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Review: Past Lives (2023)
By now you have likely heard of Past Lives, the movie that blew everyone away with its portrayal of two people in their 30s, potential soulmates, inexplicably linked in their past lives, reconnecting after a childhood friendship. Greta Lee gives an amazing performance as "Nora" (her American name) a girl who grows up in Korea, and goes to school with her friend and crush, Hae Sung. However, her family decides to immigrate to Canada in pursuit of a better life when Nora is 12 years old. Years later, Nora and Hae Sung connect online in their early 20s, and start what one may now call a situationship - weeks spent on Skype with each other, talking and bonding in the most intimate way possible. But when the distance becomes too much, they decide to take a break, and once again end up estranged for years until they meet in person in their 30s when he visits NYC. This movie was not one that anyone expected to be receiving Oscar buzz, and yet it's one of the most touching and well-made movies of the year.
The whole movie, the chemistry between Nora and Hae Sung was palpable. The way they looked at each other, both as children, through Skype in their 20s and as real adults in their 30s, you could almost see the unsaid words in the air between them, a lifetime of what-ifs and regret hanging in the balance. But the barriers in their way, Nora's immigration as a child, the long-distance situationship they created as young adults and finally, Nora being married when he visits, all amount to things unsaid remaining unsaid. It almost feels as if their relationship, as powerful as it is, is more of a blank space than a tangible concept. They have been forced to guess and muse and dream what their lives could have been like with each other.
What I like about Past Lives is that it does not give you the easy way out. It is not a simple story tied with a bow. It even plays into this fact. Nora's husband muses in bed that the story of her and her childhood friend and their remarkable connection is beautiful, and his role in the Hollywood version of their story is the "evil white husband". And he's right! You can't help but want the two main characters of this movie to end up together, to long for their "In-yun" Korean for "providence" or "fate" to finally be enough. In actuality though, her husband is a wonderful, caring, understanding man who literally learnt Korean to understand the language Nora dreams in. In actuality, Nora is happy with a life and job in New York and isn't going to give that up for anyone.
And yet, you still can't help your heart twisting when you see the way he looks at her. Nothing about this movie is black and white. It's ambiguous what they would mean to each other even if they had been together, if they had dated. In a beautiful shot towards the end of the movie, Nora, her husband and Hae Sung sit in a bar. The camera gradually pans to simply include Nora and him, as they muse in Korean about how they have been connected in their past lives. Were they jilted lovers? Would he cheat on her? Would they be happy? Would they have children?
It's awful and it's wonderful. The cinematography is beautiful, the way the natural space captures the physical and emotional distance between them, from when they played in a park as children to when they go to see the Statue of Liberty in present day. The way the camera follows Nora and she walks Hae Sung to his Uber, and follows her back, and centers her in every shot, even in bed with her husband, it is him who has wrapped his body around her. She is undoubtedly the main character, and Korea and NYC serve as the simultaneously beautiful and tragic backdrop where her story unfolds.
And Teo Yoo (Hae Sung)'s performance?? He is a MAN IN LOVE. But even worse than that, he is a man in love with the possibility of what could have been. Nora even tells him that the girl he loves doesn't exist any longer. And yet he still PINES. Give him all the awards, truly I am upset that he was not nominated for more.
5 stars from me. Past Lives has my whole entire heart.
