Late last year I had the opportunity to watch the Celine Song directorial debut, Past Lives (2023). It stuck with me and has been living in my head rent free over the last week. If you haven’t seen the movie, please don’t go further as I do enter spoiler territory.
Past Lives tells the story of two people, Na Young and Hae Sung, over three periods of their lives. We are introduced to them as 12-year-olds in Seoul. There’s a clear connection between the two but Na Young moves suddenly ot Toronto with her family and changes her name to Nora. The story jumps 12 years as they reconnect over Facebook and Skype. Unfortunately, they are in different places in their lives and a romance is not going to be possible. Finally, the story jumps another 12 years.
With most movies the story is what makes a movie and the story is at the center of why Past Lives has resonated with me. I’m a firm believer that we are always evolving and the person we are today is not the person we were in the past. It’s natural to look back and wonder what would your life be like if something else happened. However, it can be deterimental to moving forward if you’re hung up on the past. I also feel that you do need to look back and keep a connection to the past otherwise you can feel ungrounded and lost. This is the central conflict between Nora and Hae Sung. Hae Sung is stuck on the past and can’t get over Nora. Nora, as an immigrant, has lost the connection to her homeland and Hae Sung is a physical representation of that. There’s a real beauty to the actor’s performances. You can feel the chemistry. Kudos to Greta Lee and Teo Yoo.
Part of the reason that I felt compelled to make this post is that I watched this around the time I made my welcome post. In that post, I mentioned that I am good at taking in new information and forming new thoughts. To my friends and family, I’m often seen as jumping from one way of doing something to a completely different way. For me, it’s logical as I have new information. I think this also applies to the choices I make. I get the sense that a lot of people spend so much energy trying to make the right choice. To me, I quickly take in information, make a choice and then spend my energy making it the right choice or abandoning it if new information comes in. In that way, I felt that Nora had a similar drive. She knew what she wanted and went for it. She won’t leave New York1 and she loves her husband and won’t leave him to chase a fantasy of a relationship with Hae Song. She’s a good person and will entertain the thought of what their life together could be like, but she’s where she needs to be. I’m so glad that Hae Sung was able to grow through the experience and can finally live his life without being stuck in the past.
The main actors are phenomenal, but the performance of John Magaro, who play’s Nora’s husband, is also good. His not being Korean brings an element that I have a feeling a lot of couples will connect with. He’s been married to Nora for years, but a part of him feels that he’s not enough. He mentions at one point that when Nora talks in her sleep it’s in Korean, and he feels it’s a part of her that he’s locked out of.
Past Lives is not a big movie but it punches way above its weight class. You can tell that Celine Song got her start as a playwright. A lot of the scenes could easily be transfered to a theater and it would work. The story, dialogue, performances, effective use of music, and the technical achievements2 can help explain why Past Lives is such a great film.
I can’t recommend Past Lives more heavily. I’ll continue to think about it and appreciate its beauty.
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Over the last couple years I’ve had the opportunity to work in the east coast a lot and I’ve been able to explore New York City. Seeing the shots from Dumbo from places I’ve experienced added an element of appreciation to the movie. I’d love to say the shots from Seoul elicited the same reactions, but I haven’t been able to get to Seoul yet! ↩
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When Nora and Hae Sung reconnect in their twenty’s, the attention to detail on the technology was amazing. I had that MacBook Air that Nora was talking on. Seeing the green light on the FaceTime camera brings back so many memories. I was curious to how they filmed the Skype call because it felt organic and dynamic. I listened to the commentary on the Blu-ray and Celine Song mentioned how they did it. The actors were on the same set and the computers were connected physically together. I wondered what was plugged into the Thunderbolt port when I first watched the movie. The cable connected the two computers together. The filmmakers were able to control the connection of the video so the first time that Hae Song stuttered and paused due to lag, it was from the filmmakers and the reaction from Greta was genuine to check the computer. ↩
