Korean Star Jeon Do-yeon’s Outstanding ‘Possible Love’ Performance Could Earn Venice’s Best Actress Prize — or Lee Chang-dong the Golden Lion

Korean cinema burst life into an until-then sleepy Venice Film Festival on Sunday when Lee Chang-dong premiered his first film since 2018’s Cannes winner “Burning,” “Possible Love.” His latest feature, a Venice competition selection and a Netflix global release, follows two couples (one working-class, the other more upper-echelon figureheads for capitalism) as their lives become entangled during a documentary film project about laid-off workers. Lee is the grandmaster of uneasy, slippery human relationship dramas, and the filmmaker’s powerfully directed latest takes its lead from those by Krzysztof Kieślowski, to whom “Possible Love” is dedicated.

A quartet of outstanding performances by four Korean stars — Jeon Do-yeon and Sul Kyung-gu, plus Zo In-sung and “Parasite” actress Cho Yeo-jeong) — anchor Lee’s unsentimental but unusually heartfelt script about blue-collar lives affected by state suppression and now being shaped by one rich filmmaker’s (Cho) curated narrative. The film instantly received the best reviews out of the competition — matched only so far by Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham’s “NAZA,” an urgent documentary that examines the mechanics of genocide via testimony from anonymized IDF sources coming out of Gaza.

“Possible Love’s” key standout, and the beating heart of the movie, is Jeon’s performance as Mi-ok, an introvert who works at a mask factory to support her husband (Sul). He’s jobless, drinking heavily, and traumatized over the fallout from a recent metal factory strike. Mi-ok, meanwhile, opens up to filmmaker Ye-ji (Cho) during a documentary project that starts to veer toward the exploitative. She also develops an attraction that’s both curious and wary toward Ye-ji’s entitled husband, Sang-woo (Zo). Jeon’s performance is a kaleidoscope of emotions as she sifts through past memories, reckons with her husband’s emotional paralysis after a layoff dinged his ego and more, and even finds ways to manipulate Ye-ji and her husband. That happens at a powerhouse scene at a beach retreat where Mi-ok, fully nude, uses “the whole entirety of her body” to protest the forces of capitalism, as Jeon told me at Venice.

A Korean star in her own right, with credits including the 2010 global box-office hit “The Housemaid,” Jeon previously starred for director Lee almost 20 years ago as a grieving widow making a fresh start in “Secret Sunshine.” That film, a classic of the aughts, made her the first Korean actor to win Best Actress at Cannes in 2007. Jeon could also take that prize at Venice — if the jury doesn’t instead opt to give “Possible Love” an even bigger award. Right now, Jeon is gearing up to star in Simon Stone’s Korean-language adaptation of Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard” at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City. How’s that for multi-platform awards campaigning? Netflix will be pushing “Possible Love” into not only the Best Actress Oscar race, but also Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay (shared with “Burning” scribe Oh Jung-mi), and Best International Feature. It’s far less flashy than some of the obvious international contenders that could break into top categories, but Netflix is taking “Possible Love” seriously.

Seh Rho translated our interview, which has been edited for clarity and brevity.

‘Possible Love’Netflix

IndieWire: You’re a star across commercial and arthouse movies in Korea, but I know you best for “Secret Sunshine,” your first movie with director Lee. What were your initial conversations on that one that led to reuniting for “Possible Love”?

Jeon Do-yeon: Prior to working with him, I’d only worked with new directors, novice directors. When the offer came in to work with him, I was so excited about what great things would happen. For me, he wasn’t even one of the great directors — he was almost like a star director. So in our very first meeting [on “Secret Sunshine”], there was no script. When he talked about the film, I said, “Yes, I would love to participate.” I was also a fan of actor Song Kang-ho, so I had a lot of expectations. When I got the script and read it, I couldn’t really understand the story, and the emotions depicted were so challenging and difficult.

Up until the very last day before meeting with director Lee, I debated what I was going to say to him. I was honest with him, and I said, “I really want to work with you. However, I don’t really understand this character or this story.” And he said, “Well, that’s good. I don’t think I would’ve believed you if you had said otherwise. Let’s try and work together.” So when he said that, I thought he would offer a lot of help. However, on the set, he abandoned me and left me alone to feel all the different feelings and to go through that on my own. So I was very resentful toward him at the time. [Laughs]

You said that while making “Secret Sunshine,” he still expected to see more growth from you. What did he mean by that? You won Best Actress at Cannes!

