Lee Chang-dong On His Eight-Yr Hiatus & Return With ‘Potential Love’

Lee Chang-dong has lastly returned to function filmmaking. 

The Korean filmmaker has been on an prolonged eight-year hiatus, which he blames on his “pathological timidity.” 

“Until I’ve that conviction, I can not make myself start the work, irrespective of the exterior circumstances or what others round me say,” he tells Deadline by way of Zoom from his workplace in Korea, forward of his journey to Venice, the place, this weekend, his newest movie Potential Love, a title stuffed with conviction but in addition comedy and sharp social critique, debuts in Competitors.

Director Lee helmed the movie from a screenplay he co-wrote with Oh Jung-mi. The pair beforehand labored collectively on Chang-dong’s final movie, the wonderful Burning (2018). The story follows two married {couples} whose lives turn into uniquely intertwined. There may be Mi-ok (Jeon Do-yeon), who lives a quiet life together with her husband, Ho-seok (Sul Kyung-gu), and their younger son Cheol. 

Ho-seok has been laid off from his job following an incident that has stunted his life and his potential to speak together with his household. We solely be taught what that incident was after the household meets Ye-ji (Cho Yeo-jeong), a documentary filmmaker engaged in a mission concerning the lives of laid-off employees, and her ultra-wealthy husband Sang-woo (Zo In-sung). When Mi-ok agrees to be filmed, she grows near Ye-ji, creating an uncomfortable friction that shakes each of their households.

Working simply wanting three hours, Potential Love is a masterful return by Chang-dong. Under, the filmmaker, joined by one among his main males, Sul Kyung-gu, discusses why it has taken him nearly a decade to make Potential Love. The filmmaker says he initially shelved the mission, fearing he wasn’t essentially the most appropriate messenger for a movie about labor rights. Chang-dong additionally explains why there’s a tribute to Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Dekalog on the finish of Potential Love, and why he believes so many modern Korean filmmakers have been so profitable at interrogating the connection or, because the Marxists would say, wrestle between labor and capital of their work.

Netflix will launch Potential Love in cinemas on October 23. The movie hits the streamer on November 6.

DEADLINE: Director Lee, the place did this concept come from?

LEE CHANG-DONG: Some years in the past in Korea, a Korean conglomerate went via mass layoffs. That was met with an all-or-nothing strike from the labor aspect. There was additionally a cruel crackdown by the authorities. On the time, I keep in mind pondering it could be a transformative occasion within the Korean labor market. I additionally knew it in all probability meant the start of a normalization of such restructuring of conglomerates that might drastically change the lives of those laborers. I wrote a screenplay, however on the final minute, I began to ask myself: Am I worthy of telling a narrative like this? I imply, do I’ve the proper? Documentaries had already been filmed concerning the topic. Might I actually justify turning this right into a dramatic movie? I couldn’t get a transparent reply to that query, so I shelved the mission. A number of time handed, after which my co-writer, Oh Jung-mi, got here up with the thought of telling this story alongside the story of a documentary filmmaker. That acquired me pondering I might do that mission. And that led me to revisit the mission. 

DEADLINE: I went in blind, so the documentary ingredient actually stunned me. What would you like folks to remove from that facet of this story?

CHANG-DONG: That is the story of all individuals who make movies, it doesn’t matter what form of movie it’s. It could possibly be a style movie or a dramatic movie. As filmmakers, we take care of and painting folks’s lives, and due to this fact, we’re sure to be strongly linked to social points. And as we take care of the ache of others, we should suppose: are we actually ensuring to deal with them as we might our personal, candidly and actually? Or are we simply consuming it to make our movies? This query is inseparable from the work for these of us who create movies. That’s why I needed to take that query and broaden it, not solely in relation to creators but in addition to audiences. I hope they’ll take into consideration their relationship with themselves and others.

DEADLINE: Sul, you’ve labored with Director Lee earlier than. When did you first hear about this mission?

