After an eight-year absence from feature filmmaking, Lee Chang-dong has returned with the kind of quiet, emotionally piercing drama that made him one of South Korea’s most respected cinematic voices.

His new film, Possible Love, premiered in competition at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, where it reportedly received a rapturous seven-minute standing ovation. The response immediately transformed Lee’s long-awaited comeback into one of the festival’s most talked-about premieres.

The film arrives with considerable awards-season momentum. It has already been selected as South Korea’s official submission for Best International Feature Film at the 99th Academy Awards and is emerging as a major contender for Netflix.

Lee Chang-dong returns eight years after ‘Burning’

Possible Love is Lee’s first feature since his critically acclaimed 2018 mystery drama Burning, starring Yoo Ah-in, Steven Yeun and Jeon Jong-seo.

The lengthy gap has only intensified anticipation surrounding the filmmaker’s return. Rather than rushing into another production, Lee has said he needed to understand what the story meant to him, its audience and cinema itself before moving ahead.

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“I’m not the type of filmmaker who can make movies easily,” Lee explained while discussing why the project took so long to complete.

The result is a 164-minute drama that combines intimate relationship struggles with a wider examination of economic inequality, workplace trauma and human dignity.

What is ‘Possible Love’ about?

The story follows two married couples whose lives could not be more different.

Jeon Do-yeon plays Mi-ok, a factory worker trying to hold her family together after her husband, Ho-seok, loses his job. Ho-seok is portrayed by Sul Kyung-gu, one of Lee’s most trusted collaborators.

Their working-class existence becomes intertwined with a wealthy, childless couple: documentary filmmaker Ye-ji, played by Cho Yeo-jeong, and her hedge-fund executive husband Sang-woo, portrayed by Zo In-sung.

Ye-ji enters Mi-ok and Ho-seok’s lives while making a documentary about laid-off workers. What initially appears to be a professional encounter gradually develops into a complicated relationship involving class privilege, emotional exploitation, jealousy and desires that the four characters have attempted to suppress.

The official Venice Film Festival synopsis describes the film as a story about two couples confronting their profoundly different lives and hidden longings.

A drama inspired by real labour unrest

Beneath its relationship drama, Possible Love carries a painful connection to modern South Korean history.

The film was partly inspired by mass layoffs at a major South Korean conglomerate in 2009. The dismissals led to an extended workers’ strike and a violent police crackdown that left lasting physical and psychological damage.

Lee initially considered making a film directly about the dispute more than a decade ago. However, he became uncertain about turning the workers’ real suffering into a fictional narrative, particularly because their experiences had already been explored through documentary filmmaking.

The project was revived in 2024 after Lee’s longtime writing collaborator Oh Jung-mi suggested combining the labour dispute with the fictional story of a filmmaker attempting to document it.

This decision gave Possible Love another moral dimension. The film does not simply examine the trauma of unemployment; it also asks whether privileged observers can truly understand suffering—and whether filmmakers risk exploiting the people whose stories they claim to preserve. Lee discussed the real events behind the drama during its Venice premiere.

Lee reunites with two of his most important stars

The movie also brings Lee back together with two performers who helped define earlier chapters of his career.

Jeon Do-yeon previously starred in Lee’s 2007 drama Secret Sunshine, delivering a devastating performance as a grieving mother. The role earned her the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival.

Sul Kyung-gu, meanwhile, worked with Lee on Peppermint Candy and Oasis. Their reunion carries particular significance because Oasis won Lee the Silver Lion for Best Director at Venice in 2002.

In Possible Love, both actors are once again asked to portray ordinary people living under extraordinary emotional pressure. Their performances have been widely praised for avoiding easy melodrama while revealing the quiet resentment, exhaustion and hope buried inside their characters.

Cho Yeo-jeong and Zo In-sung provide an effective contrast as the affluent couple whose apparent stability begins to fracture once their lives become entangled with Mi-ok and Ho-seok.

A major Oscar contender for Netflix

South Korea’s decision to submit Possible Love for the Best International Feature Film category places it firmly inside the coming Oscar conversation.

The selection does not guarantee a nomination—the film must first advance through the Academy’s international-feature process—but its Venice reception, acclaimed director and high-profile cast give it an impressive early foundation.

The movie is also expected to become one of Netflix’s leading international awards contenders. The streaming platform has confirmed that Possible Love will receive a limited theatrical release on October 23, 2026, before arriving globally on Netflix on November 6. It is also scheduled to appear at the Toronto and New York film festivals. Netflix confirmed the release plan and South Korea’s Oscar submission.

Why ‘Possible Love’ is attracting attention

Lee Chang-dong has never been interested in offering audiences simple villains or convenient resolutions. His films tend to study people caught between personal desire and social pressure, leaving viewers to wrestle with uncomfortable moral questions.

Possible Love appears to continue that tradition. Early reviews have praised its performances, emotional restraint and examination of the invisible power imbalance separating its two couples.

The seven-minute Venice ovation may have announced Lee’s return in dramatic fashion, but the film itself reportedly works through subtler means. Its real power lies in the uncomfortable question at its centre: can love genuinely overcome divisions created by money, class and trauma—or does privilege eventually corrupt even the most sincere attempt at connection?

With Venice acclaim behind it and an Oscar campaign ahead, Possible Love is no longer simply Lee Chang-dong’s comeback film. It has become one of the most important international titles of the 2026 awards season.