Past Lives Movie Review

Movie: Past Lives

Writer and Director: Celine Song

Cast : Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, John Magaro, Choi Won-young, Ji Hye-yoon, Min Young-ahn and others.

About the movie:

The movie talks about two childhood friends, whose lives take unexpected turns over the course of the next 24 years. They experience goodbyes and reunions and contemplate on what their relationship stands for and how the change in their lives could affect one other, now and in the future. The movie is said to be semi autobiographical and also based on real life incidents from Director Celine Song’s life. 

(*This review may contain spoilers. If you have already watched the movie, please continue reading. If you haven’t watched the movie yet, you can still continue reading or you can come back to the review later.)

My take on the movie:

The Connection and the disconnection:

You can see the connection and the disconnection between the two straightaway. As 12 year olds, Na-young and Hae-sung are as close as two humans can be. Then Na-young leaves (her family immigrates to Toronto) and they drift apart. 12 years later, Hae-sung is determined to find Na-young (now Nora) but his attempts go unanswered since he doesn’t know her changed name and the search leads to Nora ultimately finding him via Facebook.  

They are drawn to each other immediately because of the connection they have had as children but there is a 12-year difference. Nora is a different person, so is Hae-sung. Hae-sung has lived in the same country and probably with the same people around him all his life. He has grown in age and in terms of personality. But the environment around him hasn’t changed. 

As for Nora, she has grown into a 20 something woman in a different country altogether. She was a Korean as a 12-year-old girl. But later, she grows up being a Korean-Canadian and then she transforms into a New Yorker soon. She was Korean, something that will forever be a part of her life but something she doesn’t relate much to. 

12 years later, the two are in their late thirties and their disconnection is most obvious. They meet because of the connection they had as children. The Korean connection still exists though. 

Sometimes we want to explore something because we miss the memories attached to it but it’s not necessarily the right thing or the best thing for us. It’s not in our fate or destiny. Sometimes if something is not meant to be, that is our fate as we learn from Nora - 인연이 아난가 봐 (it is meant to be to not chase this little dream of theirs).

The language shows the most disconnection. Hae-sung speaks fluent Korean while Nora's Korean though fluent sounds rustic. What is the biggest disconnection between the two? It is the changes they have experienced. 

They are drawn to each other three times and the memories and the connection are the reason. 

The disconnection - their lives have transformed and what they know about each other is only a portion of what they actually are in reality. 

They want to explore what they had in their childhood again but they don’t realise that they have already left all of that and their connection in their childhood itself, in Seoul. 

The director Celine Song says in an interview that they say goodbye three times, once as children, once in their youth and once later as adults to close the door that will allow them to move on from what they think is keeping them tied together. 

One of most honest conversations in the entire movie is Nora and her husband Arthur's conversation while they lie in bed about his fears regarding the Korean part of her. He thinks there is a whole world inside of her that he cannot enter and cannot understand (the Korean part of her) and that is frightening since his worst fear is she might leave him because of a disconnection they may experience someday. 

As for Nora, Hae-sung is a connection to the Korean part of her but he is too Korean for her. She isn’t like him and that is the disconnection. The connection is also the disconnection. 

Favourite conversations and moments from the movie: 

Nora : “The Na-young you remember doesn’t exist anymore” 

This is the perfect way to say goodbye. It hurts but it is the truth. 

The changes they have experienced are their present. Their past is in the past. 

Nora: But that little girl did exist. She's not sitting in front of you but it doesn't mean she's not real. 20 years ago, I left her behind with you- hence the connection. 

The reminiscence and the memories are bittersweet. You want what you have already left in the past. It exists but in the past. Your past version that will not resurface ever again. Hence goodbye is the only answer.

The reconnect/reunion and falling in love works for some childhood sweethearts. 

But for some Noras and Hae-sungs, goodbyes are what are written for them. 

Past lives-

We must have had something between each other in our past lives. That is probably why we are sitting here together in a city after 20 years of leaving each other. But we don’t necessarily have something in our present life. 우리 인연이 아닌가 봐)

To me (Hae-sung), you (Nora) are someone who leaves. (떠나는 사람)

To Arthur, you (Nora) are someone who stays. (남는 사람)

In this life, you (Nora) and Arthur are that kind of 인연. 

