE ‘OLDBOY'."

– (Four Stars) – The Daily Telegraph

Following its hugely successful theatrical release in October, which saw it being hailed as Film of the Week in both Time Out and The Guardian and being awarded Four Star reviews in Daily Express, Time Out, The Sun, Empire, Total Film and Loaded, Park Chan-wook's THIRST comes to DVD and Blu-ray on 25th January 2010.

The joint winner of the Jury Prize at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, THIRST sees the director of such acclaimed and varied films as the military thriller "JSA: Joint Security Area", the comedy romance "I'm A Cyborg" and the standout movie of his "vengeance" trilogy "Oldboy" further emphasising his versatility as a storyteller and a filmmaker by turning his hand to Western horror traditions and taking on the ever-popular vampire

Very loosely based on Emile Zola's novel "Therese Raquin", the story concerns a priest who, accidentally cursed with vampirism, is thrown into a whirlpool of moral decline that leads to him into a nightmare world of lust, adultery and murder.

Sang-hyun (Song Kang-ho) is a priest who cherishes life; so much so, that he selflessly volunteers for a secret vaccine research project designed to eradicate a deadly virus. When the virus is found to be affecting the priest and threatening his life, a blood transfusion is urgently ordered up for him. However, the blood he receives is unknowingly infected, the result of the transfusion being that Sang-hyun survives the viral attack but now exists as a vampire dependent upon the life blood of others.

Struggling with his new found carnal desire for this vital fluid, Sang-hyun's faith is further strained when a childhood friend's wife, Tae-ju (Kim Ok-vin), comes to him asking for his help in escaping her tormented life. It's not long before the former priest is plunged headlong into a world of sensual pleasures, finding himself on intimate terms with the deadliest of the Seven Sins.

Starring Song Kang-ho as Sang-hyun (The Host; The Good, The Bad, The Weird; Lady Vengeance; Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance) and Kim Ok-vin as Tae-ju (Dasepo Naughty Girls; The Accidental Gangster), THIRST is a visceral, thought-provoking and darkly comic exploration of human existence in extreme circumstances from one of the most original and provocative directors working in modern cinema.





THIRST (cert. 18) will be released on DVD (£19.99) and Blu-ray (£24.99) by Palisades Tartan on 25th January 2010.

DVD Features


Dolby 2.0 and 5.1 and half-rate DTS 5.1 audio options; trailer; UK exclusive interview with Park Chan-wook.

Blu-ray Features


Edited highlights from the NFT Masterclass; Dolby 2.0 and 5.1 and DTS 5.1 audio options; trailer; UK exclusive interview with Park Chan-wook.

Attached Images

	sleeve_3352.jpg (85.0 KB, 14 views)
	Thirst3.jpg (94.2 KB, 13 views)

Yeah, I would definitely recommend this one to those who like either vampire movies or good foreign films (or both). It tells a compelling story, but it's also filled with some good bloody sequences and plenty of black humor.

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Thanks for the endorsement Shane!

I think the reason that Vampires have never gone out of fashion in cinema is because the mythos can be applied afresh by each new generation of filmmakers to modern social problems.

The 80s and early 90s saw a rash of AIDS allegories and True Blood makes it's comment on modern racism with aplomb.

Their undying appeal is also related to how adaptable they are as film subjects.

Let's look at two 80s films, one was a world wide hit and now a classic 80s teen movie, ready to be watched on nostalgic evenings alongside Pretty in Pink and The Sure Thing.... The Lost Boys

The other got buried by The Lost Boys and is it's polar opposite... Near Dark

Both great films, one a goofy take on rock n roll cool, vampire cliches and the importance of good bone structure and the other takes the usual vampire cliches of high born, aristocratic bloodsuckers and flips it on it's head, creating a world of white trash predators, ravaging the dust bowl states in a quest to sate their thirst.

One is a joyous romp the other an exercise in hopelessness but both are valid takes.

That's why Thirst is so important, it's shakes up the vampire myth once more, stealing it back from the romantic teen friendly world of Buffy and Twilight while at the same time asking questions and challenging the viewer...

Clips to follow!

Here's those clips, hosted on Clipser...

clipser - Thirst Clip A

clipser - Thirst Clip B

clipser - Thirst Clip C

clipser - Thirst Clip D

clipser - Thirst Clip E

Kim Newman, respected expert on fantastic cinema gives the film 4/5 @EMPIREONLINE