Director Lee Chang-dong examines corporate layoffs in Possible Love
Lee Chang-dong’s latest film, Possible Love, explores the social and human impact of a mass layoff at a major Korean corporation in 2009.
Director Lee Chang-dong’s seventh feature film, Possible Love, is based on a 2009 corporate restructuring in South Korea where a conglomerate terminated 2,600 staff members, roughly one-third of its total workforce. The film focuses on the aftermath of these cuts, specifically noting the high rate of suicide among former employees in the following months.
Moving away from typical portrayals of labor disputes, the film centers on the lingering effects of displacement. Lee examines themes of class and modernity, maintaining a critical distance rather than presenting a didactic narrative. The production seeks to unpack the murkier consequences of industrial policy on individual lives.
Opening with the epigraph "Thou shall not covet," the film sets a tone of ethical inquiry. The work continues Lee’s long-standing focus on the intersection of Korean societal structures and the human cost of economic volatility.