At The Movies: In the K-horror Sleep, a couple close their eyes but find no rest
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Horror comedy Sleep stars Lee Sun-kyun (left) and Jung Yu-mi as a husband and wife who discover odd events happening in their bedroom while both are asleep.
PHOTO: GOLDEN VILLAGE
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Sleep (NC16)
95 minutes, opens on Thursday
4 stars
The story: Newly-weds Hyun-su (Lee Sun-kyun) and Soo-jin (Jung Yu-mi) have it all – a loving relationship, a small but cosy apartment and, soon, a baby. With Soo-jin’s encouragement, Hyun-su’s career as an actor is gaining traction. One morning, she wakes to find household items not in their usual places. Over the following days, the small messes become larger and more sinister in their implications. Soo-jin is determined to find the cause as she has a baby to protect.
The best horror movies take an innocent, everyday occurrence and build a new anxiety around it.
Thai hit Shutter (2004) created fears around photographs, while Japanese film Dark Water (2002, with a good American remake in 2005) made stains on the wall scary.
These films, like South Korea’s Sleep, are Asian in origin and also use the notion of creeping change – almost imperceptibly, something is edging forward to be born and, with each step, the tension spirals upwards.
South Korean writer-director Jason Yu’s excellent debut feature rests the horror atop a solid emotional base formed by the bond between husband and wife.
They show their care through practical action. She bolsters his ego as an actor. In return, he pays attention to her worries. It starts cute – and this is where the story’s humour enters – but love, as Yu shows, has a way of creating unintended consequences.
The less said about the story the better, but it would not be giving too much away to say that Jung’s Soo-jin anchors the piece.
Her character starts as a victim, then she becomes a sleuth, putting together the puzzle pieces, taking the story to a conclusion miles away from where it first began.
The veteran actress, working with frequent collaborator Lee (they share credits in three previous films), moves from frightened wife to determined detective with ease.
As the film builds to the pay-off, the point of view shifts and the spooky events are no longer seen through the eyes of the embattled Soo-jin.
Suddenly, factual certainty is removed. The narrative ground the audience has been standing on shifts and moves, like the items in the apartment after a night of uneasy rest.
Hot take: Within its compact 95 minutes, and without relying on jump scares or crazy computer graphics, this story of an average couple dealing with mysterious nightly terrors packs in more scares than films twice as long.
