Netflix has set a fall release for Lee Chang-dong’s “Possible Love,” the revered South Korean director’s first feature since 2018’s “Burning” and one of the season’s most closely watched arthouse titles. The film opens in Korean theaters September 23, followed by limited theatrical runs in Australia, the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland and Japan in late October, before streaming worldwide on Netflix starting November 6.
The rollout positions “Possible Love” for a serious awards push. It will make its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival, running September 2 to 12, where it becomes the 12th Korean film to vie for the Golden Lion. It then moves to a Special Presentations slot at the Toronto International Film Festival for its North American debut. The staggered theatrical release also allows the film to qualify for the Academy Award for best international feature.
Lee reunites with two actors central to his earlier work: Jeon Do-yeon, who won the Cannes best actress prize for his 2007 film “Secret Sunshine,” and Sul Kyung-gu, lead of his early films “Peppermint Candy” and “Oasis.” They’re joined by Zo In-sung and Cho Yeo-jeong, the latter known internationally for “Parasite.” The story follows two married couples whose lives collide after a funeral, when a documentary filmmaker begins chronicling a laid-off worker’s family and grows entangled in their world.
Lee, a novelist before he turned to directing, spent time as South Korea’s culture minister in the early 2000s and has built a body of work — six features across three decades — that examines fractures in Korean domestic life with restrained, literary precision. His résumé includes Venice’s special director’s prize for “Oasis” and the Cannes screenplay award for “Poetry,” and “Burning” made him the first Korean filmmaker shortlisted for the international feature Oscar.
He recently told Variety at a festival honor in Malaysia that the gap since “Burning” reflected personal and creative change rather than any retreat from filmmaking. “Before I begin a film, I must be certain of what it means,” he said in a statement tied to the release announcement, explaining the project’s long gestation.
Pinehouse Film, which also backed “Burning,” produces alongside Anonymous Content and NOWFILM in a U.S.-Korea co-production.
