A Conversation with Jason Yu (SLEEP)

South Korean filmmaker Jason Yu steps into the spotlight with his feature directorial debut Sleep, a taut psychological thriller that debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023. Drawing from his experiences in his own marriage, cinema history, and his work as an assistant director to Bong Joon Ho, Yu crafts a compelling narrative centered on a married couple grappling with the husband’s increasingly disturbing sleepwalking episodes. The film skillfully blends elements of suspense and domestic drama, offering a fresh perspective on themes of trust, mental health, and the unpredictable nature of the subconscious. With Sleep, Yu demonstrates a keen eye for tension and character development, marking himself as a promising new talent in Korean cinema. This is a fun one and should be seen in a theater! It was great to speak with Jason in the following conversation edited for length and clarity.

Hammer to Nail: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. I thought the film was so great. I had such a fun time watching it and I am telling all my friends to see it in a theater! The casting for this film was so perfect. Talk about how that process worked.

Jason Yu: The casting process was a very surreal and miraculous one for me. I remember, after completing the screenplay, me and my producer were talking about casting and he asked me, “In an ideal world, who would you love to cast for this film, obviously we will not be able to get them, but we can cast someone similar!” I said, “If I had a dream I would love to cast Jung Yu-Mi and Lee Sun-Kyun as the wife and husband characters. He thought about those names, and instead of finding someone similar, he told me, “Great actors gravitate towards interesting scripts and this script is good enough to pique their interest.” It did not cost anything to send the screenplay and so we did! We got a response quite quickly. They both liked the script and wanted to meet with me. When I met them, I virtually begged for them to join the project. They were generous and gracious enough to hop onto the project.

HTN: The casting was perfect, and I am glad the dream came true because I could not imagine the movie with another couple!

JY: Me neither!

HTN: The apartment is obviously a central component of the film. How did you build this location?

JY: We had to build it because of Covid. We shot it at the height of covid. We wanted to depict a realistic Korean household. That came with challenges because it was tough for the production designer and cinematographer, who already had to work in a single location, to make it cinematic and visually interesting. I had to resist that urge and make it as realistic as possible. It had to be this bland, square box of a location. This was necessary to heighten the realism. The horror, at least for a Korean audience, comes from the fact that this is an actual household. This is a couple living in an ordinary Korean house somewhere. That relatability was more crucial than having a cinematic but unrealistic looking location. It’s a very visually dull place, so it was our job to do everything we could to make it as visually stimulating as possible. The chapters helped with this because we were able to depict the house in 3 separate ways.

HTN:  I love how you did the reveal of the scratch. To give both Soo Jin and the audience this false sense of security then harshly cut to the next day where he has scratched through his skin. What was your thinking behind this moment?

JY: I envisioned the scene as a balance between making something very creepy and also harmless. The harmful aspect had to feel minute. He does not harm others at this point, only himself. The level of threat had to be minimal so that the wife character would be comfortable to sleep. I thought the reveal in the AM would be a great way to get the gears rolling. After that, everybody feels that the symptoms are no joke. I thought face scratching would be the perfect place to start haha.

HTN: The sleep walking incident where he eats all the food and nearly jumps out of the window. I love this whole sequence. Talk about your thinking behind it? Pepper [the couples dog] gives an Oscar worthy performance here with the little pitter patter of his feet haha

JY: Those two things came up a lot during my research. Sleepwalking patients have shown these symptoms before. Same thing with the scratching.  They are not common but they are rather famous for how drastic/shocking they can be. I wanted that shock. It is very creepy and grotesque of him eating the meat, but it also raises the alarm level that this is a very serious situation. I thought it would be difficult to nail the scene as horror. What he is doing there is not harming others, but himself. This is not typically that scary, it is more tragic or concerning. The performances from the wife and Pepper really brought the horror to this moment and I was very happy with how it came out.

HTN: The film has unique spins on the genres it indulges in, however, I am wondering if you were directly influenced by any films for this one as it feels inspired by cinema history.

JY: It is shameless on my end, however, at the time when I was making the film, I never realized that the director had to provide references for every scene. At first, I would just say, “I do not know. The story is about me and my own wife I guess?” I gave very vague answers that were helpful to no one. Only after the film was made and it went through its festival run that audience members came to me and asked me if the film was inspired by The Shining and Rosemary’s Baby. I realized of course it was! I was saying to my cast and crew the whole time, “it is what it is, there are no references,” but, I owe a massive influence to those two films. The basic setup of this film was very inspired by Rosemary’s Baby. Mia Farrow with her pregnancy, the marital relationship, the whole story being confined to one house etc. I actually wrote the entire screenplay to The Shining soundtrack [laughs]. The most explicit influence from The Shining would be the bathroom scene. The gradual descent into madness by Jack Nicholson, those aspects were deeply flowing in my bloodstream while making the film.

HTN: I was personally thinking of Audition by Takashi Miike while watching the film…

JY: Oh wow! That would make sense as a great influence. I was not conscious of that film before you said it, however, I definitely see the connection. I remember watching it at a very young age and being traumatized. I do not know if I have revisited it since haha. It gave me the worst nightmares.

HTN: I love the set piece where she’s stayed up all night and has a dream that the baby is in the dumpster. She then wakes up in real life looking for the baby to find a boiling pot of water. What was your thinking?

JY: I was very worried about this scene. I do not love dream sequences. I think I had a good justification for this dream. It really portrayed how far she had come in her psyche and what she was wrapped up in. I worked as an AD before debuting with Sleep. What AD’s normally do is, between projects work on their screenplay and hope for it to get made! After writing the screenplay you present it to your mentor director looking for notes. I gave the script to Bong Joon Ho, he said to me, “so, it’s another dream sequence huh?” But, I made my case, and he agreed it was justified as it really portrays the descent of her character. I was very conscious of the potential cliche it might become.

HTN: Bong Joon Ho is not a bad mentor to have haha.

JY: He was incredibly helpful. His encouragement was crucial. He gave me the confidence that I could direct something like this.

– Jack Schenker (@YUNGOCUPOTIS)

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