There’s something poetic and lyrical about the way ‘Past Lives’ unfolds as a film. Writer and director Celine Song shows off her theatrical background by weaving a story that is so elegantly paced and designed that it could almost be a play, but the first-time director uses the camera to really get into the intricacies of these characters’ feelings and inner worlds that pushes against its theatrical mode and into the realm of cinema. It’s a very delicate three-person story that spans for 24 years and teases upon hundreds of past lives before.
The narrative follows the basic three-act structure and does it with such precision. It shows us only exactly what we need, and it never dawdles. It’s a tight story at 106 minutes. We begin with Na Young and Hae Sung, two classmates living in Seoul. They are best friends who compete over who gets the highest grades in class but also confides with each other and play all the time. They are undeniably each other’s first love but when Na Young’s family immigrates to Canada, the two must say goodbye. Twelve years later, the two reconnect. Na Young, who has changed her name to Nora is now working towards being a writer while Hae Sung just finished military service and is back in school. They communicate online, adjusting to the time differences and the connection is as strong as ever (though the internet connection isn’t always so). Life happens and they have to go their separate ways again until another twelve years has passed and this time everything has changed. Nora is now married to Arthur (as shown in the trailer) and is living in New York but Hae Sung is finally coming to visit and all the loose ends of their relationship will be tugged to test its limits.
‘Past Lives’ thrives in the personal and intimate. It has no sweeping statements about love or the immigrant life, which is a strong factor that plays out in Nora’s relationships with these two men: the man she knew when she was living in another country and the man she is now married to in her new home. The dialogue can sometimes play out like a piece for theater except that the actors – Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, and John Magaro – throw them out with such ease that it is believable. Their delivery has so much spontaneity that it feels real, even if it is so eloquent and articulate.
And while the film is really just moments of talking, director Celine Song is very aware of how to use space and the camera to place these characters in the midst of their milieu. Song is so confident as to just let a quiet scene unfold like when Nora arrives at a writer’s residency in Montauk, and she explores the empty house she’ll be writing in. The textures of the production design play off with the lighting, the music, and even Greta Lee’s presence. Nothing majors is happening and yet it’s so importantly contextually for where Nora is at that point of her life – when she is finding space away from Hae Sung and the arrival of Arthur into her life.
As a director, Celine Song ensures the camera captures all the magnificent work her actors are doing. As a writer, she gives them an amazing amount of thoughts to articulate that never quite says what they really want to say in the first two acts. Much like real life, these characters are saying something but are desperately wanting to say something else. The subtext hangs heavy in the air but you can see it in the way each actor physicalizes their character’s inner world. It’s only in the final act that things that need to be said are finally let loose and it happens in the most powerfully staged scene possible – Nora, Arthur, and Hae Sung are seated at a bar and the two childhood friends can be honest with each other in Korean while the American husband can only wonder – and then, the big finale of the film, its one that is done in absolute silence but the emotions hang heavy in the air and in the stellar portrayal of Greta Lee.
‘Past Lives’ is a quiet, intimate, and very personal film. But it’s the way by which Celine Song treats the material that makes it feel big and universal. Honestly? It’s the kind of movies that I miss seeing in the cinema. A quiet, unimposing film that manages to find breadth and grandness in the most private of desires and dreams of individuals. There is a poetic elegance to ‘Past Lives’ that is amplified by an incredible musical score Christopher Bear and Daniel Rossen and by the impeccable acting of Greta Lee, John Magaro, and Teo Yoo. I’d love for the three to get nominations in every award-giving body with Celine Song getting a nod, at the very least for screenwriting.
My Rating:
PAST LIVES opens on August 30. Check the screening times and buy your tickets here!
