Possible Love: Where to Watch in the US and Canada

If you want Lee Chang-dong's new film at home, the date is Friday, November 6. Netflix puts Possible Love up that day in the United States and Canada. It runs 164 minutes, in Korean with English subtitles, rated R. Plan on reading the whole way.

The limited theatrical run started October 23. It was a short window in both countries, and those showtimes have passed. Two festivals are still screening it this weekend. In Honolulu, the Hawai'i International Film Festival has it Friday, October 30, at 8 p.m. and Saturday, October 31, at 3:45 p.m., both at Consolidated Theatres Kahala. In Savannah, the SCAD Savannah Film Festival has it Saturday, October 31, at 10 a.m. If you are not in one of those rooms, November 6 is the plan. The live lookup is the page to reopen if a rental shows up earlier, or if that Netflix date moves.

Netflix, US and Canada	November 6, 2026
Runtime	164 minutes
Language	Korean, with English subtitles
Rating	R
Live lookup	Open the Possible Love page

The household

Lee Chang-dong, the Korean director of Burning and Secret Sunshine, had not made a feature since 2018. He has said he cannot start a film until he is sure it means something, and this one sat for years: a mass layoff at a large Korean company, then a strike the authorities put down hard enough to shock the country. He could not decide whether a fictional movie was a fair way to use what happened to those workers. Possible Love is what he made when he could. The Korea Herald has matched the strike on screen to the 2009 occupation at Ssangyong Motor's plant in Pyeongtaek. In the movie the company is a heavy-industry plant, and we meet the household two years later.

Jeon Do-yeon plays Mi-ok. She is 53. She and Lee last worked together on Secret Sunshine, which won her best actress at Cannes in 2007, the first time a Korean actor took an acting prize there. She said yes to this part because it was him, and she asked for the script immediately, worried the movie might not get made. When she finished it, she said it could only have been his. Mi-ok, as Jeon describes her, wants a peaceful day and carries a ticking time bomb, never sure when her husband's anger will go off. Even then, she says, Mi-ok does not let go of hope. The people page has the rest of that career.

Sul Kyung-gu plays her husband, Ho-seok. He has been in Lee's films since Peppermint Candy and Oasis, and he played her husband in Birthday. They have a 10-year-old son, Cheol. Ho-seok lost the factory job after the strike. Two years later the firing is still in the house with them, and he drinks too much. Mi-ok works at a factory that makes face masks.

A funeral puts them in a room with the other couple. Cho Yeo-jeong, who played the wealthy wife in Parasite, is Ye-ji, a documentarian who wants a layoff like theirs on camera. Mi-ok says yes. Ho-seok will not. Zo In-sung plays Ye-ji's husband, Sang-woo. Cho and Zo are working with Lee for the first time. Mi-ok grows close to Ye-ji, and she is uneasily drawn to Sang-woo. Jung Jae-il, who scored Parasite, wrote the music.

Lee has said the title surprised people. He meant a question: what kind of love is possible, and what it is worth, for people whose lives are already arranged by class. The film opens on the commandment not to covet. His question is whether anyone can keep it.

Venice gave the film the Silver Lion, the festival's Grand Jury Prize. The Gothams nominated Jeon for outstanding lead performance, and nominated the film for international feature and original screenplay. Lee shares the writing nomination with Oh Jung-mi, his co-writer on Burning. The ceremony is November 30, so the movie is on Netflix before that night. South Korea has submitted it for the international-feature Oscar. The Gotham piece has the list. The October 23 piece is how the short theater run was set up.

Secret Sunshine and Burning are why this reunion matters, and you can meet Mi-ok without them. The midlife essay sets her next to Rinko Kikuchi's widow in Ha-chan, Shake Your Booty!

If the apps move

Open the live lookup, choose the United States or Canada, and read the checked date on that page. On November 6, search the title inside Netflix before you tell anyone the link is live.