Yeon Sang-ho’s 'Paradise Lost' Officially Invited to Toronto Film Festival, Set for October Release

Director Yeon Sang-ho's new film 〈PARADISE LOST〉 has been officially invited to the Special Presentations section at the 51st Toronto International Film Festival.

CJ ENM said on July 21 that 〈PARADISE LOST〉 will screen in the Special Presentations section at the 51st Toronto International Film Festival, held in Toronto, Canada, from Sept. 10 to 20. Following last year’s 〈Face〉, Yeon returns to TIFF’s Special Presentations for a second consecutive year. With 〈Gunche〉 also officially invited to the Midnight Screenings section of the 79th Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, Yeon has now placed two new films in major international festivals in a single year.

The film 〈PARADISE LOST〉 is a psychological thriller about Ryu So-young (Kim Hyun-joo), who lost her son in the disappearance of a camping school bus 9 years ago. Clinging to a simulated younger version of her child inside a virtual-reality AI program called "Children of Paradise," she is forced to confront the return of her son Ryu Seon-woo (Bae Hyun-sung), whom she had believed dead, when he comes back alive after 9 years. The story portrays the eerie cohabitation between the son who returns covered in scars with a chilling stare and the AI-generated childhood version of him.

An international poster and a trailer were released along with the invitation announcement. At the start of the trailer, Yeon Sang-ho appears on screen and describes the film as: "It's a movie about a mother's desperate struggle, plunged into a dark abyss between a child revived by AI and the real child who returns alive 9 years later."

The lead role of Ryu So-young is played by Kim Hyun-joo, who has frequently collaborated with Yeon Sang-ho on projects including the Netflix series 〈Hellbound〉, the film 〈JUNG_E〉, and 〈Seonsan〉. The unfamiliar son who returns after 9 years, Ryu Seon-woo, is portrayed by Bae Hyun-sung, who makes his first starring appearance in a feature film.

The film 〈PARADISE LOST〉 is scheduled to open in South Korea in October.