MOVIE REVIEW: Past Lives Is an Emotional Reflection on Love, Regret, and Living Our One Life

(SPOT.ph) At a time when Hollywood and moviemakers are obsessed with the idea of a multiverse and having different lives, living different possibilities throughout an infinite number of universes, enters writer-director Celine Song’s tender debut film Past Lives. This quiet and subtle film is almost an anti-multiverse story—highlighting instead how beautiful and how heartbreaking it is that in reality, as far as we know, you have this one life, and the choices made for you or the choices you’ve made yourself keep you on this path alone. “This is my life, and I’m living it with you,” whispers Nora (Greta Lee) amidst a late night conversation about the choices she’s made and what could have been. It’s a plain, simple statement but one that carries a lifetime of weight—a reflection of what Past Lives is as a whole. It’s a film that seems so ordinary with characters so mundane, and yet is packed with meaning and intention.

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Past Lives tells its story over two decades, starting in Seoul with 12-year old classmates Na Young and Hae Sung go on a date set up by their parents. Twelve years later, Na Young and her family have immigrated. Na Young, now going by Nora (played by the magnificent Greta Lee) is on her way to becoming a playwright in New York City. By chance, she reconnects with Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) over Facebook and Skype. Twelve years after that, Hae Sung visits Nora in New York, where she is now married to a fellow writer named Arthur (John Magaro), who is a white Jewish American. Throughout the film, the story revolves around the Korean idea of “inyun”—a concept that means providence or fate, and that we as people have lines connecting us that span lifetimes. As we move through the story, we get to explore these characters separately and together, and how their connections affect all their lives.

Past Lives is a quietly heartbreaking story

What makes Past Lives so affecting is how relatable it is for us to think about what ifs and those missed connections or the choices we’ve made that shape the way our lives go. What if I had talked to that person? What if I had not walked into that party? What if I never left? We don’t get to experience a different universe to try something out that might have happened in another lifetime had we made some other choice. It’s so intrinsically human to think about all the chances we never took, and what could’ve been, while also just trying to live the life we have. And yet, Past Lives also teaches us that different versions of ourselves all exist within our one life. Nothing we do invalidates who we were in the past—for better or worse, all of the “lives” we’ve lived co-exist together. Past Lives tells a very specific story that Song herself has experienced, but it’s still a very universal tale that really strikes in the most surprising ways.

Song’s semi-autobiographical story (she, too, left Seoul at 12 and became a playwright in New York) is so deceptively simple, but the magic she does as a writer and director is truly stunning. Nora, Arthur, and Hae Sung are all fully realized, complicated characters and every line and every silence is so intricately, beautifully written. Just like that oft-quoted “laundry and taxes” line from Everything Everywhere All at Once, there are so many beautiful gems of dialogue throughout Past Lives that will fill your timelines for months to come.

“You dream in a language that I can’t understand. It’s like there’s this whole place inside of you where I can’t go,” Arthur says to Nora one night after telling Nora she dreams exclusively in Korean. It’s a stunning line that tells us so much about not just Arthur but Nora as well. There is such intention to every single scene, every single piece of writing and direction that it is surprising whenever we’re reminded that this is her debut feature film. There is not one moment in this film that feels like filler, and yet there are several scenes of just quiet staring and deep thought. It’s truly a miracle what Song has achieved here.

Song’s writing and directing are beautifully brought to life by the trio of actors at the center of it. Greta Lee, perhaps best known as a comedic force in various TV shows, shows her dramatic gifts here. She perfectly captures Nora’s strong and confident exterior that’s matched with a most charming personality that underneath hides uncertainty. Teo Yoo as Hae Sun matches her so well, both understanding what kind of relationship this is and just how much electric chemistry is needed in each scene. Magaro makes it three-for-three, in a role that in any other film would be the “evil white American husband standing in the way of destiny,” as Arthur himself states. Instead, the way Arthur is written, and the sweetness that Magaro plays him makes Arthur so likable that you feel for him, too.

Also read: You Can Already Book Tickets to Watch A24's “What If” Romance Film Past Lives

From a filmmaking perspective, everything works perfectly together to tell this story. One scene in the film sets three characters in a bar, and the way the conversation flows, the way the camera chooses to focus on certain people at times, and the way the actors deliver their lines, it’s so excellently put together that it’s such a sight to behold. The entire film is so finely tuned that you don’t realize just how hard it’s hitting, how much you care for these characters, and just how much you’ve given to it emotionally until its last few moments. No film this year hits harder than when Past Lives reaches its wallop of an ending and you’re left to ponder. This is a film that could have easily unraveled into a melodramatic clichéd nightmare, but Song, Lee, and the rest restrain themselves, making for a beautiful and special experience.

Whether you believe in reincarnation, in multiverses, or in other versions of yourself, at the end of the day we do currently live our one life and we deal with the choices we make and the consequences of our actions, as every human being does. From there, it’s about how we deal with it and how move forward. Past Lives is more than just about the love triangle at its center. It’s not even really about a love story or even the “what ifs” in life. It’s about the difficult challenge of growing up, saying goodbye to the past, and embracing the present that you have become and what that means for your future – something you won’t know until you just simply live it.

Rating: 5 out of 5 Spots.

Past Lives is now in cinemas. Photos and video credit: A24/TBA Studios.