We could have been anything in the past lives. Somebody who had affairs with each other, somebody who sat beside each other in the train or maybe some birds who sat on the same branch in the early/wee hours of the morning. 

You and I are 인연 too- Arthur and Hae-sung to each other.

The goodbye scene- 

Nora walking Hae-sung to his Uber-

There is familiarity and also awkwardness. 

The familiarity is them knowing each other all those years ago and the awkwardness is the distance that got created because of the years apart. 

The scene with Nora and Hae-sung facing one another while waiting for the taxi wanting to say goodbye but leaving everything unsaid was beautiful. The silence and the looking at each other amidst the silence say it all. The longing yet the decision to leave everything between them untouched or without the need to explore. 

The goodbye that needed no words because everything had already been said, felt and understood. 

How do two people knowing they want to be together but cannot, go on to live the rest of their lives with that knowledge, the longing and the memories? How do they let go and move on? How do they have the heart to do that? I guess that's life. It gives you the strength to understand that when something makes sense in your head but doesn't in reality, you do not push it but move past it. You let newer and better things flow into your life reminding yourself that what happened in the past was beautiful but what lies ahead may turn out to be more beautiful. And with that reminder you move forward, leaving the past lives for the past. 

그때 보자 -see you then (meaning in their next life when these lives are their past lives) 

You leave a part of something behind knowing you can never explore it, never savour it. The most difficult thing is regret, knowing you can have something, you want to have something but you chose not to. 

Hae sung's eyes are always moist when he looks at Nora. The longing eyes; the eyes of a man that has a lot to say. 슬프다!!!

The Actors and Director/Writer: 

Tae Yoo portrays the role of Hae-sung to the T. He says in one of his interviews that he has had a melancholic life as an immigrant. That melancholy creeps into the character of Hae-sung and not in a bad way. He emotes the sadness and the longing of Hae-sung perfectly. He is the perfect Hae-sung.

Greta Lee as Nora is elegance and simply a marvel. She makes all of us stop and wonder at how an actor can be so natural and precise in their craft. Nora is ambitious, intelligent, hardworking, talented, humble, kind and much more. Though just a character, Greta Lee with her portrayal made us all believe that we know Nora, like we could be friends already. We were a part of the story. I felt like it was not merely a movie but I was watching their story from the sidelines. 

The chemistry and friendship between Nora and Hae-sung is like a warm hug on a cold day, comforting and mandatory.

John Magaro as Arthur is a surprising yet a beautiful addition to the movie. Arthur is what people would call a green flag. He has his fears and inhibitions but he never imposes them on Nora. He acknowledges all of that, communicates and addresses them to Nora but also makes sure they don’t affect her. He is polite and kind to Hae-sung. He is incredibly understanding about Nora and Hae-sung’s friendship and their need to meet each other. The viewers could recognise all of the above because of the amazing performance as Arthur by John Magaro. He is a genuine talent.

The Supporting cast has performed extremely well. The actors who played young Na-young and Hae-sung, that is Im Seung-min and Moon Seung-ah, are magical with their performances. They stole the show even with their limited screen time. 

Celine Song as a first time director was what we viewers were waiting for. With her writing, she made her audience relate and resonate to the story and the characters even if most of us have not had a similar life as Nora, Hae-sung or even Arthur for that matter. Past lives has become a comfort movie for many of us. Every minute into the movie had me wanting and waiting for more. When you write stories (and about incidents) based on real life, it resonates more with the viewers. This is what the audience craves for, the real stories. We look forward to stories that make us reminisce. We look forward to characters that are similar to us. We look forward to reality being displayed on the screen with impeccable storytelling. Past lives did all of the above. I thank Celine Song and also congratulate her for the beautiful creation. Women like her motivate us to want to push ourselves to work hard so that one day our story gets its own recognition.

"If you leave something behind, you gain something too - Nora's Mother"