Past Lives

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When I first saw the trailer of this movie, I was worried that it was going to be one of those cringe love story movie that exploits the Asian American hype in cinema. My concerns were all dispelled rather quickly. Celine Song's debut feature, "Past Lives" is a story of nostalgia and longing. It's less about romantic love because the movie makes it clear that Hae-sung and Na-young are never really in love with each other. There were many scenes where them being together contrasted with several couples around them. They were close but not intimate. Nobody ever crosses the line and remain as friends who long for each other. I also want to comment how well written the husband's character is. He is married into a foreign culture and he probably always worried about him not being "Korean"makes him somehow an inadequate partner. He worries that his relationship somehow got in the way of Nora's immigrant dreams. While he has his own insecurities about the relationship and Hae-sung (who is by all standards, a 10/10 idealistic man), he accepts Nora's longing and embraces her as she cries after sending away Hae-sung. He understands that it's not about a romantic feeling but saying goodbye to one of the few connections and nostalgia to her home country. The entire movie also had technically surprising moments, making it hard to believe that this is a feature debut. It is filled with beautiful, sensitive shots that capture New York and Seoul pretty well. The music is dreamy and I've been spamming the soundtrack. Subtlety is well preserved and that's what i look for in movies. Dialogues were expertly captured with the director often using the technique of giving the focus to the listener rather than the speaker - directing the audience's attention to the reaction of what is being said. Overall, a beautiful film with little to criticize. One comment I have is that the accent in the Koreans were a little funny. However, I think it captures the awkwardness well enough. Being bilingual in Korean and English usually makes me bothered in watching films like this but I was not this time. Translations were also done pretty well, thankfully (this is SO important for me).

Such a beautiful picture film. It has everything you want from a good movie: a cute romance, philosophy to guide the narrative, characters that feel real even if you don't get to see what they do (in his case) or barely see anything (in her case). It's as if the scriptwriters managed to weave a touching romance out of snippets, without it feeling like you're watching something unfinished. There's this one scene where they show how time passes. I loved the cinematography behind that. Simple yet rewarding visually. From this movie I learned that you should accept love and realise that you don't have to give up what you have for what you could have. You can accept both those feelings of love inside of you and even if it hurts, it's what I believe makes the soul feel alive.

This movie is basically about "what might have been", a question we all ask ourselves at some point(s) in our lives, quite often about romantic connections. Nora ( her adopted western name) and Hae Sung are childhood friends (aged 12) who are separated when her parents emigrate to Canada. She has grand ambitions to be a famous writer while he is content to be an ordinary person living an ordinary Korean life (his words). 12 years later they reconnect on Facebook (he still misses her) and spend a while talking regularly and reconnecting, but not enough for either to change their life plans. Another 12 years pass with no contact, and now we find Nora happily married to another writer and living in New York City and Hae Sung is visiting. There is still some connection there, a longing perhaps, and a lot of confusion, especially on her part. Her husband Arthur is is not thrilled but tries to be understanding. This film has received mostly rave reviews and there is early Oscar talk. I can see why many might love it but I didn't. The acting was good, particularly Teo Yoo and John Magaro in the two male parts. But I really didn't like the direction at all. Many scenes were laborious and slow - I get that emotions can be displayed with nuanced looks but it was overdone to the point of annoyance. The cinematography did little to showcase either Soeul or NYC, nor did it add value to the emotional whirlpool the two main characters were caught in. And the bluish colour palette didn't work for me. The script had some great moments, particularly the scenes with Nora and her husband, but was patchy in many other places. In particular it made it difficult to really care that much for the Nora character. It's usual for me to reach for the tissues at the end of good rom-coms or any movie which successfully portrays an emotional conundrum. I left this movie dry-eyed and a little disappointed, not at what might have been for the characters, but for the movie this story could have been. So 6/10 from me, but it's the sort of movie that many will absolutely love, so you should see it because that might be you.

it a really good movie

ilaaa

Truly, cannot understand the gushing acclaim this movie has attracted. The main character Nora, is supposedly an ambitious and gifted writer, aspiring to win a Nobel Prize or a Pulitzer, but can't seem to string more than a bland, stunted, superficial sentence together. Her sulky, cold, prepossessed, vain behaviour was grating to watch for nearly 2 hours. It was disturbing watching Nora manipulatively play an emotional cat and mouse game with the two, supposed 'loves of her life'. When she immigrates from Korea to America she cannot even summon a goodbye to her sensitive, devoted, childhood sweetheart, Jung Hae Sung. The script is excruciatingly silly at times, for example, when, after 12 years of no contact, Jun Hae Sung seeks to make contact with Nora on the internet, she replies, 'do you remember me?'....well of course he does because he has been looking for you and you were the best of buddies! The dialogue is woefully lacking in nuance and cross-cultural issues dealt with very little exploration, eg., Nora describing Jun Hae Sung to her husband, as 'masculine' and so 'Korean'. When he visits her in New York, she gazes into his eyes seductively, despite having no intention to pursue a relationship and without any regard to his obvious loneliness, fragility and vulnerability. Despite it being blatantly obvious that he is in love with her, Nora tells her husband that she realises Jun Hae Sung came to New York to see her! Really! Nora's references to 'Inyeon', the Buddhist ? , she wasn't sure :-), concept of how relationships are based on multiple encounters over thousands of lifetimes, fate and providence, attempts to weave a spiritual, deeper theme into a movie which, in my opinion, was distinctly lacking in depth or soulfulness. Go see the underrated and beautifully poignant, 'Empire of Light' for that. As a woman, I have to wonder if this 'triangle love' story would have been as well received if Nora's character was a man? I think the critics might not be as gushing if a man, possessing all the power, acted as recklessly and manipulatively towards two vulnerable women?