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PAST LIVES
(directed by Celine Song, 2023)
****+ (out of 5)
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> Canadian/Korean playwright turned filmmaker Celine Song really hit the bull’s eye on this, her maiden effort.
. Ms. Song has fashioned a small film that garnered a huge amount of well-deserved attention, generating some real Oscar buzz in the process. No wonder. It is that rare gem of human drama where the central romance is not a carnal thing. From a narrative standpoint, it is certainly the road less taken. The script is a complex interweaving of human emotion, that acknowledges connections between people that seem to exist on some almost non-corporeal realm.
. In a Song’s partially autobiographical story, Teo Yoo and Greta Lee play Hae Sung and Nora, platonic childhood sweethearts in their native South Korea, who share a special bond that is obvious to everyone. But Hae Sung is devastated when Nora’s family suddenly packs up and emigrates to Canada following economic opportunity. 12 years pass- and though they are physically separated, that ineffable bond persists. Each, is tattooed on the other’s soul.
. When the Internet age dawns, social media reintroduces the two, and they begin to enjoy regular online chats, resuming the childhood friendship virtually, as adults. The attraction is unspoken, yet clearly understood by both. She wonders aloud when he might come visit her in Toronto, where she has ended up. He wishes she would return to South Korea to be with him for a while, before he leaves to study Mandarin in Beijing for a year. But both are too invested in the dreams and goals they are pursuing, to drop everything and fly away on a whim, just to explore a relationship that only existed briefly, when they weren’t even grown up yet.
. Another twelve-year passage of time. Nora has met and married a nice guy named Arthur (an excellent puppy-eyed John Magaro), and settled down with him in New York. Hae Sung also meets a partner, but the relationship doesn’t take. He contacts Nora, and tells her he will be vacationing in NYC for a week, and he hopes to see her then. Arthur is understandably insecure about the whole thing, but being a modern man, he goes with it. So, after 24 years apart, the childhood couple are reunited. It is a spectacular scene, delicately navigated by two deft actors who show great finesse calibrating the different mix of sometimes conflicting emotions the characters experience.
. The rest of the film is an absolute wonder. The dialogue says so much, and leaves so much left unspoken, that still rings loud and clear through inference and innuendo. It all shows right there on the faces of three excellent actors giving such sympathetic performances you love them all. There are no bad-guys in this story.
– PAST LIVES is a spiritual romance of the highest order. It’s as three-dimensional and satisfying as any romance ever made.
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