Park Chan-wook Wins Jury Award at Cannes

South Korea's maestro director Park Chan-wook shared the Jury Prize at Cannes for his vampire thriller "Thirst" with Britain's Andrea Arnold ("Fish Tank") -- his second one after "Old Boy" in 2004.

Read the news wire from AFP below:

(AFP) - CANNES, France, May 24, 2009 (AFP) - Asia's dark and disturbing movies scooped Cannes kudos on Sunday, with awards for cult directors from China and Korea, as well as controversial Filipino auteur Brillante Mendoza.

At Cannes with a blood-and-gore tale about vampire love titled "Thirst", South Korea's Park Chan-wook jointly won the festival's Jury Prize, taking home his second trophy from the festival after "Old Boy" in 2004.

A torrid and unexpectedly graphic gay love movie from China, "Spring Fever", won best screenplay for outlawed director Lou Ye.

And Mendoza, one of the most divisive directors at the 12-day movie bonanza, got the best director prize for a gritty look at violence in "Kinatay", which means massacre and shows the slow butchering of a prostitute into pieces with blunt kitchen knives.

"I know opinions are divided on my movies," Mendoza said after picking up his prize. "I was expecting it."

Mendoza faced a barrage of criticism from some quarters at Cannes at his first showing last year with "Serbis", which was set in a Manila porn-theatre with long close-ups of festering boils and overflowing toilets.

Both films background Manila's poor, with "Kinatay" chronicling a day in the life of a young police officer that begins with his wedding and closes with his involvement in the rape, murder and hacking into pieces of a prostitute.

"This is not just entertainment, these kinds of stories are real," Mendoza said.

Park's priest-turned-vampire suffers cruelly in the movie, from inner demons and physical ills, but picking up his award at the red-carpet ceremony the film-maker in contrast said:

"I think I still have a long way to go to be a true artist because I still don't know about the pain of creation. I only know about the joy of creation."

Park, who describes his rivers-of-blood tale as a "scandalous vampire melodrama," shows a good-Samaritan priest caught in an ethical quagmire after being turned into a vampire by a mysterious blood transfusion.

Lusting not only after blood but after a childhood friend's wife -- who turns into a vampire too -- the priest is drawn into crime while seeking redemption as he soars through windows to rooftops in search of life-saving blood supplies.

*It's interesting to note that both "Thirst" and "Kinatay" star the striking Filipina actress Mercedes Cabral. Her furtive glances in Park's film left an admirable impression. Congrats Mr. Park!

Asian films are flying on a cinematic high! When Juliette Binoche visited Seoul recently, she said that Asian cinema is totally hot right now and are inspiring the int'l film world. Cannes, la creme de la creme among film fests, exemplifies this.

"Thirst" topped the local box office but ceded the No. 1 spot to the romantic comedy "My Girlfriend Isn't an Agent." Still, it's not a bad score for something that is rated R to the core.

>>Read my movie review (one of the first in English) on Park's "Thirst."
>>Read about what Park had to say about his film (though it's a little outdated, it contains the essence of his thoughts on the piece).