Movie Review: 'Past Lives' Is A Gorgeous Meditation On Love, Chance

Because you'll want more minutes, more things, chances are the couple will be separated by Uber, even if they just look at each other on the street and say nothing.

Here's a short highlight from playwright Celine Gunn's beautiful debut. But it shows his incredible confidence as a director. Again and again, Gunn, who writes and directs here, chooses the unrevealed—and almost breaks our hearts in doing so, in a story that feels universal but rich in detail and urgent but not necessary. And if, like me, you suddenly feel the tears flowing, it can surprise you, because no one is trying to force them.

We begin with a trio talking in a New York bar - a woman flanked by two men. We're too far away to hear what they're saying or understand how they're related, and we hear distant voices speculate, "Maybe they're tourists, and he's a tour guide?"

24 years in Seoul, where Nora (then Nam Na Young) and her boyfriend Hae Sung, both 12 years old, are returning home from school. Nora, with her long braided hair, cries over losing first place to Hae Sung in her homework. (She's the ambitious type.) The friendship — which was too early for romance — is cut short when Nora's family moves to Canada.

Twelve years have passed. Nora (Greta Lee, superb in a sharp, textured performance that mirrors her directing style) has now moved to New York as an aspiring playwright (yes, much of this story is autobiographical). from his past. Looking for Hae-sung, she realizes that he has been looking for her lately as well.

They plan a video chat - it stalls at first, but soon they're talking day and night. Hye Sung (Teo Yoo) still lives at home, as is the case with young Koreans, and studies at university. He has plans to go to China. Nora continues to pursue her own dreams (her goal has changed from the Nobel to the Pulitzer).

When the distance becomes too painful, Nora wants a break. After a while, she goes on a writing residency and meets fellow writer Arthur (John Magaro). And again 12 years passed. The two live in Brooklyn and have been married for seven years.

Suddenly, Nora hears news from Hae Sung. He came from Seoul and wanted to meet her. Their meeting in the city park is not the same rom-com as in other movies. Song knows that real life is often unable to respond quickly, intelligently, or even temporarily. The director broke the awkward silence.

Over the next few days, the couple got to know each other. Not surprisingly, Arthur felt a bit threatened. Late at night, he confides to Nora that he has dreamed about the Korean language, a language and a world he does not know. He wonders "the guy who left you in history when your ex came to get you."

And all of a sudden we're back to that restaurant bar scene and now we've got it. All three characters try to navigate unusual situations. They discuss and expand on the Korean concept of fate, which Nora previously described as the relationship between two people influenced or defined by a relationship in a past life—hence the film's title.

Without giving away the ending, it's worth noting that Gunn draws heavily from his own life—right in that bar scene and similar visits from old connections from Korea.

He brings up many lessons here, but it seems that choices, seemingly limitless in our youth, have consequences, even (or especially) when we are not aware of them. There may not be a choice that seems irrevocable, but eventually they come together in a way of life.

But the playwright also tells us that versions of life can coexist. Nora comments at one point that although her old New York version is different, the new Korean version is still original, just on another level.

"This is my life, I live it with you", he says from the beginning and tries to impress her (and maybe himself). But one of the beautiful things about this film is how it allows for such wide and generous exposure. What can one's life be like?