The upcoming thriller “Paradise Lost” has unveiled new character posters, and they are full of tension.
Per Soompi, the posters feature the faces of the film’s two central characters front and center. “Paradise Lost” follows Sun Woo (Bae Hyeon Seong), a son who returns home after being missing for nine years. While he was gone, his mother So Young (Kim Hyun Joo) had been soothing her pain by interacting with a childhood version of her son through an artificial intelligence program — but she begins to feel uneasy around the “new” Sun Woo who comes home.
Kim Hyun Joo’s poster commands attention with a direct, unwavering gaze, condensing nine years of grief into a single expression. Its tagline reads: “No matter what you’ve done, you’re still my son” — a mother’s determination to hold on to him no matter what he has become.
Bae Hyeon Seong’s poster is the opposite: messy hair, a weary and emotionless expression that reveals nothing about his true feelings. His tagline cuts deeper: “You wouldn’t be able to accept a son who has become a monster like this, would you?”
The two lines, delivered from each character’s position, foreshadow the uneasy reunion between a mother who is shaken even as she tries to hold on — and a son who returns as a stranger.
“Paradise Lost” hits theaters on October 21.
