Thirst (2009 film)

Thirst
Teaser poster
Directed by	Park Chan-wook
Written by	Park Chan-wook Seo-Gyeong Jeong
Produced by	Park Chan-wook
Starring	Song Kang-ho Kim Ok-bin Shin Ha-kyun
Cinematography	Jeong Jeong-hun
Distributed by	CJ Entertainment
Release date	30 April 2009
Country	South Korea
Language	Korean
Budget	$5,000,000

Thirst (Korean: 박쥐; RR: Bakjwi; working title Evil Live) is a 2009 horror/drama film, written and directed by Park Chan-wook. It tells the story of a priest who is in love with his friend’s wife turning into a vampire through a failed medical experiment. Park has stated, “this film was originally called The Bat to convey a sense of horror." Thirst is the official selection for the Palme d'Or of the 2009 Cannes Films Festival.

Plot

We are introduced to Sang-hyun, a priest whose free time is spent volunteering at the local hospital and providing ministry to the patients. He is well respected for his unwavering faith and the dedicated service he provides to all those around him, but he secretly suffers from overwhelming feelings of doubt and sadness about living in a world that seems to be drowning in suffering and death. After getting fed up with the endless cycle of human suffering that the world offers, Sang-hyun volunteers to participate in an experiment to find a vaccine for the deadly F.I.V. virus with the hope of saving even one life, and heads off to Africa. Although the experiment fails disastrously and Sang-hyun is infected with a seemingly fatal disease, he makes a complete and rapid recovery. News of his marvelous recovery is quickly spread to the devout parishioners of Sang-hyun’s congregation, and they begin to believe that the man has a miraculous gift for healing. Soon, thousands more people flock to Sang-hyun’s services. Among the new churchgoers are Kang-woo, Sang-hyun’s childhood friend, and his family. Later on, Kang-woo invites his old friend to join the weekly mahjong night at his house, and there Sang-hyun finds himself precariously drawn to Kang-woo’s wife, Tae-ju. Suddenly Sang-hyun relapses into his illness; he coughs up blood and passes away. The next day however, he opens his eyes in dire need of shelter from the sweltering sunlight; he has become a vampire. At first Sang-hyun feels a newfound vigor and is energized by his insistent bodily desires, but soon he is aghast to find himself sucking down blood from a comatose patient in the hospital. After attempting to kill himself, he finds that he is drawn back to the taste of human blood against his will. To make matters worse, the symptoms of F.I.V. have come roaring back. Desperately trying to avoid committing a murder, he resorts to stealing blood transfusion packs from the hospital. Tae-ju, now living with her ill husband and her over-protective mother-in-law, leads a dreary and unhappy life. She finds herself drawn to Sang-hyun and his odd new physicality, and his inability to resist his desires. The two begin an affair, but when Tae-ju first discovers the truth about Sang-hyun’s new lifestyle, she retreats in fear. When Sang-hyun pleads with her to run away with him she turns him down, suggesting that they kill her husband instead.

Cast

• Song Kang-ho ... Sang-hyun
• Kim Ok-bin ... Tae-ju
• Shin Ha-kyun ... Kang-woo
• Kim Hae-sook ... Tae-ju's mother-in-law
• Eriq Ebouaney
• Hwang-woo Seul-hye
• Mercedes Cabral

Box office reception

Despite the serious storyline, Thirst is highly popular among South Korean viewers. The film earned 1,174,224,500 won (cir. 926,463 U.S. dollars) on its first day of release and gained more 5,612 million won on that 3-day weekend. At the midnight of May 3, Thirst debuted on number 1 on Korean Box office weekend chart and totally grossed in 4 days 6,786,388,000 won (cir. 5.354 million U.S. dollars) with more than 1 million tickets sold nationwide. That made the film become the highest gross film of 2009 up-to-date.

External links

• Thirst at IMDb
• Thirst at the Korean Movie Database (in Korean)
• Thirst at HanCinema
• Thirst at Bloody Disgusting