Lee Chang-dong's Possible Love Grew From a 77-Day Strike and a Director's Doubt
The idea for Lee Chang-dong's new film, Possible Love, first came more than a decade ago, when mass layoffs led to a standoff that The Guardian reports fundamentally changed the Korean labour movement. In 2009, workers at Ssangyong Motors protested plans to cut between 37 and 43% of the workforce with a 77-day strike and occupation of the factory, which riot police eventually broke up.
The Guardian reports that after the crackdown there were several suicides and reports of long-term mental health issues. Lee has said that examining the pain of those individuals left him asking whether he was worthy of telling the story. That question is a better starting point than a thesis: a film that admits it may be borrowing the pain it depicts is at least arguing with itself.
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The doubt is admirable, but it can also be a trap: if the director's conscience becomes the main character, the workers become scenery.
The 77-day occupation and a 37–43% layoff plan are not scenery. The film's conscience has to answer to them.
The film makes that worry literal: Ye-ji is making a film about labour in Korea and thinks she has found ideal subjects, if only Ho-seok would agree to talk on camera—or go to therapy.