Can 'Possible Love' win Lee Chang-dong top prize at Venice film festival?

Filmmaker Lee Chang-dong’s "Possible Love" received a seven-minute standing ovation at the Venice International Film Festival on Sunday (local time), with early reviews praising the director's strong comeback. The positive response builds hope that Lee might win the top prize he missed two decades ago.

Twenty-four years after winning the Silver Lion for best director with "Oasis" in 2002, Lee is back at the Italian film festival, this time vying for the festival's top prize, the Golden Lion. "Possible Love” is his first film since 2018's "Burning.”

The Hollywood Reporter called it "a profound meditation on trauma, loss of dignity, yearning and class envy," describing the film as "a sad but beautiful chamber piece, fleshed out by a superlative ensemble." The International Cinephile Society gave it 4.5 out of 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."

At the film's press conference the same day, Lee addressed the eight-year gap since "Burning.”

“I felt our lives themselves had changed so dramatically over those eight years," he said, pointing to the pandemic. "I found myself asking, in an era like this, what kind of power does movies actually have, whether film can still connect one person to another."

"Possible Love" tells the story of two couples who meet through a documentary project.

Sul Kyung-gu and Jeon Do-yeon play Ho-seok and Mi-ok, a laid-off factory worker and his wife struggling after a violent police crackdown on striking workers. Zo In-sung and Cho Yeo-jeong play Sang-woo and Ye-ji, a wealthy couple, with Ye-ji directing the documentary that brings the four together.

Lee said the story comes from an idea he kept in mind for years. The film is based on a period of mass layoffs and harsh crackdowns on striking workers in Korea. Lee felt the topic was too sensitive at the time and put it aside before returning to it years later. The movie also reflects recent labor protests and political issues in Korea, connecting past and present events.

The 72-year-old director said Cho's character reflects his own artistic worries, as she struggles with how to show other people's pain in her documentary.

"I think Ye-ji is probably the person closest to my identity, my own heart, as someone who makes films," he said.

The director added this worry started during his years as a novelist.

"Even when I was young and writing novels, I could not avoid this question," he said. "Whether I wrote about workers, minorities or student activists, I always asked myself if I truly understood them and wrote from their perspective."

Lee described “Possible Love” as a story about storytellers. He also spoke about his worries over the changing film market. "You might ask if the filmmaker's role is disappearing," he said. "In a way, this is the same question every worker asks today as the meaning of their work fades away."

Composer Jung Jae-il, famous for his work on "Parasite" and "Squid Game," created the music for the film. The director kept the soundtrack minimal. "I think music often forces emotions from the outside, so it should come naturally from inside the story instead," Lee said, explaining their choice. "The film already has its own tempo and rhythm."

"Possible Love" has already been selected as Korea's official submission for the Best International Feature Film category at next year’s Academy Awards. Netflix, which financed the film and holds its international rights, has set a theatrical release in Korea for Sept. 23, followed by an Oscar-qualifying run in the United States on Oct. 23 and a global Netflix release on Nov. 6.