A group of oil workers search for undiscovered oil on the untapped and mysterious rig Sector 7. After one crew member's uncle joins them, they soon uncover something lying beneath the sea several thousand miles down; something unseen by the human eye. Soon, the workers must find a way to escape the rig with their lives intact.
I first heard of South Korea's Sector 7 from the very charming Scifijapan.com, a good site for those interested in keeping up with licensing and releases for all things related to Asian entertainment. The last time I checked out a Korean monster film was 2006's The Host, which I dug quite a bit. This certainly isn't on the same level as that film, but it doesn't really deserve the tepid response it received if you ask me.
For one thing, I did like the fact that they managed to convey the real difficulty in oil drilling and how much of a nightmare it can be for those involved. There was also a decent sense of camaraderie between everyone, save for when people start dying off, then everyone mostly has the same response of "Oh! They died! Oh well..." This could also serve as a vehicle for lead actress for Ha Ji-won, who they certainly want to portray as an Asian Ellen Ripley of sorts.
I suspect that what garnered the most amount of criticism was the lack of a budget behind the film, and I can't defend that. The monster in Sector 7 looks like total garbage, and not just because it was computer-rendered. The design itself looks like a messy brainchild between Samael from Hellboy and something out of Doom 3. It doesn't help that it has the oldest weakness in the book, though the film's characters seem to forget the old quote of "There's more than one way to skin a cat," as they repeat the same trick at least four times with the same exact result: failure. One more thing popped into my mind towards the end, and that was that I hope those infatuated with Asian cinema don't try to defend it as anything unique, because it simply isn't. Hell, you could have taken out the Korean cast and replaced them with folks from ANY ethnic background and it wouldn't have made any difference.
Sector 7 is admittedly brought down by its genericness and predictability, along with way too much similarity to Alien, Aliens, and The Thing, but it isn't offensively terrible. Those who want a relatively quick moving SciFi-Horror film could certainly do worse. I didn't find myself annoyed with the film at any time and if I ever stumbled across it again, I wouldn't be opposed to watching it one more time.
A priest with a rare and fatal disease undergoes treatment, and finds himself the only survivor out of five hundred other patients after a blood transfusion. Though everything seems fine and he has made a full recovery, he soon discovers that things are actually quite far from normal: he has been afflicted with vampirism.
It's no secret that I love director Park Chan-wook, who directed the absolutely fantastic "Vengeance" trilogy, which contains one of my favorite films of the past ten years, Oldboy. Thirst is his take on the vampire genre, and it certainly isn't your average bloodsucker. The film moves at a very unusual pace, and it might put some off who are more used to their vampire films having more "pizzazz."
Song Kang-ho plays our infected priest, who you feel genuine empathy for as he struggles to contain not only his newfound bloodlust, but an attraction to an old friend's wife (played wonderfully well by Kim Ok-bin), two things which strongly conflict with everything he stands against due to his religion. Their chemistry is something that I think only Park himself could have conjured up and made the best of. The several scenes of passion between the two (my apologies for the small spoiler) feel shockingly real, and are even uncomfortable when they need to be. Things get particularly interesting for our two leads once the second half comes around, and their relationship starts to take some rather strange turns.
Another big round of applause has to go to the film's composer Jo Yeong-wook, who previously worked with Park on several of his films, including Oldboy. His score is tragic, chilling, and even light-hearted at the times when it needs to be. Now don't get me wrong, this film certainly isn't perfect. For one, there are some funny moments sprinkled throughout but I'm almost certain they were unintentional (if they weren't, then I'll continue with the endless amount of asskissing). It also runs over two hours, and it legitimately feels like it. There is also a surprising lack of fangs, but given that this isn't your average vampiric tale, I can see why they didn't use them.
Some will argue that Thirst isn't a true horror film, but more of a bizarre, bloody, and tragic love story. Whatever the case, a good film is a good film. I dug this one quite a bit, and regret having waited to watch it for three years. If you're looking for something different and dark in a field that is currently riddled with attractive tweens who sparkle in the sun rather than burn, give this one a watch.
Tomorrow, we're back in the good ol' USA for a rather slithering tale with SSSSSSS.
No comments:
Post a Comment