SUL KYUNG-GU: I first heard about Potential Love final March. Director Lee and I met about two years in the past, on the finish of 2024, and he didn’t point out a brand new mission. In truth, after we’re collectively, we nonetheless typically meet with followers of our earlier movie, Peppermint Sweet. A couple of months after that assembly, he reached out to me and instructed me about Potential Love. On the time, I used to be perplexed as a result of I used to be already hooked up to a special mission, however I knew I needed to make this work. I spoke with the opposite director and begged him. Lastly, they made it work for me.

The precise story and which means of Potential Love wasn’t even necessary to me. What was necessary to me was working with director Lee Chang-dong once more. I didn’t even ask to see the screenplay. Director Lee really requested me, “Hey, you’re not even serious about studying the screenplay in any respect?” After I first learn it, it simply felt like a Lee Chang-dong script. It fairly actually smelled of him. It had his perfume. If you get one thing that Director Lee writes, it issues you within the sense that you just actually need to make it work and do it nicely. 

DEADLINE: Director Lee, folks have been anticipating your subsequent movie for a while now. It has been nearly a decade since Burning. Do you ever really feel anxiousness about that anticipation? 

CHANG-DONG: I keep in mind promising folks after Burning that my subsequent movie wouldn’t take as lengthy. However regretfully, I wasn’t in a position to maintain that promise. I did have many individuals attain out to me asking after I would make my subsequent movie. I feel that you can nearly say it’s an obsessive aspect of me, nearly a pathological timidity or whatnot. However until I’ve that conviction, I can not make myself start the work, irrespective of the exterior circumstances or what others round me say.

DEADLINE: The music on this movie is great. Jung Jaeil, who has beforehand labored with Director Bong and Kore-eda, labored on the rating. How did you two work collectively?

CHANG-DONG: I’ve by no means been a fan of utilizing quite a lot of music in my movies. That is simply one thing that I carry as a filmmaker. I really feel just like the music tends to emphasise feelings outdoors the movie, and I consider the musicality of the movies ought to lie inside the movie itself. And so I shared these ideas with Jung Jaeil. I instructed him that I would really like the music to be restricted to a minimal but nonetheless convey the movie’s construction and feelings to the viewers. He understood me fully, and I actually suppose that the outcomes he got here up with had been excellent.

DEADLINE: There’s a tribute to Kieślowski’s Dekalog on the finish of this film. This isn’t an adaptation from that movie collection. What’s the connection?

CHANG-DONG: After I was scripting this script, Kieślowski’s Dekalog was being tailored into a brand new mission, with totally different function movies being assigned to every of the collection. I used to be supplied the prospect to participate within the mission. This movie is unrelated to the Dekalog one, however I assumed I might combine the commandment they had been coping with in that movie into this story: the tenth commandment, “Thou shalt not covet”. All the opposite 9 commandments are about human motion. Nevertheless, the tenth commandment is all about human want, so I assumed that in right now’s capitalist world, we might actually take care of the query: can we really stay with out coveting others’ lives?

DEADLINE: You point out right now’s capitalist world. Are you able to each inform me: Why are so many Korean filmmakers in a position to so skilfully and powerfully take care of our relationship to labor and capital of their movies?

CHANG-DONG: That’s one thing I’m personally inquisitive about as nicely. However what I can say is that it goes to point out simply how speedy an financial change and growth the Korean society has skilled over the previous a long time. Only a few a long time in the past, Korea skilled an amazing struggle. We had been one of many poorest international locations on the earth, and inside a couple of a long time we achieved very speedy financial growth. Nevertheless, because of this, we needed to pay a grave social value, and I consider the aftermath of that change is deeply rooted in our society. Inside that course of, we additionally skilled a political change, which led to battle about academia and intellectuals. This has all been engraved within the Korean folks, and I consider it’s why we take care of these points in such a critical method. We stock all of it with us in our on a regular basis lives.

KYUNG-GU: I agree. It’s a results of the speedy change our society went via and the extreme battle that led to it. And I feel we’re going to have much more tales to come back going ahead as nicely.