Thirst Poster Banned, Then Revised for Korean Market

By The Woman In Black
March 20th, 2009

Apparently Koreans don't like it when you mess with their priests. As soon as the first teaser poster for Thirst became public, it was banned for being "too provocative and disturbing."

Variety recently reported the following details: The poster (pictured below on the left) features the figure of a bat, which is the Korean title of the film, using the images of its leading character, a priest-turned-vampire (Song Kang-ho), being strangled by a naked woman (Kim Ok-bin). The ban is the work of the South Korea's Media Rating Board, which has become more strict about the depiction of sexuality these days.

After doing a little digging online, I came across its replacement (shown on the right) on Hancinema.net, who also provided some interpretation for the poster. They see it as a contrast between good and evil, and man and woman. It also hints at the film's central relationship between a vampire priest and a femme fatale.

Overseas markets for Thirst, which is co-financed by Universal, will still see the original poster used in promotions for the film.