1. MILD SPOILERS AHEAD. I saw Thirst (aka Bakjwi) a couple weeks ago, but held off writing a review since both Allen and Bree are bigger Chan-wook Park (Oldboy) fans than I am. In this one, the Korean master of the revenge genre takes on the oh-so-popular vampire genre.
Sang-hyun, a young priest, donates himself to medical research of a fatal disease in Africa and gets a blood transfusion that had some vampire blood in it. He's the only one to survive out of all the volunteers, and, covered in bandages to hide his blistered skin (from the disease), he becomes a religious cult figure who is thought to be a healer. But he has a secret: he needs human blood to prevent the disease from killing him. Then, at a visit to his sick childhood pal, Kang-woo, Sang-hyun meets Kang-woo's wife, an innocent-looking but disaffected girl named Tae-Joo (Ok-vin Kim), who had been orphaned and forced to marry Kang-woo (who was basically her adoptive brother). Sang-hyun inevitably falls for her and during his seduction of her, she finds out he's a vampire. Meanwhile, poor Sang-hyun, who just wants to be a nice guy, finds out Tae-Joo is actually bat-shit crazy. Madness ensues.
The first half of this movie is highly entertaining, but there is a point when Sang-hyun does something irredeemable, and then the movie gets kind of stupid for awhile (The "I hope this ends soon" kind of stupid) ; then it gets good again, when Sang-hyun does something he should have done earlier in the movie. Basically, the movie is a half-hour too long, but that half-hour isn't the last half-hour. Still worth a see, especially if you think vampire-sex is hot.
2. Entertainment Weekly, which is quickly becoming dumber and dumber, has ranked its top 25 active film directors.
QUESTIONABLE INCLUSIONS: Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Elf); Danny Boyle (Slumdog, Trainspotting); Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream; Wrestler) -- these guys each have made ONLY two good movies; Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen); Peter Jackson (Rings, um...King Kong) - I like them both, but Snyder's the Michael Bay of comic books and Jackson is the Michael Bay of nerd-fiction; Judd Apatow (Virgin, Knocked-Up) - Really? Really? Even after Funny People?
BIG OMISSIONS: Hello? Woody Allen! Let's just talk comedy -- Favreau and Apatow are better than the Wood-man? As GOB would say, C'mon!; You could easily have swapped Terry Gilliam for Del Toro -- they make the same kinds of films, and Gilliam does it better; some others who could replace some of these guys: David Lynch, Sidney Lumet, Peter Weir, David Cronenberg, Stephen Frears, Mike Leigh, John McTiernan (I mean, if you're gonna include Favreau).
3. In honor of MJ, they're going to start playing Captain EO again at Disneyland. If you're like me, you saw this when you were little, but remember nothing of it today. It was in 3D, back when that was still a novelty. George Lucas produced it and F.F. Coppola directed it. If you're in LA, check it out for nostalgia value.
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