Korean thriller blends Christian faith and vampires (Feature)

By Andrew McCathie May 15, 2009, 16:56 GMT

Cannes - Five years after winning a Cannes Film Festival award for his dark tale called Oldboy, legendary Korean director Park Chan Wook has returned to the festival to present a blend of religious faith and blood-curdling vampirism in his latest thriller Bakjwi (Thirst).

Speaking at a press conference marking the screening of Thirst at the world's leading film festival, Park insisted his aim was not to make a movie about vampires and religion, with the film telling the story of a priest accidentally transfused with vampire blood.

But Park admits there is a connection of between blood and religion noting the central role in the Christian faith of drinking Christ's blood. 'But it was not my intention to connect the Catholic Church with vampirism.'

Thirst's French distributor has already suggested This is My Blood might be a better title for the film, which stars top Korean actor Song Kang-Ho as the do-gooder priest who is believed to have special healing powers.

Park's priest-turned-vampire, who is not the Hollywood cliche of a vampire with fangs and a black cloak, eventually has a relationship with a married woman, played by Kim Ok-vin.

It took Park ten years to develop his film with its release coming amid a revival in the popularity of vampires generated by new movies and TV series emanating from the United States.

Already released in Korea, Thirst has been rapidly climbing the nation's movie charts to establish a strong box office in the country. It is also the first Korean film to be funded by Hollywood.

Park's Oldboy - about a man who, after being locked in a hotel room for years by unknown captors, finally escapes and seeks justice - won Cannes' prestigious Grand Prix in 2004. It forms part of Park's so-called revenge trilogy.

The awarding of the prize to Oldboy in 2004 followed something of a power struggle between jury members with jury president, US director Quentin Tarantino attempting to persuade the panel to give Park the top honours, the Palme d'Or.

Instead the eventual winner of the iconic movie prize was American satirist Michael Moore for Fahrenheit 9/11.

Now he is going head to head with Tarantino's ultra violent wartime drama Inglourious Basterds (eds: correct spelling) in this year's battle for the Palme d'Or in Cannes.

Known for mixing humour with powerful outbursts of violence, Park does not spare any blood or gore to tell his story of a modern-day vampire in Thirst.

Asked at the Cannes press conference how she handled some of the movie's more harrowing and blood cloaked scenes, actress Kim said she did not really find it too difficult during the shooting.

But she joked: XXX'There was so much blood in the film I was delighted to see blood again including in the movies.'XXX

Park insists that in making Thirst he wanted to present a different approach to the vampire story, which is often laced with sexual connotations.

Instead his aim was to tell the story of the suffering of the priest who knows that the only way he could survive was by drawing blood and injuring others.

'I wanted to get away from the cliches,' he said such as the haunted castle, the dark cloak and the garlic. 'I wanted my vampire to be part of everyday life,' he said.

'It is about the how the purest of individuals can suffer from hurting people,' he said.

'I wanted to see what kind of dilemma this should create,' Park said.

But then religion is familiar territory for Korean directors with the church and death frequently popping as backdrops in recent years to many of the country's movies, which have helped to turn the country into a powerhouse in Asian cinema.

In Lee Chang-dong's Secret Sunshine, which was screened at the Cannes film festival two years ago, a young woman tries religion at one point to ease the suffering caused by the death of her husband and son. Song Kang-Ho also starred in Secret Sunshine.

And the Christian imaginary is very much a part of Park's Thirst, even down to the kissing of toes and feet by the characters in the film.

Noting the Christian tradition of Christ washing people's feet, Park said the toes represented in his film the character's passion and solitude.

'Christian religion has an impact on everyday life in Korea,' said Park. 'If a film wants to deal with Korea in any depth it deals with Christianity.'