Past Lives

 

Written and directed by Celine Song, Past Lives is the story of two childhood who reunite in New York City as they spend the week discussing their lives as well as their choices. The film is a semi-biographical film about these two people from South Korea who both contend with the choices they made in their lives as well as the possibility of what happened if fate hadn’t intervened. Starring Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, and John Magaro. Past Lives is a rich and evocative film from Celine Song.

Told in the span of 24 years, the film follows the lives of two childhood friends from Seoul, South Korea who would lose contact with each other for 12 years only to finally reunite 12 years later to explore the state of their individual lives. It is a film that doesn’t have much of a plot as it’s more about possibilities and the lives they were living as well as what could’ve been. Celine Song’s screenplay opens with an off-screen couple watching the two main characters and another man in a conversation as the couple wonder who these people are as it then cuts to 24 years earlier in Seoul. The film’s main narrative begins with these two 12-year old kids in Na Young (Seung Ah Moon) and Hae Sung (Seung Min Yim) who are schoolmates who have feelings for one another yet the former is about to leave Seoul with her family as they’re to emigrate to Toronto to start a new life.

The two wouldn’t contact each other again as Na Young changed her name to Nora (Greta Lee) as she is trying to become a playwright while the adult Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) is currently serving the country’s mandatory military service as they both discover they’re on Facebook. The two would talk to each other through video and such yet plans to see each other would fall apart due to the demands of Nora’s career while Hae Sung is still trying to find work as he would travel to China for a Mandarin language exchange. It would be another 12 years where they would finally meet in New York City yet both of them would reveal completely different lives with Nora having already been married to another writer in Arthur Zaturansky (John Magaro) while Hae Sung was in a relationship that is on hold.

Song’s direction is largely straightforward in its overall presentation as it is shot on 35mm as it added a sense of grain and realism to the film as they’re shot largely on locations such as Seoul, New York City, and Montauk in the upstate area of New York. While there are wide shots of some of the locations including scenes shot on a phone during a video conversation between Nora and Hae Sung. Much of Song’s direction is intimate with its usage of medium and few close-ups as it plays into the closeness that the young Hae Sung and Na Young had where there is this great shot of the two walking towards different parts of the street for their farewell. There are also some distinctive compositions that Song creates such as a scene of the young Hae Sung and Na Young playing in a park as their mothers watch from afar suggesting about a future for the two. By the time the film shifts twelve years later where Hae Sung is seen as an adult in a wide shot doing his mandatory military service and then cuts to Nora who is living her life in New York City trying to create something through writing. Song would mix both English and Korean throughout the film as Nora would speak Korean when she talks to Hae Sung through Facebook or when he goes to New York City.

Song also plays into this sense of isolation that looms throughout the film with the wide and medium shots she creates including these intimate moments where Nora and Hae Sung are communicating through Facebook video during the film’s second act with the third act being the two reuniting in New York City. Song definitely plays into the sense of awkwardness that would occur between Nora and Hae Sung with Arthur being a third wheel as he laments over the fact that Hae Sung could be Nora’s true love as it is told in a comical manner. The meeting between the two men is just as awkward due to the fact that Arthur only knows a little bit of Korean and Hae Sung speaks very little English but Song finds a way for the men to find some common ground as well as these revelations of what could’ve been for Hae Sung and Nora but also if that could happen in another life. Overall, Song crafts a rapturous and touching film about two childhood friends who deal with their longing for one another as well as what could’ve been.

Cinematographer Shabier Kirchner does amazing work with the film’s cinematography with its usage of 35mm film stock as it has elements of grain to play into much of the film’s naturalistic look with some stylish lighting for a few interior/exterior scenes at night. Editor Keith Fraase does excellent work with the editing as it is largely straightforward as it doesn’t aim for anything stylish other than a few jump-cuts in order to play into the drama. Production designer Grace Yun, with set decorator Joanne Ling and art director Alan Lampert, does brilliant work with the look of the apartments that Nora and Hae Sung would live separately in the film’s second act as well as the home that Nora would live in with Arthur. Costume designer Katina Danabassis does nice work with the costumes as it is largely low-key and casual with the exception of the clothes that the young Hae Sung and Na Young wears.

Hair/makeup artist Heejin “Emily” Baek, along with makeup artists Ivy Emert and Tayler Winer plus hair stylist Antoinette Wade, does fantastic work with the hairstyle that Hae Sung would wear in much of his young adult life as well as a more refined look he would have in the film’s third act. Visual effects supervisors Michael Huber and Alex Lemke do terrific work with the visual effects as it is largely set dressing including a scene at a hotel room in China. Sound editor Jacob Ribicoff does superb work with the sound as it mainly focuses on natural sound in how a room sounds as well as a bar and such. The film’s music by Christopher Bear and Daniel Rossen is wonderful for its somber and low-key score filled with piano-based music with some folk elements that add to the sense of longing while music supervisors Meghan Currier creates a soundtrack that features an original song from Sharon Van Etten as well as music from Leonard Cohen, Kim Kwang Seok, Paul Eakins, Them with Van Morrison, and John Cale.

The casting by Ellen Chenoweth and Susanne Scheel is marvelous as it feature some notable small roles from Min Young Ahn as Hae Sung’s mother, Ji Hye Yoon and Choi Won-young as Nora’s parents, Yeon Woo Seo as Na Young’s younger sister, the trio of Noo Ri Song, Si Ah Jin, and Yoon Seo Choi as Hae Sung’s friends in Seoul, Jojo T. Gibbs as a fellow writer that Nora works with in the film’s second act, Seung Min Yim as the young Hae Sung, and Seung Ah Moon as the young Nora in Na Young. John Magaro is brilliant as Arthur as Nora’s husband who met her at a retreat as he fell in love with her while he would later lament about the presence of Hae Sung even though he doesn’t want to cause any trouble.

Teo Yoo is amazing as Hae Sung as a Korean man who longs for Nora/Na Young as he deals with growing up in his native South Korea as well as wonder if he would ever reunite with her and later does where he goes to New York City to lament over what might’ve been if he had gone to New York City 12 years earlier. Finally, there’s Greta Lee in an incredible performance as Nora Moon/Na Young as a woman who emigrated from South Korea to Canada and later a life in New York City as a writer where she thinks about Hae Sung only to get married where she also ponders about her feelings for him upon their reunion as it is a radiant and somber performance from Lee.

Past Lives is a phenomenal film from Celine Song that features a trio of great performances from Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, and John Magaro. Along with its gorgeous visuals, a mesmerizing music soundtrack, and its story of longing and fate. It is a film that plays into destiny and fates as well as the decisions in life that would impact two childhood friends in the span of 24 years. In the end, Past Lives is a sensational film from Celine Song.

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