Past Lives

 2024 Oscar Awards

Best Picture Nominee
Celine Song: Best Original Screenplay Nominee

In this semi autobiographical film, written and directed by Celine Song, a Korean Canadian film maker, Nora (Greta Lee) or Na Young as she was known in South Korea and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) are classmates in a school in Seoul. They were pretty close and would probably have ended up married to each other but destiny had other plans. At age 12, Nora's entire family migrate to Canada. When her mother was asked why they were leaving Seoul despite having good jobs. She tells Hae Sung's mother "If you leave something, you gain something too".

12 years past by, Nora is studying to be a playwright. She sees a comment on her father's FB page from Hae Sung who was wondering where he could contact his former classmate. They begin communicating through video calls. Despite the time difference, their line of communication is constant. She lives in New York now while he is still in Seoul. Sort of a LDR, (long distance relationship) but not really romantic, there is no label for their situationship (is that what they call it now?) given that they are continents apart. 

You see Nora is a very driven young woman. When she was young in Seoul, she said she was leaving because no one in Korea wins the Nobel Peace Prize. She is focused on getting things done. She decided to end the line of communication with Hae Sung because obviously life takes precedence over anything else. She is going on a writer's retreat while he is busy with his engineering studies. They don't have the luxury of just hopping on a plane to see each other either in Seoul or New York.

12 more years pass by, Nora is now married to Arthur, a Jewish novelist. Hae Sung emails her to say he is finally visiting New York for a short vacation. This stirs up a lot of mixed emotions for Nora but keeps a calm and collected exterior. While Hae Sung is clearly still in love with Nora, he is mature enough to know his limitations, somehow needs closure, a proper good bye, so to speak.

When they finally meet up, it is a bit awkward for the both of them. The pivotal scene at the bar (with her husband Arthur as the third wheel), Hae Sung asks a lot of "what if" questions. He ponders out loud to Nora all the different scenarios that could or could not have happened. Her simple answer is "I don't know". By the way, Nora and Hae Sung speak in Korean to each other while she would sometimes translate it into English for Arthur.

Nora is not a slave to her past, her frame of mind is now focused on the present. She tell Hae Sung that his memory of her as a 12 year old girl is someone she left in Seoul. He concedes and accepts by telling her that she was too big for Seoul. She had lofty ideas, far reaching goals. I totally agree with Nora because who we were when we were 12 years old with pigtails is a totally different person from who we become at 24, 36 or even 48 years of age. 

In the same aspect, "Past Lives" will hit differently for the viewers. It depends on how old you are, on your level of maturity, on your concept of fate and destiny, on your past, present and future journey in life. That is the beauty of this film, it will definitely make an impact whether you are a fresh graduate, a new mom or an empty nester. It will simply linger on, linger more and keep lingering.