박쥐 (Thirst). 2009. South Korea/USA. Directed by Park Chan-wook. Screenplay by Park, Jeong Seo-kyung, based on the novel Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola. With Song Kang-ho, Kim Ok-vin, Kim Hae-sook, Shin Ha-kyun, Oh Dal-su, Park In-hwan. In Korean; English subtitles. 133 min.
Park Chan-wook’s audacious reimagining of Zola’s Thérèse Raquin transposes the 19th-century tale of adultery and murder to contemporary Korea, and replaces Zola’s deterministic naturalism with the metaphysics of vampirism. Song Kang-ho delivers a performance of anguished complexity as Sang-hyun, a Catholic priest whose participation in a medical experiment transforms him into a creature of insatiable thirst. When he becomes entangled with Tae-ju (Kim Ok-vin, in a fearless debut), the neglected wife of a childhood friend, the film erupts into a darkly comic exploration of desire, guilt, and damnation. Park orchestrates this carnal theology with characteristic visual bravura, finding grotesque beauty in blood-drinking and forbidden passion. The first South Korean film produced with American investment, Thirst won the Jury Prize at Cannes, confirming Park’s position as one of world cinema’s most uncompromising stylists.