Prepare to be swept away by Past Lives, a poignant romantic drama marking an assured feature debut from up-and-coming writer-director Celine Song. Premiering to acclaim at Sundance, this graceful film has since captivated festival audiences globally. Centered around childhood sweethearts separated by circumstance, it examines the quiet yet profound power of an enduring connection across years and distance.
Unfolding mostly in New York and Seoul, Past Lives traces the relationship between headstrong Nora (Greta Lee) and soulful Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) over two decades. We first meet them as playmates in South Korea, before Nora’s family emigrates when the pair are 12 years old. Through a chance online encounter as young adults, Nora and Hae Sung rediscover their bond. But further roadblocks arise, and over a decade passes before these star-crossed lovers finally reconnect in person. Now in her 30s, Nora grapples with the passion of the past and the pull of the present, including her marriage to reserved novelist Arthur (John Magaro).
With insightful writing and direction, Song has crafted an intimate epic that feels at once specific and universal. Anchored by nuanced performances and stirring aesthetics, Past Lives speaks eloquently about the eternal what-ifs of life. Like an old melody that you can’t quite shake, this poignant film will linger with you long after the credits roll.
A Lifelong Bond Tested By Time and Distance
Past Lives opens with an intriguing scene in a New York bar, where two Korean individuals, Nora and Hae Sung, sit chatting while a reserved white man named Arthur looks on quietly. We’re left guessing how these three fit together, a mystery the film gradually pieces together through extended flashbacks.
We jump back over 20 years to when Nora and Hae Sung first meet as 12-year-olds in Seoul. Though from different backgrounds, the spirited Nora (then called Na Young) and introspective Hae Sung form a close childhood bond. But soon after a play date arranged by their mothers, Nora breaks the sad news that her family is moving to Canada. In a poignant parting scene, the young friends walk in opposite directions, their promise-filled future suddenly torn asunder.
Over a decade goes by before Nora, now living in New York and hoping to launch a playwriting career, decides on a whim to track down Hae Sung online. Thrilled by their virtual reconnection, the 20-somethings spend long hours chatting via Skype, rekindling their friendship. Yet eventually Nora calls for a halt, wishing to focus on her ambitions in New York. Their communication ceases once more.
When we next encounter Nora and Hae Sung, a full 12 years have passed since their video calls. Hae Sung finally travels to New York to visit Nora in person, excited but anxious to reunite with his long-ago companion. Nora, meanwhile, now finds herself wed to reserved novelist Arthur. Still, meeting Hae Sung stirs up complicated emotions tied to her Korean identity and girlhood dreams. Over the course of Hae Song’s brief stay, long-dormant feelings surge to the surface between the erstwhile friends. But can the innocence of the past translate to the reality of adult relationships?
Probing the Heart Across Boundaries
Anchored by affecting central performances, Past Lives explores various shades of human connection, from the innocence of childhood to the complications of mature relationships. Writer-director Celine Song examines cultural displacement and the quest to reconcile one’s roots with new realities. At its emotional core, the film contemplates ideas like destiny, longing, and the thin line separating platonic from romantic love.
Central to the story is the Korean notion of “in-yeon,” a force which fates certain souls to continually cross paths across lifetimes. Nora refers to this idea of predestined love while flirting early on with her husband Arthur. Yet the concept resonates deeper regarding her profound, if conflicted, bond with Hae Sung. Through uncanny timing, these childhood friends manage to rediscover one another despite years and distant continents separating them. One senses a deeper magnetism drawing Nora and Hae Sung together again.
Still, the film avoids simplistic soulmate precepts. Our connections with others often hinge as much on circumstance as cosmic design. Love blooms or withers subject to the nurturing care it receives. Like plants confined to a cramped pot, Nora and Hae Sung struggle to develop robust roots amidst realities of displacement, isolation, and demanding careers pulling them apart.
Nora’s eventual marriage to Arthur points to how new chapters in life inevitably reshape or obscure the narratives that preceded them. Her shifting accent and language skills symbolize a migration towards Western identity. Hae Sung represents Korean life Nora shed but still unconsciously yearns for. Between them lies a wistful space of what-ifs and roads not taken. Their brief, intense trysts through screens and on New York streets reflect an untenable attempt to recapture a youthful past instead of forging an adult future together.
