[ⓓ Review] "Do We Listen to Someone's 'Heartbeat'?" (Heartbeat)

[Dispatch=Reporter Lee Myung-ju] Eight-year-old Chul-i (played by Kim Gun-woo) has only one thing on his mind: "Mom."

The reason he cannot concentrate in class, the reason he told his teacher he was going to the bathroom and then sneaked out of school—it's all because of "Mom." What if something happens to Mom while I'm away?

The short film "Heartbeat" (directed by Lee Chang-dong) captures Chul-i's journey from school to home in a one-take format.

Director Lee Chang-dong completed the film after receiving a proposal from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation to make a film about depression. After being screened at the 2022 Jeonju International Film Festival, it was released on Netflix on the 3rd.

The protagonist is first-grader Chul-i. A child whose mother (played by Jeon Do-yeon) suffers from depression and whose father (played by Sul Kyung-gu) is staging a sit-in on a tower crane after being wrongfully terminated from his job.

Chul-i appears anxious and precarious. Behind the child's worry lies his mother's depression. The child has sensed the crisis signals his mother is sending first.

The mother's pain is no longer hers alone. Chul-i stops his own day to check if his mother is safe. He climbs over the school fence, crosses the street, and even climbs through a neighbor's window.

Through Chul-i's running, the director makes viewers feel the passage of anxious time. The camera follows the child's movements. It does not cut scenes or compress time.

Following the child's gaze, Chul-i's sense of urgency gradually infects the audience. The uncertainty of not knowing his mother's condition until he arrives home. That helplessness creates tension.

Chul-i's gaze finally reaches burned paper presumed to be a suicide note. A neighbor's words that "Mom went up to the roof" go beyond anxiety to fear. As the heartbeat quickens, the audience too becomes Chul-i, holding their breath.

As the film progresses into its latter half, it expands into social discourse. The reality that an eight-year-old child must bear his mother's depression. No single adult listens to his desperate cry: "Please call 119."

The film poses questions to viewers: whether this bleak situation is only Chul-i's mother's or Chul-i's family's problem, whether family crisis must remain an individual burden, or whether society can intervene.

"Heartbeat" does not offer grand answers. Instead, it captures Chul-i's running. A child worried about his mother, placing an anxiety too large for a small body to bear within the frame.

Throughout its 28-minute runtime, the questions the film leaves behind are clear. Are we listening to someone's pain? Can we detect the signals that pain sends, someone's "heartbeat"?