[Sportschosun reporter Jo Ji-young] The tireless universe of director Yeon Sang-ho (48) continues.
Director Yeon Sang-ho, who helmed the thriller Paradise Lost, produced by WOWPOINT, met with Sportschosun on the morning of the 14th in Samcheong-dong, Jongno District, Seoul. He discussed everything from the film’s direction to why he took on another low-budget project after The Face.
Paradise Lost is a mystery about a mother who lost her child in the disappearance of a Camping School bus nine years ago, and whose child returns nine years later, having grown up so much. The film is director Yeon Sang-ho’s second low-budget project, following The Face, the ultra-low-budget film made for 200 million won that caused a stir in theaters last year. Paradise Lost was made on a budget of about 500 million won.
Paradise Lost began as a three-page story written by director Yeon Sang-ho’s mother. It developed into a story that explores what makes humans human in an era of rapidly advancing artificial intelligence (AI), delving into the darkness and depths unique to humanity. The film delivers a weighty message through the stark contrast between a mother who cannot let go of the perfect child in her memories and her real son, who returns having grown up to be nothing like she expected.
Yeon Sang-ho said, “The film began with my mother’s three-page story. In her writing, there’s a son who does bad things in the village. His actions make his mother’s own life painful, too. The story ends with the mother making a decision about her son and putting it into action, and I developed that story into Paradise Lost. What I wondered about in my mother’s writing was, ‘What exactly is this psychology?’ In a way, it’s a story about both attachment to and love for a child. I found it strange, in a way, that someone might try to hold something within herself and make it disappear without seeking help from others. I thought about how I could reshape it into a question relevant to the present day, and decided to explore it.”
Asked about his mother’s reaction after seeing Paradise Lost, Yeon Sang-ho laughed and said, “I didn’t tell my mother that the film was her story until recently. She came to a preview and watched it, too. Afterward, I called to ask what she thought, but all she said was, ‘I enjoyed it. Don’t drink too much; come home early.’”
Yeon Sang-ho laughed and said, “The writer I co-wrote The Colony with drew a comic about their own parents and made it into a book. I was really envious. I had a strong desire to understand my parents. In the end, I couldn’t understand them 100 percent. It’s not easy to fully understand human existence. My mother’s writing is a little dark, but I’m not her only son. Perhaps because she’s seen a lot of my films, I sometimes wonder whether my work influenced her.”
He continued, “I thought this story might feel very natural within my mother’s worldview. My mother had a strong attachment to her children. I thought she might naturally relate to this story. It’s not simply a story about parents and children that everyone can understand; it’s about human identity. Don’t I have a dual identity, too? I’m a director outside the home, but at home I’m a father and a husband. Most people live with complex identities, so I wanted to develop the story along those lines,” he said.
After The Face, which had a net production budget of 220 million won, director Yeon Sang-ho made waves in theaters again with Paradise Lost, made on a budget of 500 million won. He said, “The Face did extremely well at the box office. As we’d agreed in advance, I shared the profits with the crew and actors in the form of shares, and to be honest, I shared even more than that. To be even more honest, it was the first time I’d tried a project like this, so there were some errors when we settled the accounts. There were cases where I thought, ‘This person should get more,’ so I gave them extra out of my own pocket as a bonus. My experience with The Face helped me find a better way to do Paradise Lost, and as a result the budget was slightly higher than it had been for Paradise Lost. I’m not sure there’s such a thing as an appropriate budget for making a film. Sometimes I wonder if such a thing even exists in this world. I want to keep making projects like this, within what the commercial structure allows and without pushing the crew too hard. Almost all of the 20 or so crew members who worked on The Face also worked on Paradise Lost, which was filmed over 14 shooting days.”
He explained, “Korean independent cinema has certainly forged a distinctive path, but I’ve also thought it would be good to have a kind of label. Such labels exist overseas, and I wondered whether we could create one here, too. I hoped people would see that potential in The Face and Paradise Lost. Art houses used to do a lot of this, but they’ve disappeared, so I wanted to keep these projects going myself.”
He added, “While working on The Face and Paradise Lost, I didn’t want to disrupt the overall industrial structure of Korean cinema. Small films like these often receive art-film support or are recognized as independent films, but our company invested directly in The Face, and we didn’t receive any support at all. I think that support should go to directors who have been making independent films. If Paradise Lost doesn’t do too badly, I think we’ll be able to make another film. I’ve heard the break-even point (BEP) doesn’t matter because Paradise Lost has strong overseas sales.”
On low-budget projects, Yeon Sang-ho said, “I want to keep making them. I talked about it with Park Jung-min, too. When I buy a toy, I play with it until it breaks. I plan to have fun making low-budget films until they break.” He added, “Of course, I also plan to keep working on blockbusters. I chose this profession because I love the work, but I’d also like to make films that reach a wider audience.”
On Kim Hyun-joo, with whom Yeon Sang-ho has now collaborated for the fourth time, following Hellbound, Jung_E and The Bequeathed, the director had high praise: “She’s an actor I really trust. I watched 100 Days of Lies, and she was practically flying. Whenever I work with Kim Hyun-joo, I feel I can trust her and leave things to her. She thinks deeply about how to portray a character. She gives performances that go beyond what I expect as a director, so I tend to trust her and leave it to her. She’s been a top star since she was 20, and recently she’s been showing a new side as a performer. I’m glad to see the depth of her experience coming through.”
Yeon Sang-ho also spoke about Bae Hyun-sung: “I got to know Bae when Bae briefly appeared as Kim Shin-rok’s son in Hellbound 2. When I first started casting Paradise Lost, I struggled over the role of the son. The budget was so small that it felt awkward to formally approach actors. I also didn’t know many young male actors. The only person I could think of was Park Jung-min, but Jung-min is now in his 40s. The age gap was too large for the role of Kim Hyun-joo’s son. When I thought it through, Bae Hyun-sung came to mind. I cautiously approached Bae, and the answer was an enthusiastic yes. Bae’s acting has a distinctive mood to it. The son in Paradise Lost needed an eerie, languid quality that would unsettle the audience, and I think Bae brought that out well. It wasn’t a casting choice I’d spent that much time thinking about, but it turned out to be a surprisingly great one,” he said with a laugh.
On a special appearance by Koo Kyo-hwan, another of Yeon Sang-ho’s muses, the director pointed to a fun detail in the film: “One of the fun parts of our movie is finding the hidden Koo Kyo-hwan. It seems people who’ve seen the film haven’t spotted him yet. Still, I’m sure viewers will be able to find him. There aren’t many characters in Paradise Lost besides the main ones.”
On hearing that Koo Kyo-hwan, his muse, had announced a surprise marriage to director Lee Ok-seop, Yeon Sang-ho laughed and said, “I found out through the news, too. I didn’t know. Surprisingly, Koo and I don’t talk about personal things. I’m not hurt that I heard about the marriage late. It felt a little like Mom and Dad were getting married, so I even wondered, ‘Is this really such big news?’”
Paradise Lost stars Kim Hyun-joo and Bae Hyun-sung and is directed by Yeon Sang-ho, whose films include Train to Busan, Peninsula and The Face. It opens on the 21st.
Reporter Jo Ji-young | soulhn1220@sportschosun.com
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