User:Aitantv/Thirst, Park Chan Wook

Thirst (2009) dir. Park Chan-Wook. Single channel film, stereo sound, 02:14:00 duration. Focus Features International, South Korea.

Synopsis: Thirst (Korean: 박쥐; Bakjwi; literally "bat") is a 2009 horror film written, produced and directed by Park Chan-wook. Loosely based on the 1867 novel Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola,[3] the film stars Song Kang-ho as Sang-hyun, a Catholic priest who turns into a vampire as a result of a failed medical experiment, and falls in love with Tae-ju (Kim Ok-bin), the wife of his childhood friend (Shin Ha-kyun).
pale look
'the Bandaged saint' - comes back to life after failed medical experiment

feast

police chief arrives - they drink and play Mahjong - Among the new churchgoers are Kang-woo, Sang-hyun's childhood friend, and his family. Kang-woo invites his old friend to join the weekly mahjong night at his house, and there, Sang-hyun finds himself attracted to Kang-woo's wife, Tae-ju. Sang-hyun later relapses into his illness and wakes in dire need of shelter from the sunlight, having become a vampire.
LP changing sides is used to punctuate cutes - the whole scene is shot on a gib arm - shallow depth of field with focus pulling on character faces
Sang-hyun, as his symptoms flare up, is sweating he's too hot - he gets a whiff of blood and feels faint it is Tae-ju's period blood - this is the beginning of their forbidden affair, between a priest vampire and the wife of his old friend

the hospital

still in his function as 'the banadaged priest' Sang-hyun drinks blood from a comatose patient.
As vampirical cells make give him mighty strength, he feeds of the blood of others - the EV symptoms only go away when he drinks blood
the hospital is also the site in which he loses his virginity to Tae-ju. In the same sectioned off ward of the hospital as a comatose patient, they begin a slow, sensual, all-consuming sexual affair. Only after they climax and settle down does Sang-hyun reveal that he's a vampire, a shocking and terrifying discovery for Sang-hyun
there's a particularly iconic image of the the priest sucking her calussed toes while Tae-ju sucks his thumb
thus this becomes a story about consumption - thirst for blood being equated to a thirst for lust, sex.

the quotidian

a neutral - and largely everyday depiction of reality sets the stage for subtle interventions of the supernatural
Tae-ju has a cindarella story, a daughter who is forced to endure a life of household duties in service of her husband and menial labour in the family textile shop.