June Butler stays up for Jason Yu’s Korean thriller Sleep.
Sleep is a dark comedy/horror film looking at the seismic nature of change and how an internal familial structure can descend into chaos after the birth of a child.
A young married couple living in Seoul, are nervously expecting their first baby. Hyeon-soo (Lee Sun-kyun) and Soo-jin (Jung Yu-mi) prepare their tiny apartment, toys and clothes litter the living space. Sleeping for both parties is now a problem. Hyeon-soo is taking the news of impending fatherhood badly. Soo-jin is concerned when in addition to loudly snoring, Hyeon-soo begins to sleepwalk.
These nocturnal rambles become increasingly violent. Hyeon-soo scratches his face in his sleep, leaving deep, bloody welts. Meanwhile, nosy and unpleasant neighbour Min Jeong (Kim Gook Hee) judgementally intervenes. This narrative leans into the varying forms of sleep discordance – either the character is unable to rest due to the actions of the other; either the quality of slumber is disturbed, or they fall prey to somnambulism. This level of deprivation takes a psychological toll, triggering a greater disconnect between the couple and Soo-jin fears for her family’s safety.
Swiss-American psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross undertook extensive research into the concept of change and the physiological alterations to the human body when transformation happens. In 1969, as part of her book On Death and Dying, Kübler-Ross decreed there were up to seven elements experienced in a ‘change curve model’, designed after performing studies on a wide range of human subjects – those components encompass shock, denial, frustration, depression, experiment, decision and integration. Modern society now applies the model to organisational shifts within a business, an unexpected redundancy for example, or as in this instance, the arrival of a new baby.
The upheaval in the life of any new mother or father can be fraught, and whether embraced or not, cannot be undone. Director and writer Jason Yu understands these mental strains of imposed transformation perfectly – the dread of knowing a freight train is coming and like it or not, the person’s metaphoric car is stuck on the tracks. Having to face catastrophic milestones is a terrifying place to be.
Jason Yu confessed elements of Hyeon-soo’s story were autobiographical. In the lead-up to directing Sleep, he was preparing to marry his girlfriend of seven years. The imminent nuptials provoked a sense of helplessness. Initially, Yu wanted the film to be filled with humour, but he then began to consider the coping mechanisms of a partner when a husband or wife becomes disabled through something as innocuous as sleepwalking. Thematically, he felt, the film would be better served if horror and humour were combined.
Sleep does exactly what it sets out to do, and with commitment and assurance. There’s an abundance of scary moments and a fair quantity of gore – but necessary gore if there is such a thing. This is Jason Yu’s feature directorial debut and with any luck, it will not be his last.
Sleep is available to stream now.
