The Reel Review
A pregnant South Korean woman finds her relationship with her husband strained when he starts sleepwalking, with increasingly dangerous results and no memory of the night before. Jung Yu-mi (Train to Busan) and the late Lee Sun-kyun (Parasite) star in this psychological mystery/horror.
In his directorial debut, writer/director Jason Yu blends quirky dark humor with nail-biting horror, playing on the viewers fears of what might happen as the husband, Hyun-su, appears to be engaging in increasingly dangerous behavior. Yu crafts a clever, twist-filled screenplay where an increasingly stressed out and sleep-deprived Soo-jin becomes convinced that her husband is possessed by a ghost, a theory encouraged by her equally anxious mother. As the viewer, even you start to wonder – is he?
While Jung Yu-mi’s riveting performance is the glue holding this story together, Lee Sun-kyun is equally impressive in his more nuanced portrait of the husband who, like the viewer, isn’t sure what to believe until the pulse-pounding finale.
REEL FACTS
• Sleep was Lee Sun-kyun’s final film before his December 2023 suicide via carbon monoxide poisoning, amidst an investigation into illegal drug use.
• Writer/director Jason Yu was mentored by Oscar-winning director Bong Joon-ho, working as his assistant on such films as Okja and Parasite.
• Jung Yu-mi starred in director Yeon Sang-ho’s 2016 zombie thriller Train to Busan, reuniting with him two years later for the dark comedy Psychokinesis.
Video & Photo
