Netflix is using Lee Chang-dong’s back catalog to create a global runway for Possible Love, the Korean filmmaker’s new drama and one of the streamer’s main awards-season bets. The company said Monday it is widening availability of all six of Lee’s previous features across international markets.
A six-film catalog push
The titles span Lee’s entire feature career: Green Fish (1997), Peppermint Candy (1999), Oasis (2002), Secret Sunshine (2007), Poetry (2010) and Burning (2018). Availability and timing differ by country.
- Late August: Green Fish and Secret Sunshine began streaming in Italy, the U.K., France, Australia and New Zealand.
- Sept. 4: Peppermint Candy and Oasis launched in Italy and Spain.
- Coming later: Poetry and Burning are set to arrive in markets including the U.S., Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
Netflix says subtitles will be available in up to six languages depending on the territory.
The awards logic behind the library play
Lee’s earlier work carries significant festival weight. Oasis won the Silver Lion for best director at Venice in 2002, Secret Sunshine earned Jeon Do-yeon the Cannes best actress prize in 2007, and Poetry took Cannes’ best screenplay award in 2010. Burning competed for the Palme d’Or in 2018 and landed on major critics’ lists.
That history gives Possible Love a context-rich catalog to lean on. The new film won Venice’s Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize over the weekend—the first time a South Korean film has taken that honor, and the first prize for a Korean feature at Venice since Kim Ki-duk’s Pieta won the Golden Lion in 2012. South Korea has also selected Possible Love as its submission for the best international feature Oscar.
For streaming platforms, an awards contender is not just a single title. It is a demand trigger. By placing Lee’s older films alongside the new release, Netflix can capture search traffic from festival coverage, build audience familiarity, and lower the friction for viewers hearing about Lee for the first time. It also strengthens the platform’s Korean film proposition during a moment when Korean titles are a key part of global content strategies.
What the release plan signals
The film reunites Lee with Jeon and Sul Kyung-gu, who starred in Peppermint Candy and Oasis; Zo In-sung and Parasite co-star Cho Yeo-jeong round out the cast. The story follows two couples from opposite ends of Korea’s class divide whose lives become entangled after a documentary project brings them together.
For media planners and film marketers, the sequencing matters. Theatrical openings begin in South Korea on Sept. 23, then Australia and New Zealand on Oct. 22, followed by the U.K., Japan, the U.S. and Canada on Oct. 23. The global Netflix launch follows on Nov. 6. That gives the catalog push enough time to stimulate search interest and awards conversation before the streaming premiere.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
