Past Lives Review

Past Lives is a romantic drama that premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and tells the story of a decades-long friendship that spans across two continents.

Na Young (Seung Ah Moon) and Hae Sung (Seung Min Yim) are best friends, growing up in Seoul. They separated due to Na Young’s family emigrating to Canada. Twelve years later Na Young has renamed herself, Nora (Greta Lee) and lives in New York. As an adult Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) attempts to contact Nora and the pair rekindle their friendship.

Past Lives has been a favourite of the festival circuit. As well as playing at Sundance, it was screened at the Berlin International Film Festival, one of the other premier film festivals. A24 was one of the production companies behind Past Lives and distributing the film, so it gives the film a level of prestige. Past Lives has earned rave reviews from critics and boosted a high score on IMDB. It’s likely going to be in the conversation during awards season.

Past Lives was a film told in three parts. The first was set in Korea when Na Young and Hae Sung were forced to part ways due to Na Young’s family moving. The second part was set twelve years later when Nora and Hae Sung found each other and seemed like they were going to have a long-distance romance. The third part skips another twelve years and shows Hae Sung going on vacation to New York and meets Nora for the first time in over 20 years. It was a cycle of coming together and separating for the pair.

Past Lives had a relaxed feel to it. It was a film with long shots, long conversations, and low stakes. It was a film about the characters and the relationship between them. There was a lot of philosophising as the characters reflected on the path that could have been taken. Even though Past Lives was an American film, it felt like something from the World Cinema section of a DVD store or streaming service because of its cinematic chemistry.

Celine Song made her feature film debut as a writer and director. Song previously worked as a playwright and a TV writer. Her experience as a playwright was evident because of the thoughtful dialogue and focus on characters. However, Song did avoid the pitfalls of some films that are based on plays since Past Lives was more expansive. Past Lives spanned two continents and characters got to explore Seoul and New York. Live Past was shot on 35mm film which added to the cinematic look and feel. Reading about Song’s background made Past Lives seem like a semi-autographical piece. Like Nora, Song also emigrated to Canada at the age of twelve, Song’s parents had the same profession as Nora’s, and Song and Nora were both New York-based writers.

Past Lives aimed to have a naturalistic approach to its characters and life in general. Hae Sung and Nora were able to find each other through social media and still had a rapport even after 12 years of separation. They spend loads of time online rekindling their relationship and getting to know what they have been up to, but there were complications since they lived different lives and were going down different paths. Nora points out that Hae Sung has been holding onto the idea of her 12-year-old self and that life has made them different. Nora grew up in North America and she had assimilated into North American society, which changed her from the Korean girl Hae Sung knew, whilst Hae Sung had a Korean outlook where he felt he needed to be good enough for a potential partner and still lived with his parents. There was a cultural clash between them.

An added complication was Nora being married to Arthur (John Magaro). He was far from a villain since he was shown to be a nice fella who cared for Nora and made an effort to be friendly with Hae Sung. It added to the fact that Past Lives was not a conventional romance film and that life can be much more complicated.

Past Lives was a character-driven film that had a sedate feel and will give audiences food for thought because it looks at the character relationships.