Lee Chang-Dong has broken his eight year silence with a clear message: his new film Possible Love is not a conventional romance, but a probe into what love can mean under capitalism.
“I noticed that people find the title Possible Love more unfamiliar than I expected. I think the reason it can feel rather unfamiliar has to do with how most love stories are about love that is difficult to attain. This is the classic archetype of a love story,” says Lee, the film’s director, co writer and producer.
He adds: “When destiny such as social class, status, or a Romeo and Juliet situation stands in the way, and the more dramatic the obstacles are, the more compelling the story becomes. But [our film is called Possible Love], which can be seen as a paradoxical question. It is a story that asks what kind of love is really possible, and what meaning such a ‘possible love’ truly holds.”
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The drama, which won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize at the 2026 Venice International Film Festival, follows two couples from opposite ends of Korean society whose lives collide after a chance meeting at a funeral. Documentary filmmaker Ye ji (Cho Yeo jeong) approaches Mi ok (Jeon Do yeon) and her unemployed husband Ho seok (Sul Kyung gu) to feature in a project on laid off workers, while her businessman spouse Sang woo (Zo In sung) watches from a distance.
Possible Love opens with the commandment “Thou shalt not covet,” then forces its four leads to confront desires for wealth, connection, success and community. “In this capitalist world we live in, is this a commandment that can be kept?” Lee asks.
Explaining his long hiatus since Burning (2018), Lee says: “I’m not the type of filmmaker who can make movies easily. I ask myself, ‘Does this film have meaning?’ and unless I can answer that with confidence, I simply cannot start production.”
He adds that a mass layoff and strike at a large Korean corporation more than a decade ago first sparked the idea. “Time passed, and labor issues brought such change not only for Koreans but for human lives in general such critical change. It felt like labor itself began to disappear, which is also mentioned in this film, and I began to think it is time to tell this story.”
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Working again with longtime collaborators Jeon Do yeon and Sul Kyung gu, alongside Cho Yeo jeong and Zo In sung, Lee describes the shoot as his “most comfortable production” yet. “To work with old friends as well as new ones allowed me to reflect on such matters, and the process became a healing experience for me as well.”
For all its social critique, the film ends on a note of individual agency. “No matter how capital might define us and deprive us of various conditions of living, we as individuals can overcome that through freedom; your freedom is for you to claim that’s the kind of feeling I wanted to convey to the audience,” Lee says.
Possible Love is now streaming on Netflix.