At the time when he mentioned this, having to show some sign of growth, I didn’t really understand what he meant. I thought I was doing quite well, as you said, and I was like, “How can I grow more from here?” [Before] “Secret Sunshine” together, I sensed that I understood that I was acting to satisfy others’ needs and expectations, whether it was depicting sadness or happiness, I was acting exactly what the other person had wanted. By working together with director Lee on “Secret Sunshine,” I began to question this. Is this the right type of acting? Was I even feeling anything at the time? So when the director was mentioning there needs to be some sign of growth, I think he was referring to that. Rather than having some sense of progress, of growth, rather, what we focus more on is, “How much do we understand one another, and to the degree that we understand one another, what kind of film will come out of this?” What shone through a lot more with “Possible Love” is a sense of camaraderie we had as colleagues together.

Jeon Do-yeon and Song Kang-ho in ‘Secret Sunshine’Cinema Service/Courtesy Everett Collection

What does director Lee ask of you in terms of preparation? Is there much rehearsal? Do you watch other things? “Possible Love” is an homage to a Krzysztof Kieślowski film from “Dekalog.” Did you watch that?

He doesn’t ask us to watch anything prior to filming. He did not have too many rehearsals either prior to filming. He didn’t even say, “Let’s do a reading together.” He said, “Let’s speak words together.” And what he says to us and to anyone, everyone in the film, including the smaller roles, is, “Don’t act. Just speak the words as if you’re in character. Don’t try to express what you’re feeling deliberately in front of the character. Just feel as the character is feeling. And when shooting, it’s inevitable that there are times where we will go for several takes, but do it as if it’s the first time that you’re doing this.” Now, that sounds really simple, but actually it’s not easy at all.

Your relationship with Zo In-sung’s character, the husband of Cho’s documentary filmmaker, is fascinating. There’s a scene where both couples head to a beach retreat, and the two of you end up naked in the water. Without spoiling anything, this scene has many layers and can be read in all kinds of ways. Is she being manipulative? Is she actually acting on her attraction to him?

That scene is almost the climax of the film. However, we were under pressure with the seasonal changes. So actually, we were supposed to shoot the summer house scenes in order. However, we had to start with that scene, actually. So the actors hadn’t actually experienced all the emotions in the prior scenes in the summer house, so we were feeling a lot of pressure when it came to shooting that scene. We did one rehearsal and, technically, we anticipated it to be incredibly challenging. However, on the day of the filming, our first take, he said, “OK.” And he’s a director who doesn’t actually say OK on set a lot. So we were very surprised, myself and Zo In-sung, and we were actually questioning him, asking, “Are you sure this is OK? Are you sure we don’t need to shoot this again?”

It was also a scene that once the seasons had changed, we would not be able to film it again. The emotions going through Mi-ok at the time, it’s not anger, although I can see why it can be read in that way, but the character played by Zo In-sung, he really represents the capitalism and the forces of capitalism that’s dominating all of the characters’ lives. And she’s really trying to protest this force with the whole entirety of her body in that scene.

‘Possible Love’

Lee Chang-dong built the story around a wave of layoffs that happened in Korea, and the police suppression of workers’ strikes and protests that followed. How did you immerse yourself in that world?

I didn’t do much prior research. There was a real-life incident of mass layoffs. However, in terms of what I experienced in Korea, I understand that there were many sacrifices that were made, and it was a huge issue in Korean society at the time. I didn’t make an effort to find out more about that incident. I think because it’s quite a painful thing, the more you get to find out about what happened. So I guess you could say I was being avoidant.

However, director Lee was not avoidant. He really wanted to tell this story and wanted to confront it. So even though this incident was the motif for the film, what the film actually shows is not the incident, but the story of the lives of the workers. When they’re a sacrifice, how will they live after that point? What will they do? Especially when work can be your identity for so many, how do you overcome this ordeal? And his answer that he suggests is through love. So how to tell the story of fired workers and turn it into a love story — I was very surprised by the time I finished reading the script.

“Possible Love” premiered at Venice and will next play the Toronto and New York film festivals. Netflix releases it in theaters starting October 23 with a streaming premiere beginning November 6.