Lee Chang-dong's "Possible Love" Offers Subtle Class Critique Without "Eat the Rich" Clichés

Lee Chang-dong's film "Possible Love" centers on two contrasting couples and takes class inequality as its subject. According to a review in the Freitag by Barbara Schweizerhof, the Venice prize-winning director's approach avoids the tropes associated with the "Eat the Rich" genre. That label emerged over the past decade from outrage over the widening gap between the "one percent" and everyone else, and it describes films that in some form take aim at the wealthy. Bong Joon-ho's Oscar-winning Parasite (2019) placed a destitute family in various roles inside the home of the highly privileged, building toward a bloody, revenge-fueled showdown. In Triangle of Sadness, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2022, the Swede Ruben Östlund capsized a luxury cruise ship and stranded its survivors on a deserted island. The full review appears in the current issue of the Freitag.