Possible Love

by George Wolf

Director Lee Chang-dong opens his latest with a text reminder that “Thou Shalt Not Covet.” He then spends the better part of three hours on a clinically intimate dissection of coveting in the modern world.

Ho-seok (Sul Kyung-gu, Memoir of a Murderer) is a Korean factory worker who lost his job after private equity restructuring brought layoffs. An organized labor strike turned violent, and Ho-seok’s continued trauma has strained his family life with wife Mi-ok (Lee favorite Jeon Do-yeon) and their young son. Mi-ok continues a sympathetic devotion to her husband, but he remains emotionally distant.

Their lives change when documentary filmmaker Ye-ji (Parasite‘s Cho Yeo-jeong) begins including them in a film about the effect of the layoffs on the displaced workers and their families. Mi-ok and Ye-ji become fast friends, but as the two couples spend more time together, the wealth and privilege of Ye-ji’s husband Sang-woo (Zo In-sung from Hope) simmers the tension between boundaries of class, compassion and exploitation.

Lee (Burning, Peppermint Candy, Secret Sunshine), again co-writing with Jungmi Oh, confidently builds a patient, spellbinding and wonderfully acted drama through multiple layers of socioeconomic anxiety. Souls feel dead without the purpose of employment, unable to bear even random meetings with former friends still working and cast as one of “the living.”

And, as things must be today, the suffering is preserved thanks to the camera of Ye-ji, sometimes with questionable consent. Lee and the stellar cast make sure these moments stand on their own, but anyone who has recently been transfixed by You Can See Everything will find more fuel for a conversation about authenticity, the performative, and manipulation.

Possible Love (Ganeunghan sarang) is a time-consuming but richly rewarding human drama. The layers are plentiful and deep, ultimately laying bare a graceful, in-the-moment encapsulation carrying valuable insight that should only increase over time.