TIME: Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Love explores class differences and job loss
Possible Love, a drama directed by Lee Chang-dong that premiered at the Venice Film Festival, tells the story of two married couples whose fates intersect against the backdrop of class differences, job loss, and attempts to mend relationships. The film is scheduled for theatrical release on October 23 and on Netflix on November 6.
As TIME reports, the story centers on Mi-ok, played by Jeon Do-yeon, and her husband Ho-seok, played by Sol Kyung-gu. Ho-seok lost his job at the major SP corporation and has been unable to recover from it financially or emotionally. He suffers from depression and drinks excessively, while Mi-ok works a basic factory job and tries to support the family.
The meeting of two couples
In a parking lot near a funeral home, Mi-ok meets Sang-woo, played by Jo In-sung. He moves his expensive car when the woman suggests that her wedding ring may have rolled underneath it.
It later emerges that Sang-woo’s wife Ye-ji, played by Cho Yeo-jeong, is making a documentary about workers’ personal lives. She invites Mi-ok and Ho-seok to become subjects of her work and is particularly interested in the depressed Ho-seok. A friendship develops between Ye-ji and Mi-ok, while the film raises questions about the moral dilemmas in the relationship between a documentarian and the people she films.
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Inequality and desire
The review notes that Lee Chang-dong depicts everyday manifestations of inequality and insecurity. In particular, Mi-ok photographs Ye-ji’s elegant backpack and, using an image search, learns that it is a Loro Piana item that she cannot afford.
The director dedicated the film to the memory of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Decalogue 10, drawing on the commandment forbidding the coveting of what belongs to others. Against the backdrop of material hardship, Sang-woo conducts business negotiations by phone, while Ho-seok withdraws increasingly into himself. At the end of the film, Ho-seok opens up in front of Ye-ji’s camera, raising the question of the price the documentarian paid to obtain the footage she needed.
Possible Love is Lee Chang-dong’s new work after the noir detective mystery Burning, released in 2018.
