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 Chan-wook's Vampire Film Thirst Gets Extra US FundingPark Chan-wook, the Korean director known for the Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance trilogy, is hard at work on his next film, a vampire flick titled Thirst. Focus Features and Universal have announced today that they will finance and distribute the film, making this the first time that Chan-wook has actually ever received US funding. The story in Thirst surrounds a priest who participates in a medical experiment to find a cure for a deadly disease with traumatic repercussions - which we can only assume have something to do with vampires. The film is currently shooting and is expected to be ready by mid-2009, where it'll most likely hit film festivals before arriving in theaters."First, this is a vote of confidence in CJ and director Park, but also having a film of this scale get the backing of a major studio in North America opens up an opportunity for all Korean films," said Katharine Kim of CJ Entertainment, the Korean production company currently developing the film. "Park Chan-wook is one of the most talented and influential Korean directors working today." If anyone has ever seen Oldboy or Lady Vengeance, they'll know that certainly is true. I might even be so bold as to call Park Chan-wook a visionary. I've been anxious to hear about his next project, since the sci-fi comedy I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK never really hit it big and I've been hoping he'd go back to the more dark and intense world again.Thirst stars Song Kang-ho (from The Host and The Good the Bad and the Weird), Shin Ha-kyun (from Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), and Kim Ok-bi (from Dasepo Naughty Girls) as the leading lady. It's apparently being pitched as a love story with horror and drama. I never actually saw I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK, so I can't say whether or not that was good, but I'm a fan of Chan-wook's other films and I'm actually quite interested in Thirst. The fact that a big Hollywood studio is investing in it means that this is probably pretty damn good. I've written about the vampire trend before, which I don't really have a problem with, but it seems like Thirst will be one of the most original takes.
Park Chan-wook's Thirst is a Blood-Drenched Vampire Thriller?Vengeance trilogy director Park Chan-wook returns to Cannes this year with his newest vampire film Thirst, starring The Host's Song Kang-ho. I'm looking forward to it quite a bit, but because I don't see it until tomorrow (Thursday), we've got to resort to pulling quotes from Reuters (via The Playlist) for the early buzz. They're already calling it a "blood-drenched thriller" along the lines of Park's past work, which often questions "human nature through scenes of shocking violence and dark humor." Also since I don't have the opportunity to talk with Park Chan-wook either, they have some great quotes from the filmmaker."I wanted to make audiences more conscious of the moral aspects of choices, whether large or small, by presenting a once-in-a-lifetime, life-or-death decision and exaggerating it to the extremes," Park said. "Many of South Korea's modern films do not dodge, but squarely confront, moral questions that other films in other countries tend to see as anachronistic." It's for this reason especially that I can't wait to see Thirst, especially being a fan of Park's Vengeance trilogy. We previously posted an early teaser trailer, but at this point I'm trying to just go in as unaware as possible, so that I may be able to enjoy it so much more.And speaking of vampires, considering they're quite popularity in cinema at the moment (e.g. Twilight), why did Park choose to tackle that subject? "I thought I could add some changes to this old genre by approaching the subject — vampire-ism, so to speak — without the usual mystery or romanticism but from a realistic perspective where being a vampire is sort of a disease," Park said. That's a rather interesting approach to the genre and I'm very curious to see how it'll work in the context of his film. I'll be providing a quick reaction tomorrow afternoon once I get to finally see Park Chan-wook's latest, so stay tuned!