Possible Love, the first film from Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong since Burning (2018), is debuting today at the Venice Film Festival.
The story follows two married couples whose lives become uniquely intertwined. The Korean Film Council has already selected the title as Korea’s official entry for the Best International Feature category at the Academy Awards. Netflix, which financed and has international rights to the film, recently confirmed it will receive an Oscar-qualifying theatrical release in Korea, the U.S. (October release), and other select territories. Jeon Do-yeon, Sul Kyung-gu, Zo In-sung, and Cho Yeo-jeong star.
The anticipated movie is going down a storm with critics on the Lido and seems to be the most unanimously praised film of the festival so far.
Deadline’s Pete Hammond wrote of the film: “The cast of top South Korean actors here is well chosen, each of the four main stars given plenty to work with and delivering director Lee’s vision on the screen in this handsomely filmed and pertinent work that even those not familiar with this celebrated filmmaker’s pedigree will find much to admire.”
The Guardian gives the film 4/5 stars, describing it as “a finely judged, beautifully acted and rather novelistic work, in which a character at one point actually compares her surroundings to something from a novel. It is expansive and diffuse in terms of storytelling scope and dramatic focus, rich in intelligence while paying its audience the compliment of treating them as intelligent also.”
Time calls the film “a delicate drama of love and longing in anxious times”: “Lee Chang-dong’s delicate yet sturdy drama Possible Love is a movie about figuring out how to function in the world. If that description seems confoundingly vague, Lee’s movie is not. It shows us a world where people feel lost after losing their livelihood, where individuals strive to connect with others despite differences of class and temperament, where tenderness ultimately has more power than arrogance. It’s a movie with a gentle, generous spirit.”
The International Cinephile Society gives the movie 4.5/5 stars, calling it “an absolute knockout of a film about love having the possibility to bridge divides and deliver freedom, even for a brief moment.”
Screen International calls the film a “powerful” and “enigmatic” movie, while THR calls it a “transfixing meditation” and a “quiet powerhouse”. Indiewire says the film is a “stunner”.
Next Best Picture is one of many to praise the cast: “The quartet of performances all deliver stunning work. Jeon is best among them, using that outgoing charm to communicate her intention to chase a desired freedom that has been stifled.”
Awardswatch gives the film an A score, describing the film as a “searing treatise on exploiting human connection.”
The Radio Times says the film is “rich and utterly absorbing”, while Variety is bowled over by the “beautifully mature, quietly colossal relationship drama”.
