What Is Possible Love About? Lee Chang-dong's Netflix Film, Its Cast and When to Watch
Possible Love is Lee Chang-dong's first film in eight years: a drama about two married couples, a laid-off factory worker and his wife, and a documentary filmmaker and her husband, whose lives tangle when she sets out to film them. Jeon Do-yeon, Sul Kyung-gu, Zo In-sung and Cho Yeo-jeong star. It won the Grand Jury Prize at Venice, opened in Korean cinemas on September 23, and will stream worldwide on Netflix from Friday, November 6.
What Is Possible Love About?
Possible Love is a Korean feature film written and directed by Lee Chang-dong, the filmmaker behind Burning and Poetry, and it is his first new film in eight years. It is a drama about two married couples from opposite ends of society whose lives become entangled through a documentary.
The first couple is Ho-seok, a factory worker who has lost his job in the wake of a strike, and his wife Mi-ok. The second is Ye-ji, an ambitious documentary filmmaker making a film about labor, and her husband Sang-woo, a businessman. When Ye-ji asks Mi-ok to take part in her documentary, the two households start spending time together, and each marriage is forced to look at the other: a different life, different money, and desires nobody has said out loud.
That is as far as the official synopsis goes, and this guide stops there too. The ending has not been made public, and Lee is a director whose films depend on what the audience does not know yet. Expect a slow build rather than twists on a timer.
A few facts help you plan the evening:
- Writers: Lee Chang-dong and Oh Jung-mi, who also co-wrote Burning
- Music: Jung Jae-il
- Running time: about two hours and 45 minutes
- Rating: for adults only in Korea
- Language: Korean
Who Is in the Cast of Possible Love?
Four leads carry the film, and each of them is a star in Korea in their own right.
| Actor | Character | Who they are in the story |
|---|---|---|
| Jeon Do-yeon | Mi-ok | Ho-seok's wife, who agrees to appear in the documentary |
| Sul Kyung-gu | Ho-seok | A factory worker who loses his job after a strike |
| Cho Yeo-jeong | Ye-ji | A documentary filmmaker making a film about labor |
| Zo In-sung | Sang-woo | Ye-ji's husband, a businessman |
Two of the four are coming home to Lee's films. Jeon Do-yeon won Best Actress at Cannes in 2007 for Lee's Secret Sunshine, and Sul Kyung-gu starred in his Peppermint Candy and Oasis. Seeing them together in a Lee Chang-dong film is the reason many Korean viewers circled this release.
The other couple brings a different energy. International audiences know Cho Yeo-jeong as the trusting wife in Parasite, and Zo In-sung is one of Korea's best-known leading men, from the action film Escape from Mogadishu to the superhero series Moving. Here they play the comfortable household, and the trailer keeps returning to the contrast between their airy home and Ho-seok's family on the road with their bags.
When and Where Can You Watch Possible Love?
Last updated: November 2, 2026
Possible Love is a Netflix film, and it will stream on Netflix worldwide from Friday, November 6. Before that, it has had a cinema run, which is why some people have already seen it while it is still not on the service. Dates below are local release dates.
| Date | Where | What |
|---|---|---|
| September 6 | Venice International Film Festival | World premiere in Competition |
| September 12 | Venice International Film Festival | Wins the Silver Lion, the Grand Jury Prize |
| September 23 | Korea | Cinema release |
| October 22 | Australia | Cinema release |
| October 23 | US, Canada, UK, Ireland and Japan | Cinema release in selected theaters |
| November 6 | Worldwide | Streaming on Netflix |
The film also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival, and it is Korea's submission for Best International Feature Film at the 99th Academy Awards. A theatrical run before streaming is part of that path: a film has to play in cinemas to be eligible.
For planning, three facts matter most. Netflix has set the worldwide streaming date for Friday, November 6. It opened in Korean cinemas on September 23. And it arrives as the winner of the Silver Lion, the Grand Jury Prize, at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival.
If you are in Seoul and would rather see it on a big screen, check the listings at the major cinema chains. For what makes moviegoing here feel different, see our guide to the Korean cinema experience.
How Does Possible Love Fit Lee Chang-dong's Films?
Lee Chang-dong has made only seven feature films in almost thirty years, and Korean audiences treat each one as an event. He started as a novelist and served as Korea's Minister of Culture in the early 2000s, and his films are known for taking ordinary lives seriously, at length, without telling you what to feel.
- Green Fish (1997): his debut, a gangster story about a young man back from military service
- Peppermint Candy (1999): one man's life told backward, starring Sul Kyung-gu
- Oasis (2002): an unlikely love story, also with Sul Kyung-gu, which won Lee Best Director at Venice
- Secret Sunshine (2007): a mother's grief in a small city, which won Jeon Do-yeon Best Actress at Cannes
- Poetry (2010): an older woman taking a poetry class, which won Best Screenplay at Cannes
- Burning (2018): a mystery about class and desire, adapted from a Haruki Murakami story
- Possible Love (2026): two couples, one documentary, and the gap between them
Possible Love is not a sequel to anything, so you can watch it cold. If you have seen Burning, though, the setup will feel familiar in a good way: people from different classes drawn into the same orbit, and a story that gets its tension from what each of them wants. Poetry is the closer cousin in tone, patient and humane. Lee has described this film as a question about what cinema can do at a time when work itself is disappearing.
His older films are also becoming easier to find. Netflix has added Green Fish and Secret Sunshine in Italy, the UK, France, Australia and New Zealand, Peppermint Candy and Oasis in Italy and Spain, and plans to bring Poetry and Burning to Japan, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Availability differs by country, so search your local app. For the wider picture of why Korean films are drawing such crowds at home, see our story on Korean films at the box office.
Sori's Note
Two hours and 45 minutes sounds like a lot for a Friday night, and I would still say: don't split it. Lee's films build pressure slowly, and the pause button lets it out. Start early, put the phone in another room, and give it one sitting.
And if you can, watch it with someone. A film about two marriages looking at each other is better with a conversation waiting at the end.
