Past Lives

Get some tissues handy for this deceptively simple, heart-rendingly earnest film which features a couple of magical performances from it's two leads and some cross-culturally sensitive daydreaming. Nora Moon (Seung Ah Moon as a child, and Greta Lee as an adult) and Hae Sung (Seung Min Yim as a child, and Teo Yoo as an adult) are two childhood best friends living a normal life in Seoul, South Korea as they cross over into becoming childhood sweethearts. It doesn't last long, as Nora's family leave Korea for a new life in Toronto, and as such the two lose touch. Fast forward 12 years, and both Nora and Hae Sung are both looking for each other when they reconnect online - something which develops into a long distance relationship which stirs strong feelings. This is problematic for the ambitious Nora, who can't afford to either wait a year and a half for Hae Sung to fly over to New York (where Nora has since moved to) or zip over to Seoul herself. They live their seperate lives, until one day Nora finds herself face to face with her long lost love. The only problem is, she's now happily married to Arthur (John Magaro) and as such can only contemplate what might have been, and if there's any truth to the old belief that these two people who would otherwise have travelled a different path once knew each other in past lives.

This is one movie where I can pretty much lay a story out and not feel like I'm stepping on the toes of those worried about spoilers - but if I'm wrong, then sorry about the wall-to-wall spoilers there. This isn't so much a "what happens next" narrative, but instead a long contemplation on fate, love, the sacrifices we make to forge our own path and the pain of looking back at what might have been. It's amazing how when I watch this movie I find myself looking at the situation from the viewpoint of all three major characters instead of picking a side. How great is that? Celine Song's film is so well balanced that every character feels fleshed out, so that I really feel Hae Sung's loneliness, Nora's assured dependability offset a little by the magnetic attraction she feels for Hae Sung, and Arthur's trust which still betrays a pang of jealousy and hurt. Teo Yoo managed to nab himself a BAFTA nomination for his part in the film, but this really is a nifty little 3-person ensemble effort where each part is integral to the whole. The awkward conversations Nora and Hae Sung have with each other every time they are apart for a dozen years feel really genuine (and were sometimes prompted by Celine Song having kept the actors apart, or else having had delays fed into the scenes where they talk to each other online.)

Visually, this is a wonderland of architecture, iron and stone - and many such features kind of dictate the flow of the cinematography (by Shabier Kirchner, whose career is still young.) I loved the stone sculpture scene near the beginning, and the use of the golden merry-go-round/carousel (Jane's Carousel in Brooklyn Bridge Park) in the background of one late scene is famous. It harkens back to Nora and Hae Sung's childhood past, but provides a brilliant visual contrast which wows the senses while the scene is playing out. In New York's ultra-urban world a trip on the subway can look magical if captured just right, and bookending the movie (to some degree) is the amber-hued bar scene, which is where we start the story completely estranged from our three future characters - a couple of strangers trying to guess what their story is. This is where the idea for the film initially came from, with director Celine Song meeting her childhood sweetheart with her husband, translating for them, and considering what kind of story this might make for a feature film. The film takes place mostly in the spaces where many people flow through, and rarely in a home - the fates always moving our characters on from where they are. They never get the chance to hang on to each other.

Christopher Bear and Daniel Rossen's score is certainly not melodramatic - and almost could be interpreted as light and easy, but there's a heaviness to the freaky tones and synthesised sound. Or am I just giving the music my own heavy interpretation because of how sad the underlying story Past Lives tells is? It's so unusual, but sounds as if it totally belongs in this movie. If used for anything else, all I could really imagine is a documentary about life in the ocean - it's the kind of music that would rarely fit any film other than Nora and Hae Sung's story, with a faint trace of the Korean, plonks on xylophones and a deep, idiosyncratic way about it. I could easily come to the conclusion that this is the music of Nora's life, and plays as her theme throughout the film. As unusual and determined as she is, and as powerful as an imagination she has, she's the brightly coloured fish the camera is tracking in this Jacques Cousteau panorama of Nora's environment. It makes this less a love story than a trip through the mind's eye concerning the very nature of time, conscious connections and modern life. I thought this score was very innovative and interesting - a definite plus to the movie.

In summing up, Past Lives made such a splash that it earned Celine Song an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay, and the film itself Best Picture - deservedly, since Past Lives was probably one of the best films released in 2023. I certainly deemed as much as the year came to it's end, having gone to see it during it's theatrical run and being especially pleased by it. I'll tell you one thing though. Whenever we look back at "what might have been", it's always something wonderful and everlastingly amazing. We rarely look back at the road not taken and consider that it may very well have been a disaster, despite how promising it looked. The road we take always looks promising. Briefly, Nora and Hae Sung do consider that maybe they might have fought all the time, and have divorced. Perhaps Nora might have felt unfulfilled, and wondered at where her ambitions might have taken her - another "what might have been" consideration. In the moment, Hae Sung looks devilishly handsome, and she knew the two really combined well - but Nora's heart took her somewhere that was more important than getting the handsome hunk and marrying the guy she was most magnetically drawn to. Instead, she lives the life she really wanted - and she knew from the outset the sacrifice needed. The price will occasionally see her dream, but as we see in the film, Arthur was plenty enough.

Just remember in Celine Song's world time travels from left to right (as I think most carousels turn), and that sometimes characters slip back into the past, and some walk on into the future. Me, I'm constantly looking towards the past. Sometimes thinking about what might have been. Sometimes just enjoying all of the happy memories I have made. At a certain stage of your life, the past looks more inviting than the future - but for now at least, the present holds. I think that's true for Nora, who expands the whole concept into a dream about past lives, and the number of times two people have crossed paths until they become lifelong partners and soulmates. Celine Song's movie, with it's central sorrowful (and quite brilliant) theme, it's visual flow through the busy places so many pass by, is one that will tug on your heartstrings regardless - because although sweet, it's still sad to see two people absolutely made for each other not quite make it and who instead must be content to dream. We round out the film with the song "Quiet Eyes" by Sharon Van Etten, which will only crumple those susceptible to the mood that has been created by this very excellent film - a love story with the saddest embrace I've seen for years.