An unsure laughter came over the crowd when South Korean director Park Chan-Wook told the audience through a translator at the North American premiere of Thirst last week that he saw many similarities between himself and his Catholic priest protagonist. That might sound like a good thing, but his protagonist also happens to later turn into a blood and sex craved vampire. But Mr. Park clarified: “It was most to do with the way the character is quite indecisive, the way he blabs on about trying to justify his ridiculous acts…The way that he tries to justify himself with all these illogical statements, there is something there of me.”

    Mr. Park is best known in the United States for his film Oldboy, a rip-roaring revenge thriller which won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2004. Thirst won a Jury Prize at the festival this year, and it is much more humorous and fluid than his earlier thrillers. The project though was a long time in the making, as Mr. Park commented, “Ten years ago I started to think about the story for this film and I only had parts of the story set up at the time, while other parts were left blank. Before I could pick up the rest of the story, more urgent projects came up and then ten years had past.”

    While Mr. Park’s films have often dealt with Catholic ideas of forgiveness, Mr. Park, who grew up in the religion, has seemed destined to make a film that directly examines the faith. Mr. Park explained, “Catholic priests as part of their work everyday during mass have to drink wine and are reminded of the death of Christ and the wine is the blood of Christ. So priests have better than anyone a better understanding of the meaning of blood. So vampires have to go and drink blood of others and this is the cause of great suffering because their very existence and survival depends now on drinking the blood of others, which was against everything they believe in.”

    But for more than just shocks and mocking his faith, Mr. Park explained he saw both vampire culture and Catholicism as Western traditions that had come into South Korea, and remarked that the film was in a way about “how something from the outside infiltrates into the inside, and the reaction of what’s inside is going to be this tragedy of whether to accept or reject that kind of infiltration.” Its also a story of a downfall at the same time, and Mr. Park remarked that vampirism was in many ways a plot device more than the plot itself.

    It is this sort of contrast that Mr. Park often examines in Thirst, sometimes blatantly but sometimes very subtly: he explains that he used Western mannequins for one set piece to show off traditional Korean dresses.

    But what often makes a Park Chan-Wook film so effective is that despite all the showy camera work and special effects, Mr. Park brings the best in his performances. He explained that storyboarding is an effective process for him: “So when you are looking at it, you get the feeling you are actually seeing the movie. And in the storyboarding I also add more explanations and descriptions as well. So when the actors are looking at this, there are able to prepare for the film, because in a way they’ve already seen the film.” Mr. Park also mentioned alcohol sometimes also prepares the actors for some of the more difficult scenes—such as the complicated sexual encounters in Thirst.
    When it came to influences, Mr. Park was indecisive, claiming rarely to rewatch his favorite films, though naming Kim Ki-Yong as someone he admires. In a way, Mr. Kim’s films have some of the same simultaneous grotesque and beautiful imagery that Mr. Park brings in Thirst. But also, Thirst is a morally complex film, as Mr. Park explained, “If somebody with such good intentions can face such dire consequence and result, in fact punished for his deeds. And as a result, he is forced to commit these sins, in order to survive. Then, is it right to have this sense of guilt, or does he not have to feel it at all?”

    Mr. Park answered that question in ambiguous terms, admiring a somewhat “certain heroic quality” in his protagonist. Hopefully, it was those qualities that Mr. Park identified with.