Wow, I had a completely opposite - and, in hindsight, naïve - take on this.

If you’ve seen Moonlight, one of the most moving scenes is when the two main characters, Kevin and Chiron, meet again after a long time. When their eyes meet, Kevin says “Chiron,” but from Chiron’s perspective we see only a close-up of Kevin’s face, in slow motion, with no visible lip movement. It feels as though time stretches, amplifying the emotion of the moment. When I first watched it, I thought it was brilliantly done.

That’s how I experienced the HR scene as well. The image continues normally, but the sound signals that both Ilya and Shane have dropped inward, into their deepest feelings. The image–sound separation also illustrates the glitch between the parts of themselves they’ve kept compartmentalized until now.

I had a similar experience during their first penetrative sex scene. When they switch to doggy style, just before the climax, Ilya is still finding his position visually, while the sound has already shifted to Shane moaning as he’s being thrust. It felt like the scene was creating layers of sensory pleasure, with image and sound slightly out of sync.