Is there such a thing as a soulmate? Is there such a thing as fate? In writer/director Celine Song’s feature debut, she examines these notions when telling the story of two childhood sweethearts, Nora (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), who are separated when Nora’s family leaves South Korea. They lose touch but not their connection, as throughout the years they correspond via the internet, holding on to their unwavering attraction. It isn’t until over twenty years later that they mutually agree to meet when Hae Sung decides to travel to New York, where Nora now lives with her husband Arthur (John Magaro).
More than just your average love triangle drama, Song creates a quiet masterpiece, which through her characters, her direction and some stellar performances, tells the story of the passage of time as it pertains to the fate of two individuals. It’s not until the second half of the movie that these two see each other as adults, but during every moment Nora and Hae Sung share the screen, Song constructs a space where the world falls away and her characters are allowed to live the purity of their bond, albeit knowing that at any moment the real world will come crashing down upon them as time moves forward.
Told from the perspective of a first-generation immigrant living in America, the love Nora has for both men (her husband and her first love) in her adult life should also be seen as the symbolic struggle of someone with one foot in two cultures. This is a movie which explores the ever-present love for one’s home (the culture one grew up immersed in) and a new land that one wishes to plant their roots. The idea of having two names (one being an “American” name). The idea of having two lives, where two different languages are spoken. It’s all examined here through some of the most beautiful cinematography and direction I’ve seen all year, capturing Song’s grander themes regarding how devastating life can be, not solely through character dialogue, but glances and body language, and how her characters are framed on-screen at any given moment.
Final Thought: Holding true to its thematic concepts of the allure of forbidden love, the idea of fate and our cultural connection between the past and present, “Past Lives” is both visually and tonally brilliant enough to be considered a theatrical cousin to a movie like “In the Mood for Love”. And that’s arguably the best praise I can give it, so I think I’ll stop there.
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