7 Beats Per Minute (2024)

7 Beats Per Minute

Swimming into the deep ocean is already a fear for many, but going straight down without an air tank is even scarier. Yet athletes like Jessea Lu still push the boundaries of the sport. In 7 Beats Per Minute, documentarian Yuqi Kang follows Lu as she gets ready to attempt another dive. But after an accident, Kang wonders if she’s helping or hurting her subject. The question of whether documentarians push their subjects to dangerous extremes has rarely been shown this way before and it’s what makes 7 Beats Per Minute both a feat of physical will and a moral quandary of the medium.

In 7 Beats Per Minute, we meet Lu in a window after a near-death experience: During her world record attempt at deepest dive, she blacked out on her ascent and had to be pulled from the water; she nearly died on the platform. She lives, and decides to try breaking it again. As Kang follows her around, they get very close.

What struck me most about 7 Beats Per Minute is its interest in that line between observer and enabler. As Lu and Kang grow closer, there are valid questions about whether Lu keeps going only because of the movie; whether Kang’s narration grew too attached to stay an unbiased observer; those questions can weigh down a film but make one captivating when they work here.

But lines between subject and filmmaker have never been blurrier than now, so that self-reflection by Kang feels like a breath of fresh air. And yet at the same time it doesn’t go far enough there’s tension between them (the camera crew catches them fighting outside their house), but it doesn’t seem to ever make Kang stop working on it; it seems more surface-level than something deeper or craftier that would’ve elevated this into being better art.

The editing sustains its crispness throughout there’s lots of new footage here, but some archival splicing too that provides some genuinely dramatic stakes; the footage from Lu’s failed dive and its aftermath are hard to shake. It’s a powerful moment, and it’s given just enough space within the story.

And the underwater photography is stunning: As we watch Lu dive, these images are terrifying I have a fear of deep water and so for me, this silence is enveloping; it’s a sensory experience that I’ve never had before, but then at the same time they’re just truly astounding visuals; particles drifting past the camera serenely as we track her speed.

7 Beats Per Minute is an exhibit of skill. Certainly, there are a number of things that bother King, but the depth of her film in terms of probing into the subject matter is not sufficient. Nevertheless, it can be said that Kang has a bright prospect as far as directing is concerned because his work 7 Beats contains thought-provoking concepts. This movie is almost becoming a turning point for her career so she becomes one among those directors whom we must watch out for.

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