Yeon Sang-ho's New Thriller "Paradise Lost" Began With a 3-Page Story Written by His Mother

Director Yeon Sang-ho says his new psychological thriller "Paradise Lost" started from a short story his own mother wrote by hand. He shared the origin at a production presentation for the film on Sept. 18 at CGV Yongsan I'Park Mall in Yongsan district, Seoul. Actors Kim Hyun-joo and Bae Hyun-sung joined him on stage.

"Paradise Lost" follows a mother who lost her son nine years earlier after he disappeared on a camping school trip. The story begins when the son she believed dead returns home alive. The film was officially invited to the Special Presentations section of the 51st Toronto International Film Festival and will have its Asian premiere in the Gala Presentation section of the 31st Busan International Film Festival.

Kim Hyun-joo plays Ryu So-young, a mother shaken by how unfamiliar her returned son now feels. Bae Hyun-sung plays the son, Ryu Sun-woo, who comes back after nine years.

It was Yeon Sang-ho's second straight year in Toronto after "The Ugly" last year, and he said he was surprised again by the turnout. "Meeting fans in front of the theater is a Toronto signature. I always worry there won't be anyone there, but there were so many people," he said. "Last year I was shocked and thought, 'Park Jung-min is this big?' This time I was shocked all over again."

Kim Hyun-joo added that fans came prepared. "They had printed out posters in advance. The director was really popular," she said. Yeon joked about the reception. "I got a little cocky, like, 'Do I really have this many fans?' As I was walking into my hotel, one foreign fan said they had waited three hours. So I called them over and took a photo, and then they asked me, 'Where are you from?'" he said, drawing laughs.

The story behind the film is what got the biggest reaction. Yeon said his mother has always been especially protective of him. "When 'Colony' came out, she watched a making-of video on a movie program and suddenly started crying, saying she had no idea I was going through such a hard time. But there was not a single scene of me actually struggling," he said.

When his mother marveled at his creativity, he told her anyone who can write in Korean can do it. "Then when I went home for the holidays, she had written about three pages of a story in a notebook. That is the original idea behind 'Paradise Lost'," he said.

Yeon said he actually bought the story from his mother. Asked how much he paid, he joked, "I talked her down a bit." He added, "Based on that idea, I wrote about three different versions of the story, and 'Paradise Lost' is the final version."

His wife has since caught the writing bug too. "I showed 'Paradise Lost' to my wife. She knows my mother wrote the original," he said. "The funny thing is, my wife then sent me this much of her own story over KakaoTalk," he added, spreading his hands wide. Asked whether her story would also become a film, he said, "She is writing it now. I don't know when it will come out, but hers is a harder story. It is all dark. That is the real thing." He shook his head and joked, "The whole family is heading into the abyss."

"Paradise Lost" opens in Korean theaters on Oct. 21.