Lee Chang-dong’s “Possible Love” arrives on Netflix worldwide on November 6, completing a journey that has already taken the film from a Venice prize to a strikingly strong limited run in Korean cinemas. The film is the acclaimed director’s first feature in eight years, and its global streaming debut will give audiences in around 190 countries their first chance to see it.
The 164-minute drama follows two couples whose lives collide through documentary filmmaking. Jeon Do-yeon plays Mi-ok, who works at a mask factory and is married to Ho-seok, a laid-off worker played by Sul Kyung-gu, whose life still carries the aftermath of a general strike and its forced suppression. Cho Yeo-jeong plays Ye-ji, a documentary director who sets out to film the laid-off workers, while Zo In-sung plays her husband, Sang-woo. As the two couples grow entangled, the film examines class, desire and the quiet fractures inside marriages.
The project reunites Lee with screenwriter Oh Jung-mi, who also collaborated with him on “Burning,” his previous feature. That eight-year gap is part of why the film has drawn so much attention: Lee is one of Korean cinema’s most revered auteurs, and “Possible Love” is his first new work since “Burning” reshaped his international reputation. The cast have spoken about the pull of working with him. Jeon has said the director himself was the most compelling reason to take the role, while Sul has said he felt he had to appear in a Lee Chang-dong film. Zo In-sung has said he was considering a break before Lee’s offer changed his mind.
The film’s festival run began at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, where it premiered in competition on September 6 at the Sala Grande on the Lido. It was the twelfth Korean film in total to reach Venice’s competition section, and Lee’s first competition entry there since “Oasis” in 2002, a gap of 24 years. The premiere audience gave the film a standing ovation lasting more than six minutes, and early reviews were warm: The Guardian awarded it four stars out of five, IndieWire gave it an A grade, and the South China Morning Post rated it four and a half stars out of five.
That reception turned into silverware on September 12, when the jury awarded “Possible Love” the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize, the festival’s second-highest honor after the Golden Lion. It was the first time a Korean film had won Venice’s Grand Jury Prize, and the film also collected the FIPRESCI critics’ prize. Lee has said he made the film to ask what cinema can do in an era when relationships keep breaking apart, and he credited his four leads when accepting the award.
Rather than going straight to streaming, the film opened in Korean cinemas on September 23 for a two-week limited run. The reason was awards strategy: a theatrical release was needed to qualify the film as South Korea’s submission for Best International Feature Film at the 99th Academy Awards, to be held in March 2027. The odds looked steep. Five days before opening, only 58 cinemas nationwide, including independent and arthouse venues, were offering advance tickets, roughly 15 percent of the screen count enjoyed by the widest Chuseok holiday releases.
The response defied those modest beginnings. The film drew 158,204 admissions in its first eight days, and by the end of its limited run it had reached roughly 230,000 admissions, according to figures from the Korean Film Council’s integrated box office network. Its audience talk events sold out, and its opening-day audience score on Naver reached a perfect 10. For a slow, 164-minute arthouse drama competing in a crowded holiday season, the numbers amounted to a genuine word-of-mouth success.
The film’s awards campaign continues beyond Venice. It has been selected as South Korea’s official entry for the Best International Feature category at the Academy Awards, and it has picked up further festival honors, including the Toronto International Film Festival’s Everett Director’s Award. It also earned three nominations at the Gotham Awards, including Best International Feature and an Outstanding Lead Performance nomination for Jeon Do-yeon. Its Netflix arrival therefore lands in the middle of an active awards season, not at the end of one.
For viewers who missed the cinema run, November 6 is the first chance to watch the film at home. Lee has acknowledged that the film may feel different from the titles audiences usually associate with streaming platforms, but he has said he hopes viewers will still find enjoyment in it. After Venice, a sold-out cinema run and a growing list of prizes, “Possible Love” now faces its largest audience yet, and the global response will be the next test of a film that has already exceeded expectations at every stage so far.
