Past Lives

Past Lives

Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrest apart after Nora’s family emigrates from South Korea. Two decades later, they are reunited in New York for one fateful week as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life.

  • Released: 2023-06-02
  • Runtime: 106 minutes
  • Genre: Drama, Romance
  • Stars: Yoo Teo, Greta Lee, John Magaro, Jojo T. Gibbs, Moon Seung-a, Emily Cass McDonnell, Federico Rodriguez, Kristen Sieh
  • Director: Celine Song
 Comments
  • thisisgere - 1 July 2024
    A really sweet movie about online dating, cultural differences and more
    I don't have much to say about the film other than it is a really sweet and emotionally engaging film. The leads play their roles well, the script draws a very believable world with real emotions and problems.

    I'm just curious about what South Korean folks think about the film since it centered about this culture and the experiences of its people.

    The story is based on the real life experiences of its writer/director and that's quite an amazing accomplishment.

    It makes this movie just a cut above the rest as a personal work.

    Choose this film for a comfy and enjoyable night at the movies. Cheers.
  • rich-rossi-50 - 8 June 2024
    Not the same thing you've seen
    Maybe it's a function of my age (51), but there are a whole lot of movies and TV shows these days that seem like a regurgitated version of something I've seen before. So many times the dialogue is unnatural or I feel like I'm watching a play. Sometimes those movies can be enjoyable and I think that if I hadn't seen so many movies I would enjoy the experience more. This was something different. This movie was a rare experience of really embracing the deep emotions of 3 people in a very complicated situation. It didn't feed you the emotions, it drew them out of you. The dialogue was brilliant not only for what it did say, but for what it didn't say but made you feel. Facial expressions, body language, pauses, cautious looks... subtle, but done incredibly well. I think that my favorite part of this movie was the lack of any visible outbursts, there wasn't a character that was at fault. There were 3 people who are all feeling strong and deep emotions. The hurt is strong, but there is no guilty party that is responsible for it. I thought it was brilliant and masterfully executed.
  • klinhchu - 11 May 2024
    How a good story line got underdone
    Like others had reviewed, I get how the director and writer had this idea and vision of lost love storyline in mind and how it intertwined with inevitable and capricious fate, rendering people with completely different lives compared to how they used to dream of, but it wasn't executed well at all, mainly stemming from the lack of meaningful dialogues, proper buildups of characters and hence their supposedly gradual poignant affections to each other. This was augmented by subpar acting, where it felt a bit awkward watching them two look and stare at each other, especially the Nora actress and how she sometimes had this empty eyes whilst talking to her husband. The two main's conversations felt cringe and farfetched, as if someone with no similar experience tried to write about what/ how long-lost lovers do and talk when they re-encounter years after. Cinematography is on the other hand highly commendable with beautiful shots portraying lives in New York and Seoul, colour palette and grainy texture of the film definitely gives off the retro sad love and re-encounters; however sometimes the way the camera was set at portrait scenes felt a bit too direct and awkward, further highlighting awkward acting. I did burst out crying a lot at the final scene when Nora leaned over to her husband trying to find comfort and actually receiving one. Here the music definitely enhanced the whole experience, appealing to the failed dreams and universal regrets of all the characters as well as us audiance as human beings. Hae Sung definitely was the representation of Nora's past lives and past dreams, and him coming back was the awakening of Nora's regrettable lives and how she knew all too well that she couldn't go back anymore. I love how the Arthur character was written to be sharing almost the same life as Nora with the exact list of movies the exact genres of music, the exact dream and hence the life where he ended up being "just a writer". He also had this intricate concoction of unconditional love and empathy for his wife's narrative, yet being filled with only human envy and powerlessnes watching her heartbroken by another man. Overall a solid 5-6/10 watch.
  • rajeevvashista-97116 - 2 May 2024
    Confused love story
    In the name of love someone is showing a confused love story where a girl time and again leaves a boy and boy makes sucker of himself before the girl. Not only you feel lost in end but by bringing boy missing girl you sympathise his mental imbalance. I am sure this movie could have gone in time loop where girl will leave the boy again and again and boy will keep on getting embarassed but keep on loving girl, though it is not love by any angle. Whatever story writer is writing and Director put on screen will left you feel cheated as whole story never moves ahead and whole story could have summed up in just first 10 minutes. Useless film, sheer waste of time.