Two decades after Secret Sunshine earned her a historic Best Actress prize at Cannes, Jeon Do-yeon has returned to Lee Chang-dong‘s world. Their new film, Possible Love, is the first time the director and the actress have worked together since 2007, and that history is why the movie has drawn attention on the festival circuit and beyond.
The reunion is not a nostalgia lap. In Possible Love, Jeon plays Mi-ok, a wife holding her family together after her husband is laid off, a role built on restraint rather than the raw grief that defined her Cannes-winning turn. For U.S. viewers who may know Jeon best from titles like Kill Boksoon, Revolver, or the series Crash Course in Romance, the film is also a doorway into the art-house side of her career.
A 19-Year Reunion: Jeon Do-yeon and Lee Chang-dong
Possible Love follows two couples who meet to make a documentary and end up confronting their contrasting lives and hidden desires. Ho-seok, played by Seol Kyung-gu, is a laid-off worker, and Jeon’s Mi-ok is his wife. Across from them are documentary filmmaker Ye-ji, played by Jo Yeo-jeong, and her husband Sang-woo, played by Jo In-sung.
Lee directed the film and co-wrote it with Oh Jung-mi. It opened in select Korean theaters on Sept. 23, 2026, with a Netflix release reported for Nov. 6, 2026. Seol also returns to the director’s films, but the pairing that carries the most weight is Jeon’s, because the last time she and Lee worked together, the result changed her career.
Their first collaboration was defined by Lee’s meticulous direction and Jeon’s ability to convey emotion without exaggeration. The new film has largely lived up to the anticipation surrounding the reunion, with reviewers praising the chemistry at its center.
The Secret Sunshine Legacy
Secret Sunshine, released in 2007, cast Jeon as Shin-ae, a woman who moves to Miryang with her son after losing her husband. Her performance, praised for emotional intensity without exaggeration, won Best Actress at the 60th Cannes Film Festival, making her the first Korean actor to take the honor. The film remains an essential part of her filmography, and it is part of why a second collaboration was so anticipated.
That triumph had a cost. Jeon has said on television programs, including JTBC’s A View of My Room, that the sudden surge in attention brought heightened expectations and left her struggling through a career slump tied to the powerful image of the role.
Her answer was range. Known as the Queen of Cannes, she has spent the years since moving between film and television with titles including The Housemaid, Birthday, Kill Boksoon, and Revolver, plus the series The Good Wife, Lost, and Crash Course in Romance, presenting a different side of herself in each project instead of staying tied to one image.
From Shin-ae to Mi-ok
Mi-ok is not Shin-ae. She takes a job at a mask factory to support her husband and son after Ho-seok loses his livelihood, and she becomes entangled with Ye-ji, who wants to record the couple’s life, and with Ye-ji’s husband Sang-woo. Her emotions build quietly before they erupt.
That contrast is the film’s most interesting question. Where Secret Sunshine pushed a character to emotional extremes, Possible Love asks Jeon to capture the inner life of a more everyday, realistic woman.
American critics have taken notice. IndieWire called her performance a once-in-a-century piece of work, The Hollywood Reporter praised her for once again delivering a deeply moving performance, and AwardsWatch noted that she stands out even among the film’s four leads. Beyond Jeon, the work of Seol, Jo Yeo-jeong, and Jo In-sung has also emerged as a focus of festival coverage.
Work, Class, and Desire
The film’s backdrop is the absurd reality of large-scale unfair layoffs at a major company, and the documentary premise turns that backdrop into a study of class. The two couples stand in different places, and their desires either join them or pull them apart.
Ye-ji, the filmmaker who picks up a camera to record a laid-off worker, reads as a self-aware projection of Lee himself. Korean reviews have described the film as candid rather than righteous, a self-deprecating comedy that finds real laughs in heavy material.
It also takes its time. Possible Love runs 164 minutes and leans on its four leads, with Jo In-sung giving the potentially flat Sang-woo a dual-sided appeal that makes the group dynamic richer. The film leaves its metaphors open to interpretation, closer to a puzzle with no right answers than to a message movie.
Possible Love: Festival Prizes and How to Watch
Possible Love moved through the international circuit before reaching Korean audiences. It was invited to the Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize, and it also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival. An awards campaign has begun.
For viewers outside Korea, the practical details are still settling:
- Korean theatrical release: Sept. 23, 2026
- Reported Netflix release: Nov. 6, 2026
- Festival run: Venice, Toronto, New York
For Korean art-house films, the path often runs from major festivals to a domestic theatrical window and then to streaming, and this release follows that pattern. The Netflix date has not been confirmed for every territory, and U.S. availability has not been addressed in the available source material.
That leaves two open questions: whether this reunion leads to a third Jeon and Lee project, and how far the film’s streaming release will carry it beyond the festival circuit.