Sleep
Korean psychological chiller “Sleep” could have easily gone off in tone becoming a regular horror comedy at any moment. In fact, it is a polished and rather disturbing marital tale in which one of the partners is a chronic sleepwalker, and the other is constantly anxious about it, hence it is a paranoid thriller and a ghost story told in a leisurely manner. In his admirable debut feature film, Jason Yu who is also the writer and the director here, manages to satiate both character and plot driven horror. The fact that the co-leads Jung Yu-mi and the deceased Lee Sun-kyun were perfect as a tired but still lovable pair, does help. But “Sleep” still walks such a delicate path in portraying a troubled relationship that it takes an instant to comprehend what Yu’s brisk confidence in the film is, his biggest strength.
Though “Sleep” is not an ordinary film, it does not have too much drama or focus on romance, it stays tense and maintains a focus that the characters have a quest to unravel an ambiguous mysterious situation. For a start, Hyun-su (Lee) has the bad habit of waking up in the middle of a night. “There’s someone here,” he whispers. Which neither Hyun-su nor his wife Soo-jin (Jung) manage to make sense of. He assumes it can be possible to track, diagnose and isolate the new issue like an unsolved problem that is ripe for experimentation.
As an emotionally active, though far from passive, witness, she embarks down a more sinister and distressing road.
Several familiar stakes and tropes lend shape to the otherwise twisted plot of “Sleep”: What is likely to become of the baby of Hyun-su and Soo-jin, and what does the interfereing Min Jeong (Kim Gook Hee), who is their downstairs neighbor, know about what is going on? There is some, however, humdrum intrigue about a shaman also Madame Haegoong (Kim Kum-soon) who is introduced by Soo-Jin’s anxious mother (Lee Kyung-Jin), as well as a medical doctor (Yoon Kyung-ho) who Cheerfully gives Soo-Jin all the modern medical false reassurance.
To his credit, Yu bi does not seem to be put off either by the ‘generic type’ of encounters that this focus, on a somnambulist and an endangered child, would normally attract (Did you check the trash darling). However, for most parts, “Sleep” focuses on the more subtle episodic hurdles that Soo-jin and Hyun-su come across in the course of the film. The trick to this kind of movie is that you need to root for both heroes as they follow a storyline only to realize in the end that the trip is not what they envisioned. Yu achieves this by placing Soo-Jin and Hyun-Seok as the focal point and consistently reinforcing their love story even as they travel through a horror flick that puts them at odds with each other.
Even better, Yu in no way becomes complacent in his depiction of Soo-Jung, a co-lead who probably has to be the one who has to be rational even when she is constantly on the verge of becoming more than just suspenseful but can be quite ramping up every fear trope.
Jung’s portrayal is credible and so is her screen partner however, it is Soo-Jung who manages to effortlessly stand out in the little details that Yu wishes to bring across regarding her fear of losing her husband. It is one thing to be able to say that Soo-Jung is determined to maintain a relationship with Hyun-su at all costs. It is altogether something else to present a rather complicated yet complete image of an overworked and somewhat disturbed married lady, through rather restricted but meaningful dialogue with her mother, her husband, her wife, the lady next door, and so forth.
Lee’s admirers might be coping with his heavy expectations, although they are likely to see what they will be looking for from “Sleep” which is one of his finalized roles for a while. This is not a very flashy performance, but still Lee is an ideal figure that personifies what’s best about “Sleep”; not only is he a powerful leading man but also a great screen collaborator. He fits well into Yu’s properly calibrated overall scheme, the same as with the film’s scary scenes which are meant to be strong in effect but are always restrained and not ever schematic in nature, though Miss Haegoong’s appearance is strong but very brief. Sleep does not tend to finish with an extravagant supernatural battle, but it instead has a climax where emotion is somehow fleshed out, but this emotion wasn’t so poignant that one could describe it as over the top and its not so painful that one could consider it mean-spirited as well. It’s neither, because although Hyun-su eventually complains about his problems, Soo-Jung also (perhaps) lets her husband meet her on the same extreme.
Most of all, Yu’s “Sleep” impresses with a finely tuned but surprisingly sensitive attitude towards both Soo-jin and Hyun-su even when they are being driven apart. “Sleep” also never seeks to impose an easy or complicated view or solution for what married existence or life with a newborn can or should be. Instead, Yu goes precisely as far as he has to in order not to disturb or spoil the mysterious mood and weak light of “Sleep.” I’m curious where Yu will go to next.
Also Watch On Putlocker.