The 28-minute film starring Jeon Do-yeon and Sul Kyung-gu premiered at the 2022 Jeonju International Film Festival but was never released in theaters

A still from Heartbeat. <Netflix

Lee Chang-dong’s first short film, Heartbeat (2022), began streaming worldwide on Netflix on Nov. 2. The film premiered at the 23rd Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF) in 2022 and was never released in theaters. Jeon Do-yeon and Sul Kyung-gu star alongside child actor Kim Geon-u, who plays the lead. Netflix is offering subtitles in multiple languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, French and German.

Heartbeat follows Cheol (Kim), a boy whose mother is struggling with depression and whose father is staging a sit-in protest atop a tower crane. Cheol knows about his mother’s depression, so when she stops answering her phone, he is gripped by fear and runs home. The camera stays on his face from beginning to end. Jeon plays Cheol’s mother, and Sul voices his father.

The project began with a proposal from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation (BCAF). WHO and BCAF commissioned directors from around the world to make films on the theme of depression, and Lee made Heartbeat in response.

Heartbeat is closely tied to Lee’s latest feature, Possible Love. Lee had long wanted to tell a story about laid-off workers at SsangYong Motor, and that idea led to both films. In Possible Love, Sul plays Ho-seok, a dismissed worker, and Jeon plays his wife, Mi-ok. Oh Jung-mi, who co-wrote Heartbeat with Lee, also worked with him on Possible Love. Possible Love won the Grand Jury Prize (Silver Lion) at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival in September and was released on Netflix on Nov. 6.

Before Possible Love was released, Netflix was already streaming six of Lee’s features worldwide: Green Fish (1997), Peppermint Candy (2000), Oasis (2002), Secret Sunshine (2007), Poetry (2010) and Burning (2018). Four of them — Green Fish, Peppermint Candy, Oasis and Secret Sunshine — are available in 4K. With the addition of Heartbeat, Netflix now carries every film Lee has directed, from his debut to his latest. Netflix said the release would let longtime fans, as well as viewers who first discovered Lee through Possible Love, explore his body of work more fully.

Sources

• Yonhap News Agency, “Lee Chang-dong’s First Short ‘Heartbeat’ Released on Netflix, Starring Jeon Do-yeon and Sul Kyung-gu,” 2026.10.30

• Netflix, “Lee Chang-dong’s First Short ‘Heartbeat,’ the Story of a Child Running With a Pounding Heart Through Fear and Anxiety, to Premiere Worldwide on Netflix Nov. 2,” 2026.10.30

• Nocut News, “Through the Eyes of a Child With a Depressed Mother and a Protesting Father: Lee Chang-dong’s First Short ‘Heartbeat,’” 2026.11.02