*Sul Kyung-gu’s latest performance in Possible Love is a study in what happens when pain becomes too heavy for words.
The actor explored a man shaped by familial responsibility, professional devastation and the lasting wounds of a labor strike. For Sul, the challenge was not simply to portray Ho-seok’s suffering, but to make it visible in the smallest details—from the movement of his hands to the physical expression of a rage he can no longer contain.
In our conversation, Sul reflects on finding the humanity beneath the anger and the unspoken emotions that ultimately define his character.
Q: You and Director Lee Chang-dong spent a lot of time discussing Ho-seok as more than simply a laid-off worker. He is someone also carrying personal responsibility and awareness of how others perceive him. How did those conversations change or deepen your understanding of him?
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Sul Kyung-gu: [Jokingly, asking Lee Chang-dong] What did you tell me?
Even before he was laid off, he was someone who had a very strong sense of responsibility for his family. To the point where he paid off all of his sisters debts…that’s how much he felt responsible for his family members. And then after the layoff, he goes through a lot of trauma, and ends up with a very heavy wound both physically and mentally, throughout the process of being laid off and also being suppressed during the strike. I thought this character was someone whose emotions at the end silenced him because he couldn’t contain it in his heart.
He is someone who, as a result of all of these events and trauma…his language has changed to being non-verbal. I tried to really focus on the way he moved. Even the smallest details – the way he uses his hands, you can see that he has lost his sense of security or confidence. There is a mix of very intense emotions of despair and sadness, and above all, anger that I thought would be expressed inadvertently at times violently through his body. ‘
Possible Love is in select theaters and will be available on Netflix worldwide November 6.
Review: Sul Kyung-gu anchors Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Love with a performance that resists easy categorization, capturing the unraveling of a man confronting a world that no longer recognizes his worth. Rather than relying on grand dramatic gestures, the acclaimed actor builds Ho-seok through nuanced physical choices that expose the tension between his devotion to family and the bitterness of a life thrown off course. The result is an unflinching character study that examines the personal consequences of institutional failure while preserving the complexity of a man caught between his former self and the person circumstance has forced him to become.
Synopsis: Possible Love follows the intertwined relationship of two married couples facing different paths and hidden desires. Mi-ok (Jeon Do-yeon) lives quietly with her laid-off husband Ho-seok (Sul Kyung-gu) and their young son Cheol until a funeral brings them into the orbit of Ye-ji (Cho Yeo-jeong), a documentary filmmaker chronicling laid-off workers, and her husband Sang-woo (Zo In-sung) — a couple whose affluent lifestyle stands in sharp contrast to their own. When Mi-ok agrees to be filmed, she grows close to Ye-ji, and finds herself uneasily drawn to the unreadable Sang-woo. As their worlds collide, fractures begin to appear in their daily existence. Marking his first release in eight years, highly acclaimed director Lee Chang-dong (Burning, Poetry, Secret Sunshine) brings his signature nuance to Possible Love, capturing shifting emotions, conflicts, and contrasting outlooks that shape these relationships.
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