Eight years is a long time to sit with a story. Lee Chang-dong's previous film, Burning (2018), arrived eight years after Poetry (2010). Possible Love arrives eight years after Burning. The interval has become its own signature: slow, deliberate, unconcerned with momentum.
Possible Love enters the main competition at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, premiering September 6 against nineteen other titles vying for the Golden Lion. The film runs 164 minutes and is co-written with Oh Jung-mi.
The story follows two married couples at opposite ends of the class divide. Sul Kyung-gu and Jeon Do-yeon play a laid-off worker and his wife. Cho Yeo-jeong and Zo In-sung play an affluent documentary filmmaker and her husband. When the filmmaker begins documenting laid-off workers, the worker's wife agrees to participate, growing close to the filmmaker and drawn toward her husband. The film moves through class, desire, and the lives two people lead inside a marriage.
After the Venice world premiere, Possible Love travels to TIFF for its North American premiere, then enters a limited theatrical run beginning September 23. Netflix will release the film worldwide on November 6, 2026.
This is Lee's first Venice competition since Oasis (2002), which won the Silver Lion for Best Director and the FIPRESCI Prize. Lead actress Moon So-ri took the Marcello Mastroianni Award that year. According to The Week, Lee has said he is "not the type of filmmaker who can make movies easily," requiring certainty about a project's meaning before beginning. The eight-year gaps confirm it.