Ultimately, through Nora’s voyage, Past Lives poignantly depicts the gains and losses inside every immigrant heart. Like smeared ink, aspects of oneself seep inevitably into the surrounding dominant culture. Nora’s final tearful smile marrying grief and hope epitomizes the bittersweet accommodation many who leave home must make with the tug of competing cultures and selves.
A Visual Feast for the Romantic Soul
From its opening shots overlooking a brooding Korean cityscape, Past Lives impresses with stylish and evocative imagery that complements the emotional journey at hand. Cinematographer Shabier Kirchner bathes scenes in a melancholy beauty as he glides between the urban expanses of Seoul and New York City. His camera lingers on characters’ faces as guarded expressions give way to naked vulnerability and yearning.
Seeking resonance across years, director Celine Song returns to motifs like the looming abstract sculptures that surrounded young Nora and Hae Sung during more carefree days. Now weathered by time, these hulking forms haunt the film’s reunion scenes with ghosts of easier innocence. Other visuals emphasize emotional distance: the friends appear framed apart on either side of the screen, their virtual faces pocked by digital distortion. Yet a ride on the Staten Island Ferry carries the magic of old Hollywood as Nora and Hae Sung lean into the wind, the city’s glittering skyline receding behind them.
Ethereal musical textures crafted by indie duo Grizzly Bear pervade many sequences, enveloping scenes with a luminous, bittersweet aura. Their hazy synths and featherlight guitars capture the ambiguity of unrealized love and roads left behind. Meanwhile, Greta Lee and Teo Yoo share an evocative chemistry as Nora and Hae Sung, conveying paragraphs of subtext through the subtleties of posture and touch. Their long, silent embrace upon reuniting after decades apart leaves one simultaneously elated and devastated.
Such artistic choices combine to cast an intoxicating, romantic spell, steeping Past Lives in poignancy and lush emotionality. Like faded photographs rediscovered in a dusty album, this film’s images stir pangs of recognition and deepening perspective.
A Triumph of Emotional Filmmaking
Like the entwined roots of trees confined to one pot, Past Lives entangles its central figures in bonds nourished and strained by time, distance, and external priorities. Director Celine Song orchestrates this romantic drama with a sensitivity as refreshing as it is rare. Without veering into melodrama, she crafts rounded characters who elicit our genuine empathy. We embrace their joys, mourn their sorrows, and share in their longing for connection.
Anchored by Greta Lee’s complex portrayal as Nora, the film blossoms with insight into themes of displacement, evolving identity, fateful love, and roads not taken. Past Lives lingers with you through soulful contemplation instead of showy devastation. Like a poignant letter from an old friend, it reopens your heart to forgotten stories of who you were and who you now yearn to be.
For any viewer who savors cinema as an emotional mirror rather than mere visual splash, this debut heralds an exciting new talent in Celine Song. Past Lives marks an authentic, humanistic work which trusts the poetry inside quiet truths rather than big manipulations. Let it wash over you like a whispered secret that always dwelled somewhere inside. This film offers a beauty attuned to the song of your own longing.
The Review
past lives
With emotional intelligence and visual poetry, Past Lives chronicles the resilience of love against the friction of years and miles. Director Celine Song has crafted an aching yet subtle drama that resonates long after the credits roll. Carried by the soulful performances of its leads, this film announces the arrival of a promising new cinematic voice.
PROS
- Strong lead performances by Greta Lee and Teo Yoo
- Evocative cinematography that complements the emotional tone
- Nuanced writing and direction by Celine Song
- Theme of fate/destiny is thought-provoking
- Film focuses more on mood and character over plot
- Has personal, intimate quality with a universal appeal
CONS
- Slow pacing may test some viewers' patience
- Lack of closure for main relationship may disappoint romantic expectations
- Secondary characters like Arthur less developed
- Light on plot details or intricate narrative
