When Kim Ji-yong read the script for “Possible Love,” its emotional climax, set in a still forest by the beach, had no wind in it. Korean summer storms on location changed that. The cinematographer behind “Decision to Leave” and “Squid Game” Season 2 asked director Lee Chang-dong to change the scene’s setup, a choice that ended with crew members shaking the trees with ropes.
Delivering a masterclass titled “Cinematography of Possible Love: Quiet, Yet Deeper” at Netflix’s Creative Asia program during the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), Kim detailed how he and Lee built the film’s look around natural light, and how much preparation that choice required. It screens in BIFF’s Icons section ahead of its Netflix launch on Nov. 6. The drama follows two married couples from opposite ends of the economic ladder: Mi-ok (Jeon Do-yeon) and her laid-off husband Ho-seok (Sul Kyung-gu), and documentary filmmaker Ye-ji (Cho Yeo-jeong) and her husband Sang-woo (Zo In-sung).
For all the film’s naturalism, almost nothing in it was left to chance, not even the weather on the day of the climax. The team prepared for every windy day announced by Lee’s favorite weather YouTube channel. Instead, everyone on set except the five or six crew members needed to shoot went into the woods, tied ropes, hung onto them and shook the trees.
But our staff ghosts on set created this,” Kim said, calling it one of the most memorable moments of his more than 20 years in film. That tension between the natural and the constructed ran through the lighting too. In day scenes, film lights were only used where natural light fell short; at night, the team relied as much as possible on existing streetlights and lamps.
That meant designing around the locations. Lee found the site of rich husband Sang-woo’s vacation home on a real estate YouTube channel, and the team built the house during two months of pre-production, down to the direction and size of every window. With Ye-ji’s documentary at the heart of the story, separating her footage from Lee’s film was another question.
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