Lee Chang-dong returns to cinema with Possible Love
“One question I have always asked myself as a storyteller is how sincere I can truly be when portraying the people in my stories and their pain, whether they are workers, marginalized people or students fighting for democracy,” South Korean director Lee Chang-dong said at the Venice Film Festival.
At the same time, he believes that “our work is deeply connected to the lives of every worker living in this era and seeing their work increasingly devalued.”
Lee made the remarks at the Lido while discussing his new film “Possible Love,” which is competing at the Venice International Film Festival and will be released on Netflix on November 6, CE Report quotes ANSA.
The film marks the acclaimed filmmaker’s return to cinema eight years after “Burning” and has already been selected to represent South Korea in the race for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.
The story is also connected to an international project in which prominent filmmakers reinterpret the Ten Commandments, inspired by Krzysztof Kieślowski’s “Dekalog.”
The first film in the project was Asghar Farhadi’s “Parallel Lives,” presented at Cannes and inspired by the commandment concerning adultery. Lee Chang-dong, meanwhile, drew inspiration from “You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods,” while developing an entirely independent story, largely featuring actors with whom he has longstanding creative relationships.
At the center of “Possible Love” are two married couples who form relationships that gradually reveal previously unspoken pain, dreams and desires.
Mi-ok, played by Jeon Do-yeon, is the lively and brilliant wife of Ho-seok, portrayed by Sul Kyung-gu. Ho-seok is a factory worker who, together with his colleagues, unsuccessfully tried to save his job through an indefinite strike that ended when police intervened and severely beat him.
The other couple consists of Ye-ji, played by Cho Yeo-jeong, a documentary filmmaker making a film about laid-off workers, and her husband Sang-woo, portrayed by Zo In-sung, a wealthy and highly competitive businessman who nevertheless encourages his wife’s work.
The apparent friendship and intimacy that develops among the four conceals dynamics that are less straightforward than they initially appear.
“Eight years have passed since ‘Burning,’ and during that time I have deeply felt how much our lives have transformed and changed,” Lee said.
“A lot has happened during this period. There was Covid, a time when I thought relationships between human beings, as well as our relationship with cinema, which people could no longer go to, were changing radically.”
This led him to ask what it means to make films today and whether cinema can still bring people together and connect them.
“I believe ‘Possible Love’ is the result of these questions we have asked ourselves about cinema and the fundamental changes taking place in human relationships,” Lee said.
Photo: Instagram/netflixkr
