Chan-wook Park’s entry into the vampire genre is one of the fresher and more interesting entries into the genre yet is a bit uneven to be an absolute success.
Following Sang-hyun, a young and giving priest who does nothing but good for his community secretly doubts the failing world he lives in. Making the almost ultimate sacrifice he decides to participate in a clinical trial looking for a cure of a ghastly virus called, the Emmanuel Virus (EV). When the study goes bad everyone dies in the experiment except Sang-hyun and while he contracted the virus himself, which leads to legions all over your skin and vomiting blood, he shows no signs of the illness. This all changes though when he meets a young family at church from his childhood and is suddenly drawn to his old friend’s wife, Tae-Ju, which leads to unfortunate circumstances. This attraction causes his EV illness to suddenly arise and after a violent attack he awakes a vampire.
The film is a slow and deliberate affair for the first half of the film, but remains very interesting and engaging as we get to know Sang-hyun and we see him struggle with his humanity. Once he turns, the film does as well, diving into erotic romance, bizarre scenes (good bizarre), and a vampire ying and yang as two school of thoughts emerge with Sang-hyun deciding he must not kill to quench his thirst while another vampire that breaks on to the scene is all about the kill. [Read more...]