Park Chan-wook is a multiple award-winning writer and director with awards including two wins at the 2005 Venice Film Festival for “Chinjelhan geumjassi” (a.k.a. “Lady Vengeance). received critical acclaim for this work. Before that, he received critical acclaim for “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance” as well as 2003’s excellent “Oldboy.”
With his interpreter on-hand, we begin our roundtable interview for his most recent offering “Bakjwi” or “Thirst” which Focus Features sent out to limited venues on July 31st. His interpreter translated each answer.
He talks about he came up with this unique story and its origins “I can find the origins of the story further back in my life when I used to be a practicing Catholic when I was very young. So you might even say that the origins of the story goes way back. I went to church up until when I was in high school. That’s when this local priest came to my father and said ‘you’ve got to send this boy to the seminary, he’s going to be bishop one day’ and he just got scared right there and he basically stopped going to church since then.
That was because he liked women, he liked girls. Probably that’s when he started thinking about sex life of a priest. It was great respect for people in the priesthood. These are a group of people who sacrifice everything in servitude of others. They give away everything to serve other people.
He wanted this noble priest to go through the greatest suffering possible and to test this character that way. What would be this great suffering that he could go through? And the thought of turning him into a vampire and forcing him into a situation where he now has to drink other people’s blood in order to survive.”
On the theme on imprisonment and the mind he says “The idea of imprisonment is rather than being state-of-mind, is more at the level of level at the physical space. Physical confined space is what fascinates him. If you take this wide-open space as a background, there are just too many variables that you can see in one given image at a time.
So, what he wants to do is take things into a confined space and simplify everything so as to have them function as sort of a metaphor for this complete world. This place where he is imprisoned is a very confined, limited space, but he is forced to spend fifteen years trapped in there. What he wants to say through that is fifteen years in this confined prison and fifteen years out there in the world is fundamentally the same.
We are wondering why we are here? How can we get out of this place? When can we get out of this place? And through which method are we going to get out of this place? These questions apply equally to this combined space as well as our everyday lives. These are existential conditions that we find ourselves in as much as the character finds himself in.”
On vampires and Korean culture - “He can’t say he’s an expert in Korean mythology, but as far as he understands, there are no vampire myths in Korea, it’s actually influence of western films and culture through which vampires are introduced into Korea and began to gain popularity. When people think about vampire’s they would almost think of Count Dracula and there have been TV shows or films using this character of count Dracula but usually there would be caricature of this character and turn it into a comedy.”
He talks more about horror and Korean mythology “Most of the times in Korean mythology when you see a monster in scary stories, usually there would be people who died because of some wrong doing and they would hold this grudge against the perpetrator. So they want someone to see the justice. In this process they would approach other living people, but to them of course they are heresies so living people cannot see them for what they are, but they are scared and run away. These are the kind of usual monster characters found in Korean films.”
Genre/s:
Drama Thriller Release Date/s:
July 31, 2009 (
Showtimes & Tickets )
Distributor:
Focus Features Production Company:
CJ Entertainment, Focus Features, Moho Films, Universal Pictures Official Site:
Visit Alternate Titles:
Bakjwi CAST & CREW:Starring:
Eriq Ebouaney, Song Kang-ho, Kim Ok-bin, Shin Ha-Kyun, Mercedes Cabral, Dal-su Oh Directed By:
Park Chan-WookWritten By:
Jeong Seo-Gyeong, Park Chan-Wook Produced By:
Park Chan-Wook PLOT:A priest becomes a vampire…another man’s wife is coveted…a deadly seduction triggers murder. Thirst is the new film from director Park Chan-wook (Old Boy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance). Already a boxoffice smash in Korea, Thirst was honored with the Prix du Jury [Jury Prize] at the 2009 Cannes International Film Festival.
Continuing his explorations of human existence in extreme circumstances, the director spins a tale that he conceived and then developed over several years with co-screenwriter Chung Seo-kyung.
Sang-hyun (played by top Korean star Song Kang-ho, of The Host) is a priest who cherishes life; so much so, that he selflessly volunteers for a secret vaccine development project meant to eradicate a deadly virus. But the virus takes the priest, and a blood transfusion is urgently ordered up for him. The blood he receives is infected, so Sang-hyun lives – but now exists as a vampire. Struggling with his newfound carnal desire for blood, Sang-hyun’s faith is further strained when a childhood friend’s wife, Tae-ju (Kim Ok-vin), comes to him asking for his help in escaping her life. Sang-hyun soon plunges into a world of sensual pleasures, finding himself on intimate terms with the Seven Deadly Sins.
MORE ON THIS RELEASE:Running Time:
134M.P.A.A. Rating:
R