Lee Chang-dong's 'Possible Love,' first feature since 'Burning,' reviewed

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Summary

'Possible Love' is director Lee Chang-dong's first feature since his 2018 psychological thriller 'Burning'.
The film follows laid-off autoworker Ho-seok, played by Sul Kyung-gu, who carries a colleague's suicide and a failed strike while his marriage to Mi-ok strains.
Documentarian Ye-ji, a wealthy woman making a film about the couple, entwines their lives in her project.
The story ends at Ye-ji's beachside estate, where class divides and the line between performance and reality must be reckoned with.
Jeon Do-yeon plays Mi-ok and Cho Yeo-jeong plays Ye-ji; Cho previously played the wealthy matriarch in 'Parasite'.

Aisha Harris wrote that the film stands out among recent eat-the-rich stories for framing capitalism's cruelty as a labor crisis.
Harris called Cho Yeo-jeong's performance as Ye-ji razor-sharp and praised Jeon Do-yeon's richly specific work as Mi-ok.
Harris argued there is an inherent power imbalance between filmmaker and subject, whose story the director shapes and presents.
Harris judged the film's execution more subdued than 'No Other Choice' and 'You Can See Everything' but no less explosive in intensity.
Harris wrote the film's resolution is both surprising and mundane and feels exactly right.

In 'Possible Love,' a power struggle goes beyond class — it's also about storynpr.org· 10h
In Lee Chang-dong's 'Possible Love' — his first feature since 'Burning' — laid-off autoworker Ho-seok carries the weight of a colleague's suicide and a failed strike while his strained marriage with Mi-ok draws the eye of Ye-ji, a wealthy documentarian whose film project entwines the couple's lives, ending at Ye-ji's beachside estate where class divides and performance versus reality must be reckoned with. Reviewing for NPR, Aisha Harris writes that the film stands out among recent eat-the-rich stories for framing capitalism's cruelty as a labor crisis, praising Jeon Do-yeon's and Cho Yeo-jeong's performances and its exploration of the power imbalance between filmmaker and subject.