Possible Love is an unsettling exploration of human exploitation, mental health, and the lies that we tell ourselves on the daily to make it through the pain we’re experiencing. Directed by Lee Chang-dong, who also brought to life the 2018 film Burning, you can tell that this story had been weighing on him. And because of that, Lee took a gentle hand to bring this film to life that allowed his actors to flourish at their own pace. But it also allowed for one of this film’s biggest problems to arise: how long it was.
Before I dive into how the length of this film hurt Possible Love immensely, I do want to take some time to talk about the unsettling nature of it. Because at the heart of this movie there are two couples. There’s Mi-ok (Jeon Do-yeon) and Ho-seok (Sul Kyung-gu), the couple barely holding on after the husband was brutalized during a labor protest. And then there’s Ye-ji (Cho Yeo-jeong) and Zo In-sung, the well-off couple exploiting the pain of the couple for their own gains.
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Both of these couples are lying to themselves in vastly different ways, with the couple barely holding on feeling the most real and like the viewer can connect to them. Mi-ok is pretending like everything is ok and flirting with something dangerous between her and Sang-woo. And Ho-seok is lying to himself that he’s ok after what happened to him. As for the well-off couple, Ye-ji is working on a documentary about Mi-ok and Ho-seok. And she’s lying to herself that she’s not exploiting these people. She is. Just like her husband is to get the information he wants to make more money.
The tangled web that they weave is messy and oftentimes difficult to follow because of how long Possible Love is. And their saving grace comes in the form of Ho-seok. He’s not a perfect character in any way, shape, or form. But his Ho-seok feels like he has the most substance, even when he’s hiding from himself. And when you really experience and understand how he was exploited and broken by the company who hired him, you’re left horrified for the character but in awe by the actor.
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Everything that happened in Possible Love would’ve hit harder if it wasn’t for the runtime of this film. There was no reason Possible Love needed to be 2 hours and 44 minutes. I understand the length for epic dramas or fantasies with a huge ensemble cast. Possible Love isn’t that. And I think this film would’ve hit harder and had a better pace if it was cut down by an hour or more. Instead its length allowed for the film to meander through beautiful shots again, again, and again that added nothing to the core message to the point where if I was at home, I would have paused Possible Love, went and did something else, and picked it up later.
Knowing how much film and TV is out there in 2026, maybe I wouldn’t have picked up Possible Love again after a break. Which is a shame because there’s power in this movie. Power and an understanding that all we have is each other in the face of those who want to exploit us for our very soul.
Possible Love is set to stream on Netflix on November 6, 2026.
