Among the rare class of truly buzzy thrillers is Sleep, a South Korean feature with a debut director (Jason Yu), international star (Parasite‘s Lee Sun-kyun), narrative hook (more below), and auteur endorsement (Bong Joon-ho). Magnet have acquired it for a September 27 release, and with the date looming there’s a U.S. trailer.
We were a little more mixed out of last year’s TIFF, with Ethan Vestby writing, “Yet it’s all a little too pronounced, as if never quite saying anything too surprising about modern living––instead there’s a slightly self-satisfied feeling, as if as a critic I’m just supposed to applaud it for acknowledging these conditions rather than turning them into truly effective images on their own. To the film’s credit, though, there is an underlying tension and mystery throughout. A ghost? Demonic possession? He’s just a psychopath? Once pregnancy––and furthermore the couple’s baby––comes into the equation, as I said: it’ll be hard not to squirm at least a little bit.”
Here’s the synopsis: “SLEEP follows newlyweds Hyun-su (Lee Sun-kyun, PARASITE) and Soo-jin (Jung Yu-mi), whose domestic bliss is disrupted when Hyun-su begins speaking in his sleep, ominously stating, ‘Someone’s inside.’ From that night on, whenever he falls asleep, Hyun-su transforms into someone else, with no recollection of what happened the night before. Overwhelmed with anxiety that he may hurt himself or their young family, Soo-jin can barely sleep because of this irrational fear. Despite treatment, Hyun-su’s sleepwalking only intensifies, and Soo-jin begins to feel that her unborn child may be in danger. A new thriller from director Jason Yu, who worked with Korean legends Bong Joon-ho and Lee Chang-dong before making his debut film, SLEEP world-premiered in Cannes’ Critics’ Week.”
Preview and poster are below:
