Possible Love

Award-winning filmmaker Lee Chang-dong’s (TIFF ’02’s Oasis, TIFF ’10’s Poetry, TIFF ’18’s Burning) heavily anticipated new film is a tale of deep yearning, envy, and grief. Every couple wants to find some sense of happiness. For Ho-seok (Sul Kyung-gu, Good News. TIFF ’25) and Mi-ok (Jeon Do-yeon, Good News. TIFF ’25) the hope is to move on from the trauma caused by the disastrous outcome of a labour dispute. When they are approached by young, ambitious documentary filmmaker Ye-ji (Cho Yeo-jeong, Parasite, TIFF ’19) to take part in her latest project, they become intimately intertwined with her and her business mogul husband, Sang-woo (Zo In-sung, Smugglers, TIFF ’23). 

Revelations of interpersonal suffering come to light — both in front of and behind the camera — as the documentary develops, and tensions between the couples start to rise. Questions are asked around who gets to tell whose story, who speaks for whom, and what responsibilities  observers have when taking on the perspective of the disenfranchised. As the lives of Ye-ji, Mi-ok, Sang-woo, and Ho-seok become increasingly entangled, tensions mount.

Through purposeful and layered storytelling, Possible Love quietly surfaces themes of social class and power. Small revelations of complex feelings ripple throughout accumulating into something profound and powerful. 

ANITA LEE

Content advisory: explicit sex scenes, violence, themes of self-harm, nudity, coarse language, crude content