Blogs and Stories
Hot-Blooded Horror
)
Focus Features
Park Chan-wook’s new vampire-meets-priest thriller, Thirst, wowed audiences at Cannes and has just hit the States. Nick Antosca talks to the director about how sexy gore can be.
“Am I a pervert?” wonders an unhappily married young woman exploring graphic and sanguinary sexual territory with her new lover, a Catholic priest who also happens to be a vampire. “Are other women like this?”
This strange, flavorful sex scene in director Park Chan-wook’s terrific new film, Thirst—which won the Jury Prize at Cannes this year—is characteristic of Park’s ability to paint character nuance into even the most lurid crevice of his pictures.
“You could say that the metaphor of vampirism being a… release is probably true.”
“This is a moment when, as a priest, the main character steps over that line that could not be crossed,” Park told The Daily Beast last week. “It is the moment when he makes that moral downfall. And also for the woman, it is a moment of liberation… from this marriage, which to her, felt like hell.”
“So for these two characters, this is such an important moment that I just could not say, ‘And so, they had sex!’ Every facial expression and every position and every noise they make, everything that they say—it was very important that you were able to see these details and think about what these moments mean.”
As he said this, the 45-year-old Park was hunched over a table at New York’s Le Parker Meridien hotel, accompanied by a valiant and perspiring translator who looked barely out of college. Scattered around the room were medical-looking “blood bags” of gushy red syrup that Sony Pictures had given out to promote the film.
The director held himself very still as he answered questions, his expression stoic, his voice a patient murmur. It was a surprisingly reserved presence for a man whose work is generally known not for nuanced love scenes but for squishy, arterial violence.
Thirst honors that tradition. The love affair between the guilt-wracked priest, Sang-hyun, and the sex-starved wife, Tae-ju, is punctuated with moments of voluptuous mayhem—sudden splashes of blood on stark white walls, a hand lovingly tucked into a chest cavity, footless bodies draining into the bathtub.
But the film is also poignant, funny, gorgeous, and even quirky, a tragic love story for adventurous dates (that’s right, don’t go see (500) Days of Summer—see Thirst instead). Oh, and it’s all based on Thérèse Raquin, Émile Zola’s 1867 novel about an ambitious young Frenchman who kills his lover’s husband but cannot escape his own guilt. Park recalls being so “immediately drawn to” the novel that he grafted his pre-existing idea for a vampire priest movie onto it. Considering that Thérèse Raquin contains neither priests nor vampires, Thirst is remarkably faithful–I’d venture to say that even Zola himself might be pleased.
Stars Celebrate the Super Bowl
The Daily Beast is dedicated to news and commentary, culture, and entertainment. We carefully curate the web’s most essential stories and bring you original must-reads from our talented contributors.
How Rich People Smoke Pot
Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.
The Hipster Thief
Nick Antosca is the author of the novels Midnight Picnic (Word Riot Press, 2009) and Fires (Impetus Press, 2006). His writing has appeared in Nerve, Hustler, The New York Sun, Identity Theory, The Barcelona Review, The Huffington Post, and others. He was born in New Orleans and lives in New York, and his blog is Brothercyst.
Food Fetishes
Nick Antosca is the author of the novels Midnight Picnic (Word Riot Press, 2009) and Fires (Impetus Press, 2006). His writing has appeared in Nerve, Hustler, The New York Sun, Identity Theory, The Barcelona Review, The Huffington Post, and others. He was born in New Orleans and lives in New York, and his blog is Brothercyst.
finderj
Vampire priests???
Sometimes the art of art film escapes me.
mcwmcw
it was all i could do to stay in my seat. BORING. dragged on and on. so -NOT funny,. totally NOT sexy. was it a love story, a comedy, a vampire story, a martial arts movie> the director didn't know.
marinersarenumber1
A visceral tour de force that deftly combines the remorseful guilt of the quasi-religious human condition and the immersion of the animal soul against the sterile backdrop of an inept and empty society. Or, a creepy priest sucking the life out of a sex-starved female. South Korea has its low-budget Twilight.
finderj
Low-budget and R-rated. At the very least.
Mugly067
pick up a copy of Oldboy sometime, you dont have to spend millions to make a good flic and well life is R rated and we are mostly adults afterall
BTlaMF
Definitely R-rated, but quite high-budget. Park's films make a lot of money overseas.
SimonSaize
The Koreans by far have the best films internationally in comparison to any other especially the U.S (which should be excluded).....so much so, that the U.S., which lacks-LACKS its very sustenance and depth, that Americans are now washed out by remakes from foreign films without knowledge to this pertinent fact- and Korea takes the prize for the country the U.S. film groups have ripped off the most.. Americans are cheated by U.S. corporate entertainment groups and greedy, numb, soulless executives, whom cannot create original works, and dictate to consumers, stating movies with subtitles will not sell, Americans only speak English....pathetic.
Very sad for our culture, its either knock offs, rip offs, or some odd assortment of over produced footage marketed with a name and label.
Phukkking garbage.
And people wonder why education is such a gamble and joke.....we (THEY) don't allow other cultures to entertain, give experience.
The Korean Film Festival last year in New York was excellent.
And "The Host" -excellent.
"Time" also a genius film.
marinersarenumber1
I would agree, "The Host" was a stellar film. This offering had punch, and dare I say originality that excites and entertains around every corner. Without the usual Hollywood trappings, CGI hype and cliche character interaction. The Koreans (and Japanese) certainly have left their mark on contemporary cinema, which as you pointed out, have provided a number of synergistic thrillers that were remade (ie. "Ringu" / "The Grudge" - Original Japanese works that were hijacked).
I would support your assertion regarding the soulless and shallow approach taken by the US movie machine. One doesn't need to look very far to see the rehashing of comic book themes and "summer blockbusters" that crowd the marquee. But for me, that's another topic for another day.
If your focus is directed solely at the lowly discretions of the American viewing public, I can play along. However, you tend to over-generalize the state of affairs for US cinema as "greedy, numb, soulless executives, whom cannot create original works". In some cases, yes. But I need to point to the works of new independents such as Ryan Fleck's "Half Nelson", Miranda July's "Me and You...", and Ramin Bahrani's "Man Push Cart". I didn't see this new talent selling out to the corrosive nuances of corporate filmmaking.
You can't dismiss the incredible range and depth that has permeated US culture as evidenced by the works of greats such as Coppola, Spielberg or Scorsese. Going further back, it would be obligatory to include Orson Welles, Howard Hawkes and John Ford. It's not surprising that the directorial elements of their films have been avidly studied and imitated by foreign directors for decades. Including Korean and Japanese cinema.
For me, I have an insatiable appetite for Welles movies. On the foreign side of the scales, I have always enjoyed and admired Wim Wenders' "Wings of Desire".
hoyasexa
Totally agree with you on that.
Thank you.
As a first time user, your comment has been submitted for review. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two for your comment to be reviewed, depending on the time of week and the volume of comments we receive.