Lee Chang-dong’s ‘Possible Love’ Gets First Trailer: Netflix Sets Fall Release for ‘Burning’ Director’s First Film in Eight Years

I’ll be at the Venice Film Festival next week for seven days, and then another seven at TIFF—and there aren’t many films I anticipate more than Lee Chang-dong’s “Possible Love,” coming from one of the very few true masters premiering a new film this fall.

It’s been a long, silent stretch since Lee’s “Burning,” which came out way back in 2018—over eight years of inactivity. But the revered South Korean filmmaker of melancholic realism is readying his return, and here’s hoping it matches “Burning”—arguably Lee’s best—or comes close to the brilliance of “Poetry” and “Secret Sunshine.”

All this to say that Netflix has finally released a trailer for “Possible Love,” which will hit theaters on October 23 and arrive on Netflix on November 6. The official runtime is 2 hours and 44 minutes.

“Possible Love,” starring Jeon Do-yeon, Seol Kyung-gu, and Jo In-sung, would have premiered in Cannes competition if it weren’t for the fact that Netflix is distributing it. I won’t be blaming the streamer either, since they hopped onboard the project and essentially saved it after producers backed out. Even after the main cast agreed to take pay cuts to reduce the budget, the producers remained adamant about not funding the project. Once private funding couldn’t be secured, the Korean Film Commission’s financial support also disappeared, leaving Lee with little choice but to turn to Netflix for backing.

Here’s the New York Film Festival synopsis: “Lee Chang-dong’s extraordinary latest concerns two middle-aged couples from different walks of life who become unlikely acquaintances. Working-class Mi-ok (Jeon Do-yeon) and Ho-seok (Sul Kyung-gu), who have been together since middle school and are the parents of a taciturn 10-year-old, are still reckoning with the fallout from Ho-seok’s firing from his factory job after a violently suppressed labor union strike. The well-off Ye-ji (Cho Yeo-jeong) and Sang-woo (Zo In-sung) are a documentary filmmaker and her businessman husband; Ye-ji has decided to make a movie about job layoffs and wants to make Mi-ok and Ho-seok her main camera subjects.”

“The result is a brilliantly unfolding narrative of simmering resentments, shifting allegiances, sexual tensions, and queries around nonfiction filmmaking ethics that keeps revealing new layers and meanings, anchored by four towering performances that hit a varying array of fragile emotional registers. “Possible Love” speaks profoundly to our shared current moment of emotional and economic precarity. A Netflix release.”

Lee had struggled to get this one financed. Although the main cast agreed to take pay cuts to reduce the budget, the producers remained adamant about not funding the whole film. Once private funding couldn’t be secured, KOFIC’s financial support also disappeared, leaving Lee with little choice but to turn to Netflix for backing. The streaming giant essentially saved the film after producers backed out.