SINGAPORE – Every night, a strange transformation happens. Humans lie down, slip into a coma-like state, then hallucinate wildly for several hours.
South Korean film-maker Jason Yu, 33, wanted to tap the anxieties around closing one’s eyes and becoming unaware of the world and its hazards.
“Sleep is a state of complete surrender to your environment. It’s a great subject for a horror film,” says the writer-director in an e-mail interview with The Straits Times.
His debut feature, simply titled Sleep, was selected for the Critics’ Week at the Cannes Film Festival in May and the recently concluded Toronto International Film Festival. It opens in Singapore cinemas on Thursday.
The story concerns newly-weds Hyun-su (Lee Sun-kyun) and Soo-jin (Jung Yu-mi). They are in love and all seems perfect until Soo-jin notices that in the mornings, household objects are not where she left them the previous night.
The film touches on the anxieties around the choice of life partners, the people to whom one’s most vulnerable sides are exposed.
Soo-jin comes to believe that her husband might have something to do with the nightly happenings, but lacks proof and becomes plagued by paranoia and guilt.
Yu says: “Trust in the person you share the bed with is crucial. You trust them not to harm you and to even protect you from any danger that might fall upon you while you’re asleep.
“However, when that person becomes the biggest threat, everything changes, and your peace and safety are no longer guaranteed. This is the devastating situation that kicks off the movie.”
Yu says that while Sleep was not directly inspired by other thrillers about malignant partners, he is a fan of the sub-genre, having loved movies such as The Stepford Wives (1975) and Get Out (2017).
He also kept the action confined to the couple’s average-sized apartment, despite getting advice from others about occasionally moving the story elsewhere, giving audiences some variety in the setting.
“A home is a safe place where people seek refuge from the horrors of the world. Turning that place into the source of horror raises the stakes and creates a fascinating situation,” he says.
Yu lived in Britain for several years and speaks English fluently.
After making a few well-received short films, he worked as assistant director with celebrated Oscar-winning South Korean film-maker Bong Joon-ho on the latter’s science-fiction comedy Okja (2017).
For South Korean director Lee Chang-dong, Yu helped create the English subtitles for the drama Burning (2018), the first South Korean film to make the final nine-film shortlist for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards.
Jung, who plays the hapless wife Soo-jin, is an established actress who has starred in major films such as the drama Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 (2019) and the zombie hit Train To Busan (2016).
According to an interview with the newspaper The Korea Times, the 40-year-old says Bong persuaded her to read the screenplay sent by the then-unknown Yu with an open mind.
On his advice, she did so, and was hooked.
Yu calls Jung a legendary actress and had written the role of Soo-jin with her in mind.
Despite her self-confessed dislike for scary movies, Jung has appeared in thrillers and horror films, including superhero movie Psychokinesis (2018). This made her perfect for Sleep, as it balances out the chills with a dash of humour, says Yu.
“I am fortunate that she joined the project because I can’t imagine Sleep without her,” he says.
As for whether his own sleep has been disrupted by partner-related incidents, Yu says no, though he thinks his wife might offer a different opinion.
“I share a bed with my wife. She does have to put up with my lethal snoring,” he says.
Sleep opens in cinemas on Thursday.
