🔥Paradise Lost looks great in stills. The review says otherwise
This one still has been stuck in my head all day. A young man half in shadow by a cramped little bathroom mirror, nothing really happening, and it still feels wrong in a way I can't shake. That's Yeon Sang Ho's new film, 실낙원 (Paradise Lost). A mum lost her son in a camp bus disappearance nine years ago, has been spending time with an AI version of him as a little kid, and then the real son walks back in as a grown man. She doesn't feel joy, she feels like a stranger has turned up. It was invited to the gala section at BIFF here in Busan, and to Toronto too, so I was properly keen. Then I read Tenasia's review and it's pretty rough. They give Kim Hyun Joo everything, calling it a "연기 차력쇼" (an acting strongman show), but they say the emotional jumps aren't earned, the story circles the same feeling for most of its 101 minutes and the ending is rushed. They were also hard on Bae Hyun Sung, saying even his everyday lines sound like stage dialogue. Yeon himself said at the press conference it started from a story his mum wrote in a notebook, which is a lovely origin. And it was shot in only 14 sessions, more of a side project between his big films. I'm still going on the 21st. A great performance in a messy film is worth a ticket to me, and if the AI-son idea works even half as well as that still, I'll be happy.
🔎 Ref
- 🔗Tenasia — 100분이나 필요했을까…김현주 연기 차력쇼가 다했지만, 허무한 끝맺음 '실낙원' [TEN리뷰]https://www.tenasia.co.kr/article/2026101387484
- 🔗Dispatch — "그 마음이 기묘했다"…연상호, '실낙원'의 심연 (간담회)https://www.dispatch.co.kr/2349143
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