Past Lives (12A)

Arthur and playwright wife Nora are happily settled in New York. Her childhood first love Hae Sung visits the city from South Korea, supposedly on holiday, and she agrees to show him the sights. It has been more than 20 years since Nora left Seoul with her family, bound initially for Toronto, and changed her birth name of Na Young. In the interim, she has only exchanged a few video calls with Hae Sung. Nora is compelled to reflect on what might have been.

LondonNet Film Review

Past Lives (12A) Film Review from LondonNet

During a tender scene at twilight in writer-director Celine Song’s achingly beautiful drama, two aspiring writers discuss Inyeon, the Korean notion of providence or fate, which dreamily supposes strangers whose clothes brush as they pass in the street are destined to collide because of past relationships. “That’s just something Koreans say to seduce someone,” smirks the woman. Destiny exerts an undeniable, gravitational pull on every heart-rending frame of Past Lives, a melancholic meditation on missed opportunities inspired by Song’s life (she grew up in South Korea, moved to Canada with her family and now lives in New York with writer husband Justin Kuritzkes)…

Nothing is left to fate in the playwright’s impressive debut feature. We feel characters’ yearning and regret ripple off the screen across three timelines, each 12 years apart, elegantly distilled into bilingual conversations and silent glances. It’s a masterclass in understatement and restraint, reminiscent of Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy, focusing on connections between richly drawn, star-crossed protagonists who articulate the churn of emotions beneath their placid surfaces. Song’s experience as a playwright nourishes a clearly defined three-act structure and sparse, naturalistic dialogue.

In the charming, earliest segment, 12-year-old academic high-flyer Na Young (Moon Seung-ah) nurtures a crush on classmate Hae Sung (Leem Seung-min) in Seoul. “I will probably marry him,” the girl confides to her artist mother (Yoon Ji-hye), who organises a first date between the children as a happy memory before the family, including Na Young’s filmmaker father (Choi Won-young) and younger sister, emigrates to Canada. Na Young changes her name to Nora and the children lose touch.

Twelve years later, Hae Sung (now played by Teo Yoo) reconnects over Zoom with Nora (Greta Lee), who has relocated from Toronto to New York. The intensity of their online connection distracts Nora from dreams of becoming a writer so she suggests an emotional timeout. “We’re just taking a brief break,” she assures a crestfallen Hae Sung. Days later at a writers’ retreat in Montauk, Nora meets Arthur (John Magaro) and they contemplate Inyeon before a first kiss. Twelve years pass and Nora and Arthur are now married. Hae Sung visits New York from South Korea, supposedly on vacation, and Arthur astutely imagines the dramatic tension if literary art were to imitate life: “In the story, I would be the evil, white American standing in the way of destiny…”

Past Lives will be a strong contender for next year’s Academy Awards, assuredly stacking up the ‘what ifs’ as the central trio of Lee, Yoo and Magaro navigate the undertows and rip currents of relationships across decades. “This is my life and I’m living it with you,” Nora assures Arthur in bed one night. We’re thrilled to be living it with her and feel every sob, sigh and devastating body blow.

– Kim Hu