‘Possible Love’ Trailer: ‘Burning’ Director Lee Chang-dong Returns with a Story of Documentary Filmmaking Gone Awry
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- Lee Chang-dong returns with 'Possible Love' after an eight-year gap, his first feature since his previous film, with the Korean auteur describing his work as capturing 'the human struggle for meaning'
- The film follows a laid-off worker and his wife who cross paths with a documentary filmmaker and her spouse, confronting hidden desires beneath their marriages
- 'Possible Love' is loosely based on a segment of Krzysztof Kieślowski's 'Dekalog,' making it the second 2026 film inspired by that work after Asghar Farhadi's 'Parallel Lives' (which premiered at Cannes to mixed reviews)
- The cast includes Jeon Do-yeon, Sul Kyung-gu, Zo In-sung, and Cho Yeo-jeong, with Lee co-writing the screenplay alongside Oh Jung-mi
- The film will world premiere at the 2026 Venice International Film Festival competing for the Golden Lion, followed by a Toronto International Film Festival screening
- South Korea has selected 'Possible Love' as its official submission for Best International Feature at the 99th Academy Awards
- Netflix opens the film in select U.S. theaters on Friday, October 23, with the streaming debut on November 6
Why it matters: An eight-year silence from Lee Chang-dong ends with a Venice Golden Lion competition entry rather than a quiet streaming drop — a signal that Netflix is positioning this as a serious awards play, not just a catalog title. South Korea's selection of the film for its 99th Academy Awards submission commits national prestige behind it, while the October theatrical-then-November streaming window gives it a hybrid awards-season runway.
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