Paradise Lost centres on Bae Hyeon Seong's Sun Woo’s return after nine years missing.
Kim Hyun Joo plays So Young, who had been coping through an AI programme.
The film explores the uneasy reunion between mother and son.
Korean drama Paradise Lost has unveiled new stills of Bae Hyeon Seong's character Sun Woo from the upcoming film.
Paradise Lost is about a tense homecoming. The thriller follows Sun Woo, who comes back after nine years missing.
Bae Hyeon Seong's new stills from Paradise Lost
The newly released stills lean into that uncertainty of his disappearance. In one image, Sun Woo stares at his reflection in a mirror sans emotion. His calm expression and unreadable eyes sharpen questions about what he is hiding.
A second still deepens that unease. Sun Woo is shown by a fence at night, alone and in faded clothes, looking straight into the dark. The image raises questions about why he is there and whether it connects to the time he disappeared.
What is Paradise Lost about?
So Young, played by Kim Hyun Joo, spent those years coping with her pain through an artificial intelligence (AI) programme that allowed her to speak with a younger version of her son. Sun Woo’s return upends that arrangement. She starts to feel unsettled by the "new" Sun Woo.
The story turns on the uncomfortable cohabitation between mother and son as So Young struggles to understand the person who has come back and the years of absence that remain unexplained.
Sun Woo was the only person to survive a camping school bus disappearance that gripped the country.
The unanswered question of where he spent those missing years, or what happened to him, adds to the intrigue.
According to Soompi, Hyeon Seong said, “I was drawn to Sun Woo’s aloofness—the fact that you never quite know what he’s thinking,” as he opened up about his character.
He added, “Rather than making him overtly scary, I wanted his aloofness to be reflected in his restrained demeanour.”
Director Yeon Sang Ho explained why he cast Bae in the role. “Ryu Sun Woo needed to be a mysterious character who possessed both an innocent side and a chilling side, and I thought Bae Hyeon Seong would be able to portray that duality. I was impressed by his focus, and he was an actor capable of instantly transforming into a chilling character,” Yeon said.
Paradise Lost release date
The psychological thriller had its world premiere at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
It will hit the screens on October 21.
