Thirst - Sex, blood, flying and a whole lot of nonsense
Park Chan Wook's Thirst
At Cannes this year when Thirst was screening (and eventually won the joint Jury prize), PCW mentioned that this was his first step towards becoming an artist, that he wasn't there yet. And that is definitely both first flaw, and the basis of the film's division of fans, some dislike, some like. This is PCW's 2046, it's a vampire film, but it's too busy with nonsense, and absolute bizarre moments. What this film needed was to be a hard edged sexual vampire film, with lust, jealousy, and the usual PCW spark to ignite it in an edgy and gritty piece of wonder. It had lust and well, maybe jealousy, but it didn't have the PCW wonder.
I don't really know how to put it into words. The world needs a hard edged intelligent vampire film, this isn't it. This misses the mark, it's a lesser film than I'm a Cyborg, it certainly doesn't translate well to the West.
Not really disappointed, just thoroughly confused. PCW seems to be going in a strange direction. I'm a Cyborg to a bizarre story about vampires, and next a Hollywood film. Will he do a Ang Lee, following Lust, Caution (which this is clearly that with vampires, and added bullshit) to Taking Woodstock, or will he do a WKW and go from 2046, a mismatched but occasionally great film, to My Blueberry Nights.
Hopefully Mother will be better. I can now understand why South Korea didn't choose Thirst as their Oscar submission.
At Cannes this year when Thirst was screening (and eventually won the joint Jury prize), PCW mentioned that this was his first step towards becoming an artist, that he wasn't there yet. And that is definitely both first flaw, and the basis of the film's division of fans, some dislike, some like. This is PCW's 2046, it's a vampire film, but it's too busy with nonsense, and absolute bizarre moments. What this film needed was to be a hard edged sexual vampire film, with lust, jealousy, and the usual PCW spark to ignite it in an edgy and gritty piece of wonder. It had lust and well, maybe jealousy, but it didn't have the PCW wonder.
I don't really know how to put it into words. The world needs a hard edged intelligent vampire film, this isn't it. This misses the mark, it's a lesser film than I'm a Cyborg, it certainly doesn't translate well to the West.
Not really disappointed, just thoroughly confused. PCW seems to be going in a strange direction. I'm a Cyborg to a bizarre story about vampires, and next a Hollywood film. Will he do a Ang Lee, following Lust, Caution (which this is clearly that with vampires, and added bullshit) to Taking Woodstock, or will he do a WKW and go from 2046, a mismatched but occasionally great film, to My Blueberry Nights.
Hopefully Mother will be better. I can now understand why South Korea didn't choose Thirst as their Oscar submission.