Korean director Yeon Sang-ho credits mother for inspiring new film 'Paradise Lost'

Yeon Sang-ho, the prolific Korean filmmaker behind the hits "Colony" (2026), "The Ugly" (2025) and "Train to Busan" (2016), said Friday his latest film, "Paradise Lost," was inspired by a three-page story penned by his own mother. "Paradise Lost" is a psychological thriller that follows the unsettling reunion between So-young (Kim Hyun-joo) and her son Sun-woo (Bae Hyun-sung), who was presumed to have died in a school bus accident nine years ago. "I have said this before, but my mother is very fond of me. One day, while I was visiting her, she said she was worried that screenwriting was too difficult for me. I told her it was not and that anyone could write," Yeon said at a press conference in Seoul. "On my next visit, she showed me a three-page story she had written, which became the basis for 'Paradise Lost.' I was not sure how it would work out, so I bought it from her at a discount," the director jokingly said, adding the film was based on the third and final version of the screenplay he developed based on her note. Yeon, who explored a father-son relationship in his low-budget film