POSSIBLE LOVE Luminaries

Lee Chang-dong’s (POETRY, AFI FEST 2010) first film in eight years, POSSIBLE LOVE reunites partners from his previous films, having been co-written with Oh Jung-mi (BURNING) and starring actors Jeon Do-yeon (SECRET SUNSHINE) and Sul Kyung-gu (PEPPERMINT CANDY, OASIS), while also featuring exciting new collaborations with Cho Yeo-jeong (PARASITE) and Zo In-sung of K-drama fame. We follow Ho-seok (Sul), a factory worker who participated in a strike against mass layoffs at a South Korean industrial complex and conceals his emotions from his family and former co-workers. His wife, Mi-ok (Jeon), is a struggling mother and small-business employee who nevertheless maintains a dreamy view of the world. Ye-ji (Cho) is a filmmaker who sets out to make a documentary about the recent layoffs and the fallout from violent repression. She attempts to empathize with her documentary subjects, despite her wealthy background, and befriends Mi-ok and Ho-seok. Ye-ji is fascinated by Ho-seok as a character for her documentary, while Mi-ok quickly becomes excited about the project and the new friendship. Once Ye-ji brings her hedge-fund-investor husband Sang-woo (Zo) into the mix, secret desires, deeply buried sorrows and unfulfilled longings begin to surface, heightening the couples’ class divide in mysterious and surprising ways. Through powerful performances by the ensemble and engaging storytelling, Lee’s sophisticated examination of social and gender inequality, labor issues, the ethics of filmmaking and the suppression of traumatic memories proves to be a complex and challenging entry in the cinematic canon of class relations. –Natalia Ames