The film follows the life of Hae Sung and Na-young who were super close as children only for na-young’s family to emigrate to Canada when she was older. They are later separated for close to a decade while Hae Sung serves in the military and young moves to New York, changing her name to Nora. After doing some light research on social media they both learn more about each other and set up video calls. But as Nora is set to attend a writer’s retreat and Hae goes to china, they are unable to meet each other. At the retreat, Nora meets Arthur Zaturansky and falls in love with him and Hae starts a new relationship as well. 12 years go by and they finally meet again in New York.
Celine Song directs a slow burning, quite tender romantic film, which also includes one of the best working flashbacks we have seen in a romantic film.
Besides these, the picture actually focuses on the idea of soulmates and how this concept can determine one’s life, especially in the Korean context, where this is actually a part of a larger idea of reincarnation.
However, in this case, Song selects the two main characters outside their childhood love story, his focus single handedly on Title “The Secret”, instead, taking a more Individualistic approach. This destroys the dramatic structure of placing the first meeting of the two Koreans convincing and helpful to the troubled narrative, chasing instead the circumstances that will make it more painful. Furthermore, all the events surrounding and involving this second meeting and the way their relationship develops further on from this are built almost as the climax of the picture.
For the focus is placed at least as much on individual scenes and therefore Soong uses this to direct the film.
The first fork in the way, straight and upward, can give clues of what to expect from the journey that the two take from then and even to the rest of their lives. The bar scenes which are there at the beginning of the movie or even in the ending bar scenes along with how Song commands the first impression that the viewer is to have which is trying to understand a couple that is seen in bed and even the last scene which is very explicit on what needs to be conveyed, are more than enough reasons for someone to go and watch the film.
Because of what has been elaborated on above, it is fair to conclude that the film does drag and is filled with larger portions of the lagging plot. To be precise, the segment preceding the meeting seems to be overly extended and therefore as a result, the movie becomes 105 minutes long but that is not the case. Keith Fraase’s editing of the film could’ve been better edited or at least cut up some segments in order to quicken the pace or bring up the tension of the film. The movie however is properly developed as all the events flow and coincide and the flashbacks along with the scene transitions are placed into the story well.
With her being an artist, Shabier Kirchner’s work is as expected good, her blend of creativity and realism captures the different settings beautifully and her close ups the rather intimate scenes are perfect.
Additionally, Greta Lee, the primary star of the film, featured in the way she played, is an undeniable addition to the role which she performed, to a certain extent, increases its effect. Speaking of Greta Lee, she never lost me in any of the scenes, easily getting her morose disposition in the difficulty of the most ruthless scenes, while surpassing herself in the final act. John Magaro as her husband complements her performance rather well, while Teo Yoo as Hae-sung sweetens the deal with his performances together.
A hefty number of critics seeming to take the leap to regard “Past Lives” as a classic and in essence I wouldn’t trust myself to going that far as well but indeed, a beautifully executed performed emotional roller-coaster of a film that leaves the audience speechless while suggesting that Celine Song has a way with sentiments and graphically it is hard to tell how.
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