‘Possible Love’ special local screening… Jeon Do-yeon "For Mi-ok, the only love possible is family and home."
(Los Angeles = Yonhap News) Correspondent Kim Kyung-yoon = In the Netflix movie 'Possible Love', Hoseok (played by Sol Kyung-gu) barely speaks until the middle of the movie.
Even at the funeral of a co-worker who was fired like himself, and during a psychotherapy session where each person confessed their pain, he held back tears and tried to open his mouth, but kept his mouth shut. Like a person oppressed by something.
Director Lee Chang-dong said in a conversation after a special screening of 'Possible Love' at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles (LA), California on the 30th of last month (local time), "I think Korean men are more accustomed to oppression than American men. And I think women are much more accustomed to oppression than men."
Director Lee said, “Korean masculinity tries to sacrifice itself and do something for the family, but this can be said to be another form of oppression due to familism,” and added, “The way in which anger that arises when betrayed and frustrated is kept inside and cannot be vented is also a form of Korea’s oppressed masculinity.”
For local LA audiences, Hoseok's personality, which suppresses his emotions to a frustrating degree, was explained in conjunction with cultural background.
Sol Kyeong-gu also commented, "Hoseok seems to be a universal Korean man. My father and his peers were like Hoseok, and I am also like Hoseok."
In the play, Hoseok is a laid-off worker who worked as a full-time production worker at a large company but was restructured after the company was taken over by a private equity fund. In the process of resisting this, he is beaten by the police, betrayed by his colleagues, and suffers deep wounds.
Sol Kyung-gu said, "It is said that when the wound in the heart is too deep, words cannot handle the heart, so one becomes silent," and added, "In the end, the body becomes its own language. He hesitates without confidence with the smallest gestures of his hands and feet. Hoseok is a character who violently pours out through his body what cannot be distinguished whether it is despair, sadness, or anger."
Mi-ok, the bright and smiling wife by Hoseok's side, was played by Jeon Do-yeon.
Jeon Do-yeon explained, "Hoseok and her son Cheol-i have some problems and are not normal, but Mi-ok believes this to be normal and is a strong-willed woman who wants to protect her family to the end. Although her desire for freedom is revealed, she is a person with a strong will to protect her family when she thinks it may fall apart."
While interpretations of the title 'Possible Love' are controversial, Jeon Do-yeon also confessed, "(This movie) is like a journey to find that the possible love for Mi-ok is this family and home."
The long running time of 2 hours and 40 minutes was filled with more silent stares than rapid-fire dialogue.
In particular, documentary director Ye-ji (Cho Yeo-jeong), who hovers around Hoseok and Mi-ok and films them, constantly observes the couple.
Director Lee Chang-dong said, “In the movie, we see the foresight captured by a camera, the child’s gaze looking at it, and the gaze of CCTV that transcends everything,” adding, “Furthermore, I hoped that the audience watching it would feel their own gaze.”
He also pointed out, “Rather than dealing with the pain of laid-off workers in and of itself, by talking about it through the perspective of a documentary director, a structure has emerged that allows me to talk about my own attitude,” adding, “It is the story of a laid-off worker, but it is a problem that an artist who wants to deal with it must have a certain attitude.”
The LA audience who attended the special screening on this day clapped their hands after each director Lee's explanation, expressing sympathy with the message he was trying to convey.
'Possible Love' has already won the Grand Jury Prize at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival. As it was selected as an entry in the international feature film category at the Academy Awards, attention is being paid to whether it will also win an Oscar.
