# Lee Chang Dong ponders the ethics of the camera

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/lee-chang-dong-ponders-the-ethics-of-the-camera/
- Published: 2026-10-24T12:30:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-24T13:08:35+00:00
- Original publisher: The Verge
- Original article: https://www.theverge.com/entertainment/1017888/possible-love-lee-chang-dong-director-interview
- Topics: Asia, World

## Key points

- *Possible Love* examines the ethics of filming other people’s lives.
- The story is inspired by 2,600 job losses in 2009.
- Lee links his politics to his upbringing and 1980 protests.

## Summary

Lee Chang-dong says his film *Possible Love* explores the ethics of depicting other people’s lives and pain, alongside themes of class, labour and social change. Its story follows two couples whose desires and circumstances bring them into contact after a wave of job losses, asking how close a filmmaker should get to the people she documents.

The film draws on events in 2009, when a Korean conglomerate dismissed 2,600 employees; the article says many later died by suicide. Lee traces his political outlook to growing up in conservative Daegu and taking part in protests against the Chun Doo-hwan regime in May 1980. He also connects the film’s questions about a camera’s distance from its subjects to concerns Bong Joon Ho once raised about portraying another person’s pain.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.