Past Lives Movie Review: That Goosebumps Feeling Again
"Past Lives" is probably the best love story you'll see on screen this year, and is a serious contender alongside "Casablanca" for one of the best romance films of all time.
Past Lives is a work of rare and immense resonance, in which we feel the mutual love between the characters, from their 12-year school days in Seoul to that crucial meeting in New York, where Hae Sung reluctantly lives. Leaving his cultural comfort zone, he makes the long journey to New York to meet Na Young, who has Americanized her name as Nora, but when they are apart, his heart still beats for Hae Sung from Seoul.
As Nora explains, this childhood love was her former life. In this life, she is an American citizen married to Arthur (John Magaro), a warm and caring American alpha male.
It is no coincidence that the name of the young director Celine Song has a musical touch. Past Lives is soulful music. The rhythms of love live in the silent hum of eternity.
As the experience of the diaspora shows, there is also a duality in the attitude of love. Na Young/Nora loves her childhood “best friend,” Hae Sung. But in his opinion that is a thing of the past. The meeting of two lost souls in New York and how the Korean concept of "Yin-Yun" can be brought together for a lifetime is so beautifully portrayed, even if they meet by chance on the street. It's like watching characters on a moving train. They appear before us in streams of consciousness and then disappear. But we must never forget these two soulmates... no, make it all three souls, because Arthur is also an integral part of the film.
It's hard to find fault with this unforgettable masterpiece. Every performance, every note that sounds so strong in the ambient music, every spoken word and especially the unspoken feeling is like a drop of water on a trembling leaf.
Past Lives is a pure and honest love story. It will leave you crying inconsolably for all the unrequited love in the world. From Leila-Majnu to Princess Diana-Hasnat Khan.
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