FILM: Past Lives

Past Lives is a charming and beautiful film about childhood sweethearts who intermittently reconnect over very long gaps. Na Young / Nora is still a little girl when her family emigrates from Seoul to Toronto, and as an adult she moves on to New York. Hae Sung never forgets her, even as both he and she go on to find other partners. But their encounters are electric when they briefly reconnect twelve years later and twelve more years later. The whole film is a beautiful meditation on love and fate and life choices, and the Korean concept called “in yeon”, which is like a karmic ripple through reincarnations of chance encounters. And only the fate could have them reconnect at ages 12, 24, and 36 in sync with the Korean zodiac calendar. The chemistry between Nora (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) is palpable, and the actors convey so much without words. The film is gorgeously written and directed by Celine Song, somehow fusing impressionism and realism, with cuts of close and long, faces and scenes, like stream of consciousness, letting awkward silences be pregnant and electricity flow. The theme, texture, and time element are reminiscent of Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy, but with an added element of shifting identities with immigration, having to leave things behind for the opportunity to gain new things. This is Song’s directorial debut. I’ll look forward to more from her.