{"id":870411,"date":"2026-08-27T15:56:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T15:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/870411\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T15:56:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T15:56:16","slug":"lee-chang-dongs-possible-love-inside-the-searing-new-netflix-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/870411\/","title":{"rendered":"Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Love: Inside the Searing New Netflix Film"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLee Chang-dong<\/a> takes his time. The lauded Korean filmmaker, approaching the 30th anniversary of his 1997 debut feature Green Fish, returns this fall with Possible Love<\/a>, his first movie in eight years \u2014 the same gap between his previous two projects, 2010\u2019s Poetry<\/a> and 2018\u2019s Burning. In his work, the wait proves not only worth it, but necessary \u2014 with character dynamics so richly, exactingly executed and the kind of narrative depth that can only come out of extensive marination. The stories sneak up on you. Like the man behind them, they\u2019re in no rush and better for it.<\/p>\n

\n\tPossible Love had been gestating for a decade. When Lee had the initial idea, he felt obsessed by it yet could not make the leap to actually bringing it to the screen. So far, so typical as far his methods go. But this subject posed a unique challenge to the director, one rooted in his own relationship to filmmaking \u2014 and once he figured it out, he made something unlike anything else in his oeuvre.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tCho Yeo-jeong.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe spark of Possible Love came out of a scandal of mass layoffs and their aftermath in Korea \u2014 specifically, violent state suppression of public protest. Lee saw the events foreshadowing a dark future for his country and maybe the world \u2014 changes in technology and wealth leaving workers behind. He wrote a screenplay, preemptively attaching two iconic Korean actors with whom he\u2019s previously collaborated: Secret Sunshine\u2019s Jeon Do-yeon and Peppermint Candy\u2019s Sul Kyung-gu. They would reunite for this grand modern tragedy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd then, Lee stopped. \u201cI ended up shelving the project. I started to doubt what kind of meaning this held for me \u2014 to be showing the lives of these laborers through a dramatic film,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen it comes to the lives of people that suffer, I always ask myself: Am I worthy of telling this story? Do I deserve to tell this story? And how do I go about it so that I tell it in the right way?\u201d The answer required him to look inward, to tell it as only he authentically could: Through the camera.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJeon Do-yeon.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen it comes to the pain and hurt, I believe that it has to be observed in a way that is adjacent to me as a filmmaker, for audiences to figure it out for themselves and to accept it,\u201d Lee says. \u201cIf not, I cannot be candid.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn this final version, co-written with Oh Jung-mi, Possible Love follows the recently laid off and traumatized Ho-seok (Sul) and his wife, the relentlessly hopeful Mi-ok (Jeon), as they encounter a filmmaker named Ye-ji (Parasite<\/a>\u2019s Cho Yeo-jeong) interested in depicting their plight for a documentary. Ye-ji embeds herself deeper and deeper into their lives, leading her and her wealthy businessman husband, Sang-woo (Zo In-sung), to develop a tenuous bond with them.\u00a0(The film is not a remake of, or drawn from, Krzysztof Kie\u015blowski\u2019s Dekalog: Nine, as had been previously speculated. But Lee, generally inspired by the work of the Polish legend, sees them in conversation, with thematic overlap.)<\/p>\n

\n\tLee has expanded upon his earlier, unrealized portrait of a couple in crisis to craft a thorny study of two couples \u2014 one affected by brutal downsizing, the other leading a lavish lifestyle with seemingly everything at their disposal. It evolves into a sweeping and provocative examination of contemporary resentments, yearnings and, yes, possibilities. The movie world premieres at the Venice<\/a> Film Festival next month and will be released by Netflix<\/a> in U.S. theaters on October 23 before streaming November 6. It\u2019s also been selected as South Korea\u2019s official submission for the best international<\/a> feature Oscar.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJeon with Sul Kyung-gu and Cho.<\/p>\n

