Evoking the tender stories of love, loneliness, and alienation seen in the films of Wong Kar Wai, along with the soulful and piercing relationship drama of Richard Linklater’s decade spanning Before Trilogy, ‘Past Lives’ is a breath-taking debut from playwright turned filmmaker Celine Song.
Charting the relationship of two childhood sweethearts over a 24-year period, ‘Past Lives’ is a film about longing and connection, and the intangible forces in life that bind and separate us. Throughout the film, characters refer to inyeon, the Buddhist belief of the spiritual connections between two people over the course of their past lives, which impact their current lives.
We first meet Hae Sung and Na Young as school kids in Seoul. They walk home together each day, and tease each other about test results. Na Young has a crush on Hae Sung, but before anything can happen between them her family emigrates to Canada, and she changes her name to Nora.
Twelve years later, Nora (Greta Lee) is living in New York, where she aspires to be a playwright, and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) is still in Korea. He is studying engineering and has just finished his military service. Whilst on a call with her mum, Nora is stalking old friends on Facebook (something we all did back in those more innocent days of social media) and discovers that Hae Sung has been looking for her, but didn’t know she had changed her name.
They reconnect over Skype, talking for hours and hours at all times of the day and night, and it soon becomes clear that Hae Sung never stopped thinking about Nora. But when neither of them are willing to uproot the lives they are in the process of building, the communication stops and they lose touch again. Another 12-years pass until Hae Sung visits Nora in New York.
This is an astounding piece of work from Song. I cannot quite believe it is her first time behind the camera. Her command of story and character is so impressive, with each scene so elegantly composed. 24-years are condensed into 105-minutes, and every frame of it feels utterly authentic and lived in. Factor in the gorgeous and distinctive cinematography for each city by Shabier Kirchner, and you have a visual and narrative masterpiece.
I was genuinely blown away by this film. There’s such specificity to it, yet it feels utterly universal at the same time. A sweeping, continent (and decade) spanning romance, yet it is intimate, and completely contained within the experiences of these characters. Bittersweet and affectionate, ‘Past Lives’ will speak profoundly to anyone who has moved to another country, who will understand that you leave something behind, but you gain something too.
Greta Lee and Teo Yoo bring the material to life with their exceptional performances. Whether delivering dialogue or even how they just look at each other, they are so natural and so convincing as lifelong friends. Every wordless exchange, the body language, the almost imperceptible change of expression, it all conveys a lifetime of backstory and missed opportunity. A word also for the brilliant John Magaro, for his intelligent and sensitive portrayal as the other man in Nora’s life. The conversation between the three of them at a hotel bar is sublime. Easily one of the best films of the year.
