Seven Films, No Misses: The Movies of Lee Chang-dong

Part 3 of 3 in Lee Chang-dong and Possible Love

Featured photo: Lee Chang-dong at the Possible Love screening, BFI London Film Festival, October 2026. Photo: Marlene Landu via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

In 29 years, Lee Chang-dong has made only seven feature films, and every one of them won a major prize at a world festival or at Korea’s top film awards. Three won at Cannes. The seventh, Possible Love, arrives on Netflix worldwide today. As a fan who has loved all seven, I’ve waited a very long time for today.

Previously: Lee Chang-dong the novelist and minister, and Green Fish, Peppermint Candy and Oasis

Secret Sunshine: Cannes calls Jeon Do-yeon’s name

Secret Sunshine (2007) follows Shin-ae (Jeon Do-yeon), a widow who moves with her young son to Miryang, her late husband’s hometown. After her son is kidnapped and killed, she finds comfort in a church and goes to the prison to forgive the killer. But he greets her calmly, saying God has already forgiven him. For 142 minutes, Jeon plays a woman robbed even of the right to forgive.

That year, Cannes gave Jeon Do-yeon Best Actress. It was the first acting prize ever won by a Korean at Cannes.[1] Song Kang-ho co-stars as Jong-chan, the garage owner who keeps hovering around Shin-ae.

Also read: Choi Bul-am Never Knew What a Father Was. Korea Called Him Its Father Anyway

Poetry: a screen legend returns after sixteen years

The heroine of Poetry (2010), Mi-ja, is a 66-year-old grandmother. Raising her grandson and taking a poetry class at the local culture center, she learns he is tangled up in a schoolgirl’s death, and she is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. It is the story of a woman losing her words while trying, for the first time, to write a single poem.

Mi-ja was played by Yoon Jeong-hee, one of the defining Korean film actresses of the 1960s and ’70s, in her first film in sixteen years. The character’s name came from her real name, Son Mi-ja.[2] Poetry won Best Screenplay at Cannes, which hardly feels like a coincidence for a director who started out as a novelist.[1] Yoon died in 2023, and Poetry remains her last film.

Burning: the highest score in Cannes history

Burning (2018) starts from Haruki Murakami’s short story “Barn Burning.” Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in), an aspiring writer, runs into Hae-mi (Jun Jong-seo), a girl from his old neighborhood. Hae-mi comes back from a trip to Africa with Ben (Steven Yeun), a rich young man who tells Jong-su that every so often he burns down a greenhouse. Then Hae-mi disappears. The anger of a young man without work and the unreadable smile of a rich one collide in the final scene.

On Screen International’s Cannes critics’ grid, Burning earned the highest score in the grid’s history.[1] It won the FIPRESCI Prize, and that December it became the first Korean film to make the final nine-film shortlist for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, a little over a year before Parasite won Best Picture. The Los Angeles Film Critics Association named it the year’s best foreign-language film, tied with Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Shoplifters.[3] Steven Yeun, then best known for The Walking Dead, won LAFCA’s Best Supporting Actor for it, a path that led to Minari and Netflix’s BEEF.[3]

Eight years later: Possible Love

In the eight years after Burning, Lee released only one short film, Heartbeat (2022).[1] In that time, Netflix picked up the new feature Korean investors had passed on, and it won the Grand Jury Prize at Venice (see Part 1). Jeon Do-yeon became his lead again after 19 years, and Sul Kyung-gu after 27.

Put the seven films side by side and Lee’s protagonists always stand in the same place: a laid-off worker, a disabled woman, a mother who lost her son, a grandmother losing her words, a young man without work. These are the places Korean society tends not to look when it talks about success. And in Possible Love, by making a documentary filmmaker with a camera one of the leads, Lee for the first time asks head-on who gets to film those places.

Lee Chang-dong’s seven features: where to watch

Film	Major awards	US (JustWatch US)	South Korea
Green Fish (1997)	Blue Dragon Best Film; Vancouver Dragons and Tigers Award	Netflix, Film Movement Plus, Kanopy	Netflix, TVING
Peppermint Candy (1999)	Busan opening film; Grand Bell Best Film	Netflix, Film Movement Plus, Kanopy, Metrograph	Netflix, TVING, Wavve
Oasis (2002)	Venice Best Director	Netflix, Film Movement Plus, Kanopy, Metrograph	Netflix, TVING, Wavve
Secret Sunshine (2007)	Cannes Best Actress (Jeon Do-yeon)	AMC+, Sundance Now, Kanopy	Netflix, TVING, Watcha
Poetry (2010)	Cannes Best Screenplay	Netflix, Criterion Channel, Film Movement Plus	Netflix, TVING, Watcha, Wavve
Burning (2018)	Cannes FIPRESCI; Oscar shortlist	MUBI, Kanopy, Tubi and Pluto TV (free with ads)	Netflix, TVING, Wavve
Possible Love (2026)	Venice Grand Jury Prize	Netflix Watch on Netflix	Netflix

In the US, Green Fish, Peppermint Candy, Oasis and Poetry are already on Netflix, and Netflix has said Burning is coming to Netflix in the US, Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.[4] (Checked 2026-10-26; rechecked 2026-11-05)

Of the seven films, three starred Sul Kyung-gu and two starred Jeon Do-yeon. Both times Lee called on Jeon Do-yeon, she came back with a Best Actress award.

---

Sources (checked 2026-10-26) [1] Wikipedia, Lee Chang-dong — Cannes Best Actress (2007), Best Screenplay (2010), FIPRESCI (2018); Screen International Cannes jury grid record; 91st Academy Awards foreign-language shortlist; LAFCA; short film Heartbeat (2022) [2] Seoul Shinmun (2010-04-20), “Yoon Jeong-hee returns after 16 years with Poetry” https://m.seoul.co.kr/news/2010/04/20/20100420600003; Dailian (real name Son Mi-ja) [3] AwardsWatch (2018-12-09), LAFCA winners https://awardswatch.com/?p=42781; Korea.net Photos: Wikimedia Commons (author and license in each caption) [4] Netflix press release (2026-09-14); JustWatch US and KR (2026-10-26, rechecked 2026-11-05)