Watch the trailer
Trailer: Heartbeat. Cast, where to watch and more on the title page.
Lee Chang-dong is not a prolific filmmaker. Before Possible Love, his body of work ran to six features, which is why each new film is treated as an occasion. So the arrival of something new from him, even something short, deserves attention. Heartbeat, his first short film, is now streaming on Netflix worldwide, and it works as a deliberate overture to his new feature, Possible Love, which lands on Friday 6 November.
What it is
The premise is simple and nerve-racking. Cheol, a boy played by Kim Geon-u, is worried about his mother’s depression. When she stops answering her phone, he runs for home, and every obstacle between him and the front door becomes a small crisis. The camera stays on his face from beginning to end, so the audience experiences the journey as he does, without cutting away for relief.
Jeon Do-yeon plays the mother, and Sul Kyung-gu is heard as Cheol’s father. Both actors also lead Possible Love, and the short is set in the same world, sharing that film’s concerns with work and depression. Watching one with the other in mind is the intended experience: the short shows a family under strain from the inside, while the feature widens the view to two marriages and the pressures around them.
The project began at the suggestion of the World Health Organization and the Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation, which explains its focus. Heartbeat was first shown at the 23rd Jeonju International Film Festival, and Netflix is now giving it a global audience, with subtitles in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, French and German.
Why it matters now
The timing is the point. Heartbeat arrived on Monday 2 November, four days ahead of Possible Love, which follows two married couples, one including a laid-off worker, whose lives tangle while making a documentary. Jeon plays Mi-ok, Sul plays Ho-seok and Cho Yeo-jeong plays Ye-ji.
Netflix has also gathered Lee’s earlier features for the occasion: Green Fish, Peppermint Candy, Oasis, Secret Sunshine, Poetry and Burning. That is very nearly a complete career in one place, a rare thing for a director whose films have often been hard to find on streaming outside Korea.
Where to start
For anyone new to Lee, Heartbeat is the sensible first step: short, focused, and built on the anxieties that drive the new feature. From there, The Remote would go to Burning, the clearest route into his patient, uneasy style, then back to Secret Sunshine, a study of grief that pairs naturally with the short’s fear of loss. Viewers with a free evening could watch the short and one feature this week, then arrive at the new film on Friday with real context.
For everything else arriving this month, see what is new on streaming in Canada this month and the matching US list.
Where to watch
- Heartbeat, Netflix, worldwide including Canada, the US, the UK, Australia and New Zealand, streaming from Monday 2 November
- Possible Love, Netflix, worldwide, from Friday 6 November
- Green Fish, Peppermint Candy, Oasis, Secret Sunshine, Poetry and Burning, Netflix, made available to fans worldwide; check the title page in your region
Sources
Titles in this story.
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