The film ‘Thirst’ (which won the 2009 Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival) is another story that uses the vampire genre to address interesting issues. The personification of evil in Buddhist cosmology is Mara, who is synonymous with desire and death… which is in turn synonymous with indulgence in sex (as the melting pot of sensual desires) and (bloody) violence. (Desire is neutral – till it becomes craving.) Aren’t these aspects what the lure of vampirism is all about, from times ancient till today? The poster itself simply but effectively portrays simultaneous sex and violence in a ‘minimal’ way. Note the tension between the uptight religious man versus the liberal girl. The clash of extremes.
In the story, a severely bored girl becomes a vampire by ingesting vampire blood. She swings severely from the extreme of lifelessness to boundless liveliness with new found super strength and supposed immortality… overdoing sex and violence. She rationalises that it’s not a ‘sin’ for her to kill for blood, just as it isn’t for a fox to eat a chicken – but she misses the point that she need not kill to live. My take on the meaning of ‘eternal life’ in vampire mythos is that it represents of how desire (for power and control too) and death is ‘immortal’ – from life after life in rebirth.
And here’s my take of the significance of vampires’ fear of sunlight… It represents the brightness of goodness and truth, that they conscientiously shy from, so as to stay in the darkness of delusion, that sustains their attachment to the ungodly and aversion to virtues. In case you havn’t got it yet, attachment (which includes lust) is represented by sex, and aversion (which includes killing) is represented by violence. The duo are fueled by delusion. There – all the Three Poisons. Sunrises also stand for the passing of time, that so-called immortality will eventually die of. Even in vampire lore, no vampire lives forever. Obsession with sex and violence betrays them in time.
In perhaps the most unnerving scene, which perfectly illustrates the pain and pleasure of sex and violence in action, the girl sucks on the slit wrist of a vampire for life, while he drinks from her wrist. A closed loop, reminding us of how lives thrive on deaths – though there is no need to bleed one another dry – physically or emotionally. To swiftly rejuvenate her, he even cuts his tongue and kisses her. Disturbing indeed – how sex literally kisses violence into one fine bloody mess.