Lee Chang-dong has spent decades making films about ordinary people under impossible pressure, and his shortest work may be his most accessible entry point. Heartbeat, a 28-minute film and the director’s first short, is streaming worldwide on Netflix, arriving years after it premiered on the festival circuit.
The short shares a universe with Possible Love, Lee’s Venice-winning feature that reaches the platform days later. Together, the two titles turn Netflix into something close to a complete Lee Chang-dong library, a development that matters both to longtime admirers and to viewers who have never watched a Korean auteur film before.
What Heartbeat Is and Where It Came From
Heartbeat is a South Korean production from 2022 with a 28-minute running time, according to the Korean Film Council. It is the first short Lee has directed after a career built on features including Burning, Poetry, and Secret Sunshine.
The film began with an unusual invitation. The World Health Organization and the Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation asked directors around the world to make short films about depression, and Lee responded with a story that never explains the condition out loud.
Lee Joon-dong is credited as executive producer, and Lee shares screenwriting credit with Oh Jung-mi. Heartbeat premiered at the 23rd Jeonju International Film Festival in 2022, inside a programme titled Lee Chang-dong: The Truth of the Invisible, and it later screened at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. It never received a regular theatrical release, which is exactly why the Netflix arrival carries weight.
A Boy Running Home, Told in Close-Up
The story centers on Cheol, an eight-year-old boy played by Kim Geon-u. His mother lives with depression and his father is staging a sit-in atop a tower crane. When his mother stops answering her phone, Cheol leaves his classroom and runs home, and the camera stays with him the entire way.
Jeon Do-yeon plays the mother, and Sul Kyung-gu provides the father’s voice. Both actors also lead Possible Love, and Oh Jung-mi worked across both projects. The continuity is not a coincidence, since Lee developed the short while a much larger story was taking shape.
Restraint is the engine here. Instead of spelling out the family’s situation, the film holds on a child’s fear and lets the audience fill the gaps. Netflix describes the aftermath as “a lingering sense of sorrow,” a phrase that fits a short built to stay with viewers after the credits.
The Possible Love Connection, Explained
Possible Love arrives on Netflix on Nov. 6, four days behind Heartbeat. The feature won the Grand Jury Prize, the Silver Lion, at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, and it grew from the same concerns that shaped the short.
Lee had carried the idea for years. He was struck by a large-scale corporate restructuring and the worker protests that followed in South Korea, an event often compared to the 2009 SsangYong Motor layoffs, though he has said he did not want the film reduced to one company’s case. He wrote the script with Sul Kyung-gu and Jeon Do-yeon in mind, then set it aside over doubts about whether fiction could honor real pain without consuming it.
Co-writer Oh Jung-mi revived the project by adding a documentary director and her husband to the story of a laid-off worker and his wife. When investment and distribution support fell through, Netflix became the film’s partner, and its Korean theatrical run was limited to a short window before streaming. Netflix describes both titles as carrying Lee’s “signature sharp yet sensitive perspective on labor and depression,” which is a fair summary of what ties them together.
Why a 28-Minute Short Is the Smartest Entry Point
For US viewers who know Lee’s name from Burning but have never pressed play, Heartbeat removes the usual barrier. There is no long runtime and no required background. Netflix offers subtitles in several languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, French, and German.
The format is also a creative decision, not a compromise. A feature can circle a subject for hours, while a short must commit to a single image, and here that image is a child’s face under strain. The result plays closer to an emotional sprint than a slow burn, offering a clean contrast for anyone mapping the director’s range.
Building a Lee Chang-dong Watch List on Netflix
Netflix has gathered Lee’s earlier features for global audiences, giving newcomers a path backward through his career:
- Green Fish, his 1997 debut
- Peppermint Candy
- Oasis
- Secret Sunshine
- Poetry
- Burning
A simple order works for most viewers. Start with Heartbeat, move to Possible Love when it lands, then work backward through Poetry and Burning before circling to the earlier titles. That sequence shows how the same concerns about labor, family, and pressure keep resurfacing across decades of his work.
One practical note: Netflix has not announced a specific release time for either film, and the platform lists a precise time on a title’s detail page only when one has been set. The safest move is opening the film in your account to confirm availability, subtitle options, and language tracks for your region.