Past Lives Review A Spinetingling Romance Of Lost Chances
The absolutely confident feature film debut of the Korean-Canadian author and director Celine Song is a goosebumps gem, the story of a not-so-brief encounter between souls who are under a bad star and unfolds over a period of 24 years. The film combines the haunting Anxiety from Wong Kar-Wai's In the Mood for Love with the relaxed intimacy of Richard Linklater's trilogy , painting a picture of unresolved love that is as subtle as it is deep, intertwined with eternal themes of fate and fate. with a happier mood. Everyday reflection on events and changing forms of identity. The result, with one foot in South Korea and the other in North America, sometimes feels like an unlikely cross between Davey Chow's Back to Seoul and Nora Ephron's Sleepless in Seattle , imbued with a stoic melancholy reminiscent of Yasujiro's end Scene. The Story of Ozu in Tokyo . Yes that is true.
We open in a bar in New York, where an unseen patron asks, “Who are you?” Do you think they are suitable for each other? Cinematographer Shabier Kirchner's 35mm camera focuses on three clients - South Korean Hae-sung (Tee Yu), Korean-Canadian migrant Nora (Greta Lee) and Jewish-American Arthur (John Magara) - and a faceless voice "I do not know". how they can be related to each other: as siblings, colleagues or lovers.
From here we are transported back 24 years to Seoul, where school friends Na Young (real name Nora) and Hae Sun compete against each other. “He's a man,” she said, “I can marry him.” But her artist parents had other plans: to emigrate to Toronto and thus separate their future lovers.
Twelve years later, the couple reunited virtually via Facebook and Skype, sharing awkward conversations they had had at different times and in different parts of the world. He served in the army, studied engineering and is also a playwright. Together they talk about everything and nothing – the film “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” ; how close they were as children; how he comforts her when she cries. Now, in New York, she has stopped crying, partly because "no one cares" and partly because she is no longer the same person as before and finds herself in a different time, in a different culture.
Through the clear use and discussion of the Korean concept of Yin-Yun (personal relationships that transcend life) , "Past Lives" feels like a traditional made-for-each-other romance, with a touch of the familiar love triangle. But Song is more interested in how people change than in how they stay together—how identity is defined by where we are and who we were . It's no surprise that when the film's title appears on the screen, the two words "past" and "life" are separated by a large space. Generally these words mean one thing; besides, they mean something different.
Another 12-year jump takes us back to those boundaries and looks at the opening scene from a different angle - or rather, from three different angles. “We were still babies back then,” says Nora Hae-sung in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge. “We’re not kids anymore.” Then, with a humorous and insightful diaspora spirit, he notes that Hae Sun is “ very Korean.” Next to him I feel completely un-Korean . But also typically Korean…”
There's something strange about the deceptive ease with which Song's first film reconciles metaphysics and reality, creating a world where every choice has transformative power and the concepts of love and friendship are mysteriously malleable but strangely inevitable. . Song may once have been best known as a playwright, but it turns out he has a stellar film career ahead of him.
Kudos to the main characters who magically manage to portray inner conflict and ecstasy with just a slight tilt of the head or a movement of the shoulders. The wonderfully understated score by Christopher Burr and Daniel Rosen complements the picture, sandwiched between the lyrical piano theme of Eiko Ishibashi's Drive My Car soundtrack and the dazzling extravagance of Jon Brion's Punch-Drunk Love , full of original revelations, magical possibilities and ( mostly). ) the most important thing) the bitter truth.
