영화 <박쥐>에 나타난 자기희생과 욕망

Abstract

Chan-Wook Park's film, Thirst which opened in April 2009, got not only commercial success but also recognition of its cinematic quality. In spite of that, polarizing of the appreciations of the film is obvious. It is thought to be caused by this work’s ambiguity of genre. Previously, his films had concentrated on the fundamental conflict in human, which cannot draw a sharp line of demarcation between right and wrong, good and evil, and beauty and the Grotesque. This seems to be why the general public pay attention to his movies. Thirst is also deemed a part of it. Despite various evaluations and interpretations of Thirst, its academic result is inadequate. It is not possible to understand this film if not focusing on religious issues, but the possibility of discussion on the issues is partly disappeared, because of the main character, Sang-hyun's death by causationism. Yet, there is still room for religious interpretation on Thirst in many sides. The study on Thirst, examined that the twisted desires on taboo bring self-destructive consequences. Criteria of this ‘twisted’ leave room for reinterpreting Thirst with religious matters. The ‘twisted desire’ concludes with the Christian viewpoint of 'sin'. Eventually, the twisted desire shown by Thirst refers to human’s original sin. The fundamental desire that Sang-hyun wanted to pursue even if he managed to sacrifice himself starts from human’s unpromising hope of becoming a god. Moreover, his desire includes self-sacrifice, in here, the point is that the self-sacrifice apparently seems to help others, but in fact, it is triggered by the desire that he wants to be a god. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that the self-sacrifice and desire in Thirst turn out to be such desire that is fundamental in human beings yet unpromising in the way that Sang-hyun tries to become a god by means of sacrifice.