Yeon Sang Ho’s new psychological thriller Paradise Lost has set an October 21st theatrical release and unveiled 14 official stills.
The film follows Ryu So Young (Kim Hyun Joo), a mother who lost her son in a camping school bus disappearance nine years earlier. After years of believing him dead, her son Ryu Sun Woo (Bae Hyeon Seong) suddenly returns home alive.
In the years since his disappearance, So Young has kept herself going by meeting a 10-year-old version of her son through an AI program called “Children of Paradise.” But when the now-grown Sun Woo unexpectedly reappears after nine years, her life begins to unravel.
The newly released stills capture key moments from the film, including So Young visiting an abandoned mine with a bouquet of flowers, reporters swarming Sun Woo upon his return, and the grown Sun Woo sitting inside a bedroom left untouched since his childhood.
But the son who comes home is no longer the boy So Young remembers. With scars across his face and an unreadable expression, Sun Woo leaves his mother torn between guilt over failing to protect him and fear of the stranger he has become.
Kim portrays So Young’s conflicting emotions with restraint, while Bae, taking on his first leading role in a film, brings an unsettling edge to Sun Woo.
Yeon, known for films and series including The King of Pigs, Train to Busan, Hellbound and Parasyte: The Grey, said Paradise Lost continues themes he explored in his previous film The Ugly.
“‘Paradise Lost’ is an extension of ‘The Ugly,’ and it’s an even darker and colder story,” Yeon said.
While The Ugly centered on a father and son, Paradise Lost shifts the focus to a mother and son, with Yeon turning away from large-scale disasters and supernatural threats to explore something more intimate and psychological.
Before its domestic release, Paradise Lost will have its world premiere in the Special Presentations section of the 51st Toronto International Film Festival. All four scheduled screenings sold out after tickets went on sale.
Paradise Lost opens in theaters on October 21st.
>> Moon Geun Young Returns to the Big Screen in Yeon Sang Ho’s ‘Yeto’
Source: CJ ENM
