Possible Love is not based on a true story, although Lee Chang-dong drew loosely on a real labor dispute in South Korea. The Netflix drama follows two fictional married couples: laid-off welder Ho-seok (Sul Kyung-gu) and his wife Mi-ok (Jeon Do-yeon), and documentary filmmaker Ye-ji (Cho Yeo-jeong) and her wealthy husband Sang-woo (Zo In-sung). SP Heavy Industries, the company that fires Ho-seok after a strike is crushed by police, is invented, but the events behind it have clear real-world roots.
Our full review of Possible Love
What Influenced Lee Chang-dong to Make Possible Love?
Lee has said the story began with “a mass layoff at a large corporation, which led to a general strike” about a decade ago, though he has not named the company. The Korea Herald points out that the film’s strike closely resembles the 2009 Ssangyong Motor sit-in in Pyeongtaek, a 77-day occupation that ended when police commandos moved in and left a long trail of trauma among the fired workers. The project also started as part of a planned series inspired by Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Dekalog, which is why the film opens with the commandment “Thou shalt not covet.” Co-writer Oh Jung-mi suggested the documentary framing device.
Possible Love Ending, Explained
The couples’ story is therefore fiction, even if the backdrop will feel familiar to Korean audiences. Lee, who wrote novels before turning to film, has said Ye-ji is the character closest to him, and that he has long asked himself how close he really stood to the people he wrote about. Rather than dramatizing a specific strike, Possible Love uses its aftermath to explore class, desire, and who gets to tell someone else’s story.
