(From L) Director Lee Chang-Dong, actors Sul Kyung-gu, Jeon Do-yeon, Cho Yeo-Jeong and Zo In-Sung attend the red carpet event for the screening of 'Possible Love'. Stefano Rellandini / AFP via Getty Images One night after Liam and Noel Gallagher conquered Venice with rockstar swagger and 90s nostalgia, Korean auteur Lee Chang-dong swiftly restored the atmosphere at the world’s oldest film festival to its usual, ideal tenor — feverish discussions of the immaculate craft and powerful import of a potential cinematic masterpiece.
Lee’s latest searing drama Possible Love, his first since Burning in 2018, premiered to a rapturous seven-minute standing ovation inside Venice’s Sala Grande cinema Sunday evening. And the film’s first wave of reviews — released by the trades just as the screening was getting underway — also appear to comprise a unanimous rave.
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Possible Love unites Lee — South Korea’s reigning auteur’s auteur — with two of his most gifted early collaborators. The film stars Jeon Do-yeon, who won Cannes’ best actress prize as the shattered lead of Secret Sunshine in 2007, and Sul Kyung-gu, the unforgettable face of the director’s early masterpieces Peppermint Candy (1999) and Oasis (2002). They are joined by rising star Zo In-sung (Hope, Moving) and Cho Yeo-jeong, best known globally as the gullible rich wife of Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite.
The film’s full cast was in tears as the ovation roared around them inside the Sala Grande, with each star taking a moment to applaud and express their appreciation directly toward their director, who bowed and waved courteously throughout. The ovation was still going strong when festival staff cut it short to make time for the cinema’s next premiere.
Although he’s never received an Oscar nomination or had a film make much international commercial impact, Lee’s work has accrued a level of reverence among global cineastes that few directors can match. Across just six features in three decades, the novelist-turned-director — who also served, somewhat improbably, as South Korea’s culture minister in the early 2000s — has explored the emotional and sociopolitical currents coursing through Korean society with a spare, literary intensity. At home in his country, he is, unmistakably, the OG auteur’s auteur.
Possible Love follows two married couples from opposite ends of a yawning class divide whose lives become unexpectedly intertwined. Blue-collar Ho-seok (Sul Kyung-gu), a man traumatized by losing his factory job after a workers’ strike, lives a quiet life with his determinedly optimistic wife, Mi-ok (Jeon Do-yeon). A chance encounter brings them into contact with Ye-ji (Cho Yeo-jeong), an aspiring documentary filmmaker working on a project about displaced laborers, and her husband Sang-woo (Zo), the handsome scion of a wildly wealthy Korean family. The two wives soon strike up a tentative friendship as Ye-ji expresses interest in telling Ho-seok’s story — but the group dynamic gradually becomes complicated by their extreme class differences and subtly conflicting desires.
From left: Sul Kyung-gu, Jeon Do-yeon, Cho Yeo-jeong and Zo In-sung in ‘Possible Love.’ Courtesy of Netflix The film is also packed with all-star Korean talent behind the camera. Lee co-wrote Possible Love with Oh Jung-mi, with whom he previously collaborated on Burning. Kim Ji-yong (Decision to Leave, Squid Game) served as cinematographer, while composer Jung Jae-il (Parasite, Squid Game) wrote the score.
Somewhat uncharacteristically for both parties, the film is produced and fully financed by Netflix, which has positioned it as one of its top awards hopefuls of 2026. South Korea selected Possible Love last month as its submission for the best international feature Oscar, with the Korean Film Council praising Lee’s craftsmanship and the film’s layered characters and relationships. It is Lee’s fourth film to represent Korea at the Academy Awards, following Oasis, Secret Sunshine and Burning. Netflix is also expected to campaign for the film in major categories beyond best international film.
Following Venice, Possible Love will continue a packed fall festival run that includes Toronto, New York, San Sebastián, Zurich, Vancouver and Busan. It opens theatrically in South Korea on Sept. 23, followed by Australia on Oct. 22, and the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland and Japan on Oct. 23. Netflix will then launch the film on its service globally on Nov. 6.
Now among the frontrunners, Possible Love is one of 21 titles vying for the Golden Lion in Venice’s main competition. The festival’s jury, led by Maggie Gyllenhaal, will reveal this year’s winners at an awards ceremony on Sept. 12.
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