Auteur Lee Chang-dong is back after eight years with Possible Love — and he’s on Netflix - The Straits Times

(From left) Zo In-sung, Cho Yeo-jeong, Sul Kyung-gu, Jeon Do-yeon and director Lee Chang-dong at the opening ceremony of the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea on Oct 6.

SEOUL - There’s Korean cinema as most of the world recognises it, all stylish violence and class warfare, and there’s the kind Lee Chang-dong has made his own over the course of three decades.

A published novelist who came to film-making in his 40s, he has made only six features in 30 years, but few directors can match his brand of naturalism, closely observed and rendered with ferocious patience.

His camera has a way of capturing people undone by forces bigger than themselves, whether they be the man of Peppermint Candy (1999) whose life runs in reverse across 20 years of national upheaval, or the ex-con and the disabled woman who fall for each other in Oasis (2002). Burning (2018), his most recent feature, made the Oscar shortlist and was among the best-reviewed films of that year.

Eight years later, he’s back with Possible Love. The drama follows two couples: a laid-off factory worker and his wife, and the documentary director who sets out to film their lives with her wealthy husband in tow. Over the course of the shoot, all four come face to face with desires they had kept to themselves.

“The title says it,” Lee, 72, said at a press conference in August at a hotel in Mapo, western Seoul. “It’s a movie about love. Every love story comes with an unspoken ‘impossible’ in front of it. A love everyone blesses doesn’t need telling. So I asked, what kind of love is possible, and what does it take to keep it?”

Perhaps the bigger question has to do with where it’s playing. Premiering on Nov 6, Possible Love is a Netflix original, Lee’s first for the platform. The streamer is hardly the obvious home for measured auteur cinema, and a Lee Chang-dong picture makes for an interesting addition to a catalogue jam-packed with binge fodder.

By Lee’s account, the choice was more a product of circumstance than preference: the director had gone looking for backers for a theatrical release in early 2025, only to come up empty.

“We were at the lowest point the industry had ever been, and nobody could say how much of it would come back,” he said. “But the film had to be made. The industry has already changed shape, and there’s no stopping it. Theatres and streaming are going to have to co-exist, so we must accept that and figure out how to reach audiences from there.”

(From left) Sul Kyung-gu, Jeon Do-yeon, Cho Yeo-jeong Zo In-sung in Possible Love.

Netflix, he said, let him make Possible Love his way, and agreed up front to a theatrical run in South Korea ahead of the global launch. “Some people see that as a play for the festivals, but it was part of the deal from the outset,” Lee said.

The film went on to premiere in the main competition of the Venice International Film Festival in September, where it won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI Prize. It is also South Korea’s entry for the Best International Feature Film category for the 2027 Academy Awards.

Lee Chang-Dong with the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize for Possible Love at the closing ceremony of the Venice International Film Festival in Italy on Sept 12.

The other thing he is known for is an uncanny eye for casting, whether that means discovering a breakout talent or getting something new out of established stars, and the cast here speaks for themselves.

Sul Kyung-gu broke out under Lee in Peppermint Candy and Oasis, and Jeon Do-yeon won best actress at Cannes for his Secret Sunshine (2007). Zo In-sung and Cho Yeo-jeong, both first-timers with Lee, play the other couple.

All four cited the same reason for signing on. “The biggest draw was Lee Chang-dong,” Jeon, 53, said. “I kept pushing them to send me the script. When I finished it, it stayed with me for a long time. It reminded me why he’s Lee Chang-dong.”

Sul, 59, said he didn’t bother much with the script. “I was in just because it was him,” he said. “The producer asked me if I even cared what was in it.”

He added that working with Lee on Peppermint Candy had been brutal at the time. “I lacked experience, and the emotions were greater than I could handle,” he said. “After all these years, I found myself missing it.”

Cho, 45, said the script hit her so hard she couldn’t bring herself to call back right away.

Zo, 45, who had just wrapped back-to-back shoots on two other films, said he’d been ready for a time off until Lee called. “He told me, ‘Do this one, then rest.’” THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK

Possible Love premieres on Netflix on Nov 6.