Dir: Celine Song
Cast: Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, John Magaro
This beautiful debut feature film by writer-director Celine Song is not just a simple love story, but a poignant tale of what-ifs, that will leave you feeling breathless.
I had heard nothing but great things surrounding this directorial debut by Korean-Canadian filmmaker Celine Song. The film premiered at Sundance back in January to rapturous reviews, and was immediately placed as an early frontrunner for the upcoming Academy Awards in 2024. There is nothing more disheartening than a film not living up to the hype that surrounds it, and for the past eight months as the buzz surrounding the film has increased, I have become increasingly anxious that I am being set up only to be disappointed. I can quite solidly say I needn’t have worried.
From the film’s opening frame, where we see our three central characters sat in a New York cocktail bar, whilst onlookers debate the relationship of the trio, I was hooked. This opening conundrum is where the film ultimately found its origins. Song came up with the idea for the film when she found herself in a New York cocktail bar, sat between an old flame from Korea and her husband, and fellow screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes. Song quickly realised she was not just translating between the two languages and cultures but also between two very different parts of her life as well. Wanting to trade the stage for the big screen, Song turned to screenwriting as she weaves this central theme of a physical “past life” with that of “in-yun”, a Korean concept meaning providence or fate. One of the key moments in the film is when Nora, whose life mirrors that of Celine Song, explains the concept to her future husband Arthur when they initially meet. “It’s and in-yun even if two strangers even walk by each other in the street and their clothes accidentally brush because it means there must have been something between them in their past lives”.
‘Past Lives‘ heavily centres around fate, the potentially endless possibilities that the strangers we walk past in the street could be, or could have been a partner or a lover in another life. It is the constant reminders of these infinite outcomes where we may discover a wrong path taken a long time ago, leading to the ultimate heartbreak years later.
After the aforementioned opening scene at a cocktail joint in New York’s East Village, we are taken back twenty-four years, to what is the first of three time periods the film explores, each separated by twelve years. This is where we are first formally introduced to classmates Na Young and Hae Sung. Every day the pair walk home from their school in Seoul together, the topic of conversation usually centring around who had got better grades that day. Na Young has a crush on Hae Sung, which she confesses to her mother, who swiftly arranges a date for the childhood sweethearts. Just as a special bond begins to blossom between the pair, any chance of a romance is taken away from them as Na Young’s family leaves to start a new life in Canada.
Twelve years later, Na Young (Greta Lee) is now living in New York as an aspiring playwright and goes by the English name Nora. Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) has completed his compulsory military service and is now studying to be an engineer. Whilst looking through old friends on Facebook with her mother, Nora discovers that Hae Sung attempted to reach out to her, but did not know she had changed her name. With the now 24-year olds living in a world where the internet is easily accessible, they are able to reconnect briefly over Skype, until an overwhelmed Nora abruptly cuts ties in order to focus on her new life away from Seoul.
It is not for another twelve years until the two childhood friends are reunited, as a now 36-year old Hae Sung visits New York. Nora is now happily married to fellow writer Arthur (John Magaro), whom she had met at an artistic retreat twelve years earlier and married young in order to get her green card. Fully aware of each others current lives and situations, the two arrange to meet up for a couple of fateful days in New York, to take in the sights and finally reconnect after over two decades.
What Celine Song manages to achieve here is nothing short of extraordinary, a masterclass in storytelling. For a debut feature film, she manages to show an incredible amount of restraint and maturity, that of a filmmaker way beyond her years. You can clearly see that this semi-autobiographical tale is deeply meaningful to her as she refuses to stray into typical romantic conventions. The film is slow, methodical and almost dreamlike as we see Nora and Hae Sung explore the hustle and bustle of New York together, in scenes that will draw comparisons to Richard Linklater’s Before Trilogy. A series which also takes place over three distinct time periods. Much like Linklater’s much beloved trilogy, Song refuses for the big, loud romantic gestures usually seen in romantic dramas. Instead much of the film’s power and emotional weight comes from things that remain unsaid and looks exchanged.
Greta Lee and Teo Yoo are fully immersed into their relationship without having to be overly expressive or showy. The subtlety in their performances is what makes them feel real and grounded and the little wry smiles and awkward glances exchanged between the two of them perfectly reflects the natural chemistry the two characters have, romantic or otherwise. John Magaro is also excellent as Nora’s loving husband, Arthur. A character that could easily have been written as a road-block in preventing a life long romance, instead shows great loyalty to his wife in encouraging her decision to reconnect with Hae Sung. Magaro manages to convey Arthur’s sense of desperation as he worries about his wife’s long lasting feelings for another man, without wanting to be the one to stand in her way. The climactic scenes between the trio deliver a heart-in-mouth tension that builds up to a gut-punching finale, perfectly matched by Christopher Bear and Daniel Rossen’s melancholic score.
Even though it is marketed as a romantic drama, ‘Past Lives’ ventures beyond romantic longing as Song expresses her personal feelings about the immigrants experience. Just like Nora in the film, Celine Song left Korea when she was 12-years old as her family immigrated to Canada. In one of the film’s earlier scenes, when Nora’s mother is asked why the family is emigrated she replies: “If you leave something behind, you gain something, too”. This sentiment echoes throughout Nora’s life, from the minute she changes her name. This is what leads to her severing connections with Hae Sung in their twenties as the life she now lives is a departure from the one she lived as a child. She even confesses that she rarely speaks Korean anymore and only Hae Sung calls her by her Korean name – a constant reminder of the life she left behind.
‘Past Lives‘ is an absolute triumph, and one of the best directorial debuts of recent times. A powerfully real and thought provoking love story, that will have you fighting to hold back to the tears as the end credits roll.
Past Lives will be showing in UK Cinemas from Friday 8th September
Dan Loves Film 