\n\tNetflix offered to sign on immediately after reading the script, according to Lee, and guaranteed the director artistic autonomy. \u201cNetflix really had trust in the virtue of the screenplay as well as in myself as a filmmaker, and throughout the entire process of production and all of the steps of creating this film, I was given a near perfect amount of creative freedom,\u201d Lee says. \u201cThis was my first time working with Netflix, but I will say that across my filmmaking career, this was the film that I felt most comfortable and most at ease with \u2014 which came as a surprise to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe all-star Korean cast shares that sentiment. Here, they had the space to operate at the top of their game, and dug deep. \u201cI have been an actor for quite a long time, and there comes a certain point in your career where you realize there are fewer projects that daunt you,\u201d says Jeon. \u201cEvery time we were faced with a difficulty or challenge, Kyung-gu and I would look at each other and say, \u2018Don\u2019t you just love it? How often do we get these kinds of challenges nowadays? And how long will it be until we find ourselves on a production like this again?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tCho, Jeon and Sul.<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tLee calls Mi-ok the heart of the movie. With her husband, Ho-seok, more reluctant to participate in interviews, she tells Ye-ji \u2014 and in turn, the audience \u2014 the story of their family, of scraping by in the aftermath of a seismic job loss. In Jeon\u2019s radiant portrayal, however, she refuses to be defined by her struggles. \u201cShe strives to survive, and she is someone who will go to all ends to protect self-dignity,\u201d Lee says. \u201cShe is someone who will constantly fight for her own freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cShe carries an immense, very intense sense of anxiety in her,\u201d Jeon adds. \u201cI looked at it in the sense that it\u2019s almost like she is constantly holding onto a ticking time bomb. We all have our own ticking time bombs, and that could lead to many different forms of expression. For Mi-ok, it\u2019s all about hope<\/a>. She wants to hold onto that hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film weaves a fascinating exploration of wealth and inequality through her vulnerability. She and Ho-seok get to know Ye-ji and Sang-woo, the disparity between their means made stark for the viewer. Mi-ok is drawn to what they have \u2014 not even materially, necessarily, but in the ease and openness they present. What is it even possible for her to want, when she looks in Sang-woo\u2019s eyes or listens to Ye-ji\u2019s tales of making art? It\u2019s an intimate way for Lee to ask difficult questions \u2014 and wend his way toward an emotionally explosive climax, in a bravura single-setting final act.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tLee Chang-dong.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI believe that our lives have exceeded that of discussing or exploring the issue of class \u2014 and I say that because we now live in a world where the gap is so extreme, so vast that it\u2019s difficult to even call it class really,\u201d Lee says. \u201cThe amount of wealth Sang-woo represents is something that we cannot even dare to fathom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Lee returned to this project after initially shelving it, the state of labor had further deteriorated from where he started. \u201cWe are now facing a moment in time where labor itself may no longer exist,\u201d he says. In Possible Love, the director works out how to talk about this, and what to say about such overwhelming inequality, through Ye-ji\u2019s own arc as the movie\u2019s storyteller. \u201cHer attitude and her desires as a documentary filmmaker \u2014 in many ways, what we see in her is close to me,\u201d the director says.<\/p>\n

\n\tYet the film\u2019s firmest punch is packed in the despair and dignity of Sul\u2019s performance, as a man coming to terms with how much he\u2019s lost. The actor\u2019s work is often silent, difficult to read, burning as slowly as a Lee Chang-dong script \u2014 which is to say, when it all clicks, watch out. \u201cThere\u2019s guilt, there\u2019s shame, there\u2019s the sense of loss where you have completely lost this space where you were validated \u2014 the emotions that I had to embody as this character were very layered and complex,\u201d Sul says. \u201cTo have those emotions explode, that was [something] that I was constantly worried about, concerned with throughout the overall process.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJeon with Zo In-sung.<\/p>\n

\n\tBoth Jeon and Sul describe Lee as a formative presence in their acting careers. For Jeon, there is a clear before-and-after with 2007\u2019s Secret Sunshine, for which her wrenching turn won the Cannes Film Festival\u2019s best-actress prize. \u201c[Lee] allowed me to take a different path in my art,\u201d she says. \u201cAfter Secret Sunshine, I no longer approached my performances to satisfy the director or anybody else watching. I started asking myself: \u2018Is this real? Is this what I really feel?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSul has now worked with Lee six times \u2014 but Possible Love brought him right back to their first collaboration, and one of his first movies ever. \u201cI\u2019ve made many films since Peppermint Candy \u2014 I\u2019m one of the more experienced actors in the industry in Korea,\u201d he says. \u201cBut when we started shooting Possible Love, I found myself immediately transported to that first film of mine. I got to feel like I was a rookie again. I was back in those shoes. As actors working with Director Lee, it\u2019s a huge challenge. However, when you see yourself on screen compared to your other projects, it\u2019s so rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tLee tells his actors not to worry about memorization, to \u201cjust talk,\u201d to find the truth in every moment. He didn\u2019t run many takes on Possible Love, though; he watched and learned as the characters came alive before him. It\u2019s the way he\u2019s been making movies for decades \u2014 with these very stars.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThat history flows through every frame of Possible Love. \u201cYou could almost say that I created the characters with them,\u201d Lee says. \u201cWe have this saying in Korean that roughly translates to: We shared the same heart. There were no words needed.\u201d Only the camera. In Possible Love, that proved more true than ever.<\/p>\n

\n\tStay tuned for more\u00a0exclusive<\/a>\u00a0features on this fall\u2019s biggest festival-bound films.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lee Chang-dong takes his time. The lauded Korean filmmaker, approaching the 30th anniversary of his 1997 debut feature…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":870412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,134,5607,26796,3389,438812,344,435,83088,39946,438813,15936],"class_list":["post-870411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-exclusive","tag-hope","tag-international","tag-lee-chang-dong","tag-movies","tag-netflix","tag-parasite","tag-poetry","tag-possible-love","tag-venice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/870412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}