Heartbeat, the director's first short, reaches Netflix worldwide on November 2. It arrives four days before Possible Love, and it shares that film's universe.
Lee Chang-dong has made features that sit with you for days, and now he has made a short that keeps the camera on one child’s face from start to finish. Heartbeat, the director’s first short film, goes live worldwide on Netflix on November 2.
The setup is simple, and so is the engine. Cheol, played by Kim Geon-u, knows his mother lives with depression. When she doesn’t pick up her phone, he gets anxious, then frightened, then he runs. Obstacles get in his way on the trip home. The film stays with him the whole time, so the audience runs alongside him, dreading what he might find. Netflix describes the aftermath as “a lingering sense of sorrow.”
A short with a serious cast
Jeon Do-yeon plays Cheol’s mother. Sul Kyung-gu lends his voice to the father. It is a lot of name recognition for a film built around a boy in motion, and it says something about how seriously the project was taken.
The film also has an unusual origin. It was produced at the suggestion of the World Health Organization and the Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation, with depression as the stated theme. Lee’s answer was to avoid explanation. He picked one child, one fear and one route, and he let the audience fill in the rest. Most people have felt that fear at some point: that something terrible has happened to someone they love, and that it falls to them to do something about it.
Heartbeat premiered at the 23rd Jeonju International Film Festival, where it drew significant attention. Streaming gives it a far bigger audience. Netflix is offering subtitles in several languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, French and German.
The prelude to Possible Love
The short takes place in the same universe as Possible Love, Lee’s latest feature, which Netflix calls internationally acclaimed. The two share thematic ground. Netflix describes both as carrying the director’s “signature sharp yet sensitive perspective on labor and depression.” Possible Love streams worldwide on November 6, so Heartbeat works as a four-day warm-up. Think of it as a small piece to see before the larger one.
Netflix has also prepared the ground with the back catalogue. Ahead of Possible Love, it put Lee’s earlier films on the service for global audiences: Green Fish, Peppermint Candy, Oasis, Secret Sunshine, Poetry and Burning. That is a serious run of work, and it is all in one place. Add Heartbeat and you have the whole arc, from the early features to the newest short.
That matters for two kinds of viewer. Longtime fans get a new piece of Lee to watch, which is rare enough on its own, since this is his first short. Newcomers who come to him through Possible Love can go back and see where his preoccupations began. Netflix says both groups will be able to explore “the breadth and depth” of his cinematic vision. For once, that line from a streamer is a fair description of what’s on offer.
How to watch it
The short format suits the idea. A feature can circle a subject for two hours. A short has to commit to one image, and here it is a child’s face under strain, held close while he runs. There’s no room to look away, and no time to build a comfortable distance from what he’s feeling.
If you’re planning a Lee Chang-dong weekend, the order is already set. Heartbeat comes first on November 2, Possible Love follows on November 6, and the earlier films are there to fill the gaps. Start with the short, since it’s the quickest way into the feature’s story. Then go back through the catalogue and see how Lee ended up there.
Via Netflix
