PAST LIVES |
★★★★★
31 July 2023
A movie review of PAST LIVES.
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Director: Celine Song.
Starring: Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, John Magaro, Moon Seung-ah, Leem Seung-min, Ji Hye Yoon, Won Young Choi.
“Getting married is hard for idealistic people like you,” Nora/Na Young (Greta Lee)
A deeply romantic film is rare. Most rom-coms and rom-dramas are combinations of the trite, sentimental, lazy, formulaic. They sell a lie of how hard love is to maintain by not even addressing it. Beginnings are all they are concerned with. They are interested in exciting courtships, but not the maintenance of passion. They go far beyond aspirational, entering the territory of harm – audiences will be dissatisfied by their own attachments, forever feeling their relationships come up short.
Starring: Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, John Magaro, Moon Seung-ah, Leem Seung-min, Ji Hye Yoon, Won Young Choi.
“Getting married is hard for idealistic people like you,” Nora/Na Young (Greta Lee)
A deeply romantic film is rare. Most rom-coms and rom-dramas are combinations of the trite, sentimental, lazy, formulaic. They sell a lie of how hard love is to maintain by not even addressing it. Beginnings are all they are concerned with. They are interested in exciting courtships, but not the maintenance of passion. They go far beyond aspirational, entering the territory of harm – audiences will be dissatisfied by their own attachments, forever feeling their relationships come up short.
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The best of ardour cinema aches the heart. It reassures the viewer that they are not alone in their amorous pain. Attachment is fragile and tantalising. When it comes to rom-dramas, think:
- A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT (2014)
- A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT (2004)
- BEFORE SUNSET (2004)
- CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON (2000)
- HUSBAND MATERIAL (2018)
- IN THE AISLES (2018)
PAST LIVES joins them.
Set over 24 years, at 12-year intervals, PAST LIVES delivers bitter-sweet pain. Gentle emotional sado-masochism for the audience. In a good way. Na Young (Moon Seung-ah) and Hae Sung (Leem Seung-min) are just 12-years old when a spark is ignited between them. (Compare the opening to Ang Lee’s LIFE OF PI (2012).) Just after they go on a first date Na Young is whisked away by her progressive parents to Canada, where they emigrate. Hae Sung remains in South Korea. Little do they know at this point how much they will matter to each other. Na Young changes her name to an English moniker, Nora, and grows up to be played by Greta Lee. Hae Sung grows up to be played by Teo Yoo. They connect again at 24-years old and then again at 36. It is like PAST LIVES has condensed director Richard Linklater’s BEFORE trilogy (1995-2013) into one film. No mean feat.
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PAST LIVES spends most time with Nora. She doesn’t pine. She is not meek. Nora aims to avoid being buffeted on the stormy seas of love. She strives to be a playwright. Everything comes second. She is now in New York, a further emigration. There she meets Arthur (John Magaro), an author. Nora is driven, but is no robot. All three are endearing. Arthur has a charming and perceptive frankness. Hae Sung has a deep well of unspoken passion. An emotional love triangle is born in Nora’s heart.
PAST LIVES concerns mourning impossible choices. Grieving what might have been. Who does Nora select? The story will give you plenty to debate after the credits roll. Who should she have picked? This is monogamy’s quandary. Polyamorists might say there is no need to choose. However, as interesting a way of life as polyamory might seem, most people have yet to embrace it. Perhaps sexual and emotional jealousy are too powerful forces? PAST LIVES talks of providence/fate, perhaps in part to validate decisions and outcomes, and perhaps as a balm to soothe the roads not travelled.
An intensely romantic movie is rare. Writer-director Celine Song is a talent. What a cinematic debut! PAST LIVES is a tear-jerker in the best possible sense.
