technology ·
Yeon Sang-ho's 'Paradise Lost' explores grief in the age of AI
6 (UPI) -- Paradise Lost, South Korean director Yeon Sang-ho's twisty new feature about a parent-child relationship shattered by loss, began with a short story written by his own mother.
"My mother has always felt quite sorry for me because of the work I do," Yeon told UPI in an interview at his office in Seoul. "She thinks I work incredibly hard and that my job takes a real toll on me."
The filmmaker behind the zombie blockbuster Train to Busan tried to reassure her that writing stories wasn't so difficult. On his next holiday visit, she presented him with a story of her own: three pages about a mother tormented by an evil son.
Yeon bought the story and began developing it into Paradise Lost, a psychological thriller that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September and opens in North America on Friday. Made on a micro-budget of roughly $375,000, the film stars frequent Yeon collaborator Kim Hyun-joo as So-young, a mother whose son Sun-woo disappears and is presumed dead following a horrifying school bus abduction.
