Thirst, Korean vampires at work & play

I saw Thirst this weekend, a Korean film about a Catholic priest turned vampire. I was expecting strangeness, but it was really strange. The female lead, Kim Ok-bin gave a pretty good performance that I found very memorable. My friend who I watched the film with wondered if Asians produced really strange films, but my own suspicion is that there's a selection bias in terms of the types of "foreign films" which arrive to American shores. After all, what's the comparative advantage of sappy Korean melodramas when we have so many of our own? In regards to special effects driven movies I doubt anyone can compete with Hollywood. So it has to be "art house" productions which trade on pushing the envelope combined with exotic locale. Or at least that's my working model, would be happy to be informed by those "in the know"....