It has been eight years since Burning left audiences arguing about a missing woman, a greenhouse and a cat that may or may not have existed. Now Lee Chang-dong is back, and this time the whole world gets to see the new film on the same day. Possible Love, the Korean director’s Venice Silver Lion winner, starts streaming globally on Netflix on Friday, November 6, after a short run in select theaters that began on October 23.
If you have followed the festival season, you have already heard the noise around it. The film reportedly earned a six-minute standing ovation at its Venice premiere and walked away with the Grand Jury Prize, which Lee collected at the closing ceremony on September 12. It then travelled on to Toronto and New York. Critics have reached for big words: one called it “the film of the year,” another “one for the ages.” That kind of praise can be a burden for a quiet drama, so it is worth setting expectations properly.
Two couples, one camera
Possible Love is not a thriller, and it is not a romance in the streaming-algorithm sense either. It is a story about two marriages that should never have met. On one side are Mi-ok, played by Jeon Do-yeon, and her husband Ho-seok, played by Sul Kyung-gu. He is a skilled welder who lost his job after mass layoffs and a failed strike at his plant; she works in a mask factory and holds the family together, along with their ten-year-old son. On the other side are Ye-ji, an ambitious documentary filmmaker played by Cho Yeo-jeong, and her wealthy, hard-to-read husband Sang-woo, played by Zo In-sung.
Their worlds collide at a funeral. Ye-ji is making a documentary about laid-off workers, the people she calls “invisible,” and she decides that Mi-ok and Ho-seok should be the heart of it. Mi-ok agrees to be filmed. Ho-seok very much does not want to be. What follows is a slow tug-of-war between the person holding the camera and the people standing in front of it.
A vacation that changes everything
The final trailer, released by Netflix on October 20, hints at the turning point: Ye-ji invites the working-class family to spend a weekend at Sang-woo’s lavish seaside estate. On paper it is a generous gesture. In practice, a luxury house with a beach, a groundskeeper and a full refrigerator becomes a pressure cooker. Admiration turns to envy, curiosity turns into something closer to desire, and the line between documentary subject and friend starts to blur.
Lee has always been interested in what people refuse to say out loud, and this film seems built around that idea. Ho-seok’s anger at his former union, Mi-ok’s half-buried memories of her own childhood, and Ye-ji’s unclear motives all simmer under polite conversation. The trailer opens with Mi-ok singing a song about love, smiling through obvious sadness, which tells you a lot about the tone.
Why it matters for Netflix
For Netflix, Possible Love is a prestige play in the middle of awards season. Korean film has a strong global audience on the platform, and a festival-crowned drama from one of the country’s most respected filmmakers is exactly the kind of title that can travel from critics’ lists to living rooms. The cast helps too. Jeon Do-yeon won the best actress prize at Cannes years ago for Lee’s Secret Sunshine, and Sul Kyung-gu starred in his early classics, so this feels like a reunion as much as a new chapter.
Should you press play?
If you want fast plot twists, this may test your patience. Lee’s films are long, careful and full of small gestures that only make sense later. But if you enjoyed the slow-burn tension of Burning, or you like stories about class and money told without speeches, this looks like the most rewarding watch on Netflix this week. Clear an evening, put the phone away and let it work on you.
Possible Love streams on Netflix worldwide from Friday, November 6.