Q : The concept was very interesting, how did this concept come about? 

Jason Yu: Absolutely. I think there are multiple factors involved. One that would be my personal life. I have some nasty sleeping habits myself. I’m a very loud snorer, but more seriously, I have a bad case of sleep apnea and that terrifies my wife, the loud snoring doesn’t bother her, but when I forget to breathe, she somehow wakes up and then she’s frightened by the fact that I can’t breathe.

And when I return to normal she’s unable to sleep in the mornings do I hear about this and realize that she hasn’t been able to sleep all night. And although I feel very guilty about that, the storyteller in me was very fascinated about it, and it made me imagine scenarios where these symptoms were even more harmful, more dangerous. What would happen then?

And I thought exploring that story would be interesting. That’s, I think, maybe the inception of this idea. I just remember. Feeling shocked and frightened about the stories you read online or in the news about sleepwalking patients, whether they jump off the building or drive while they’re sleeping or even harm somebody by their bedside, and it really made me wonder what these patients everyday lives look like and more importantly what the lives of their loved ones, you know you have to be around them all the time. What their everyday lives would look like and just looking, searching this and exploring this aspect of sleepwalking. It made me very fascinated and interested and maybe trying to create a horror film about the subject 

Q : Yeah, as I was watching the film, I was really fascinated about a treatment that doctors offered when the people started doing sleepwalking.  You know make your home as safe as possible or stop drinking, reduce the alcohol and such. What are the things that you discover by talking to those doctors?

Jason Yu: I think all of them were the result of consulting either the internet. There’s a lot of YouTube videos by sleep clinic doctors who prescribe these sorts of preventional methods, within the household for sleep walking patients.

But also when I was doing pre production my AD team, they ventured out into these sleep clinics and as research they interviewed them and They also gave us the sort of prescription pills they take, how long it takes for them to be cured and then what sort of drastic scenarios would happen for these patients.

Although we tried to make it feel realistic, this film is far from an accurate portrayal of a sleepwalking patient. A lot of artistic liberty was taken and the priority was trying to create a fun horror film rather than to accurately depict these medical conditions.

©Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures and Magnet Releasing 

Q :  What’s engaging about this film is the idea of after the beloved dog pepper. I assume it’s got killed but You didn’t show the actual footage. The people who speculate the idea of what’s going to happen to a new baby and playing with the psyche of his wife. How do you craft that into the film? I thought that was brilliant. How do you manage that throughout the film? 

Jason Yu: Thank you so much, Yeah, I think all of that was in the screenplay.. Having the dog pepper murdered, and then the immediate scene after having the baby was born. You can’t help but connect these two dots as an audience member. That Being said, not showing the murder of pepper was also within the screenplay, and it was also, I think, a design choice during production,  they say, nothing is more horrifying than the imagination, and we gave them all the information they required so that their, the audience members imagination could fill the rest.

We thought that would be the most effective way to maximize the level of horror horror in that scene. There is a moment in the final chapter where we actually do show the dog, I think that was also a calculated decision between myself, the cinematographer, and the cast and crew involved.

Be very blunt about the portrayal of his death and just to share almost like a documentary how far Sujin has come along in her psyche and to portray that, we thought that, showing it just bluntly would be the most effective way to express it. So there were two different reasons as to why we didn’t show it on one side and showed it on the other.

Q : The film is very much on Lee Sun-kyun and Jung Yu-mi, could you talk about the casting process of the film? I thought that chemistry was brilliant. 

Jason Yu: Lucky for me, they worked on four previous films as romantic interests which really helped with the chemistry and feeling of love and bonding that was required for newlyweds. I was concerned that They might not have that because of this sort of chemistry, the bond, it’s outside, I think, acting. I wanted them to go out for ice cream or, have dinner a lot, et cetera. But they said, nope, it’s not necessarily.

We’re already great friends. We already worked on four films so we don’t need it. They were absolutely right. On the first day of set, we have this very lovely intimate scene with the two of them and they nailed it. I was persuaded on the spot that they were a married couple. So it was just an unnecessary concern on my end. When I completed the screenplay, the producer and I, we talked about casting and I remember him saying, okay Just give me your dream actors who you would like to play Soo-jin and Hyun-su, the husband and wife.

We won’t be able to get them. But if you tell me who they are, maybe I can find some actors with a similar impression or a similar acting style. So I said, which may sound coincidental right now, but I said if I have a dream I would love to cast Lee Sun-kyun and Jung Yu-mi as the two actors. And I thought he would find similar actors, but he thought about what I said about great actors, they gravitate towards interesting scripts. And he thought it was interesting enough to send it over to them. He said it doesn’t cost money to send scripts.

We may never hear back from them, but it works. And so that’s exactly what we did. We sent the scripts and didn’t get our hopes up. We thought we’d never hear from them, but on the contrary, we heard very quickly from them and they both liked the script. And they wanted to meet me and I thought this meeting would be my only chance to convince them to join the movie.

I very elegantly almost begged them to join the projects. And I think because of this desperation, they said yes, they were sympathetic towards this debuting director’s plight, and they said yes, and I’m very grateful it was very gracious of them to join the film. 

And also I only knew this after casting them, that they had a pact going on between them, they worked on four films, but they thought it was more of Independent films that they worked on and they always spoken about, starring in a commercial film together and because they were both interested in this film and both received this script at the same time I didn’t know, but they called each other and they said, Remember our pact? Should this be the film? And they said yes, so I was a great lucky benefactor from the pact that they set up years ago. 

Q :  I think it’s very important to address Lee Sun-kyun’s untimely death. I know how the media scrutiny in Korea, it sometimes gets very crazy and after Lee Sun-kyun’s death, Bong Joon-ho actually made a statement. You also worked with Bong Joon-ho together in the past, how the current states in Korea about the media scrutiny and how the film industry is changing as far as concerns about his untimely death? Could you talk about that? 

Jason Yu: I can. Although I’m not an authority or how should I say a specialist in the matter, I do have my opinions as a layman. I think no matter what change happens within the film industry, it won’t be big enough to feel satisfactory.

I’m not really sure what sort of change happened to the film industry after his death. I do sense some change in attitude By the media and how media is consumed by the public. Although every minute nothing drastic or satisfactory in that end, I do sense that there is an air of caution to what the media Publishes as news and even the public who consumes it.

They wait I think beats more although everybody, it’s a natural inclination to come to a conclusion very swiftly without having any information because I guess That’s just instinct in some ways. There is an air of caution to come to conclusions without all the information. There are stances where you can see even in the comments, let’s wait more, for more to come out before we can make a decision or make a judgment, which I think it’s good.

It’s a good tilt in the right direction. But as of now, nothing big, drastic, that’s satisfactory in my eyes. 

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