Since this film had its première at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2023, went on to be awarded with the Golden Bear in Berlin in February and got widely spoken about as a sure Oscar win, I have been anticipating my chance to see it. Past Lives is the first movie of the director Celine Song, who was born in South Korea. When she was 12, her family emigrated to Canada, where she grew up in a family of artists. Nowadays she resides in New York, working as a director and screenwriter.

Past Lives has all these ingredients. It starts in Korea, where two childhood friends, Na Young and HaeSung get separated when Na Young’s family emigrates to Canada. Twenty years later they meet each other again for one week when Hae Sung visits New York, where Na Young (now called Nora) lives with her gentle writer husband Arthur. Hae Sung and Nora haven’t forgotten what they once had between them. It becomes a week of confronting their thoughts and feelings in the past and their notions of love and destiny.

This is tender, patient, humane and delicate story-telling. It is about a connection that once was strong and real, but for some reason got an ending. That it should not be considered as a loss, but as a precious gift for its time. Greta Lee, who plays the role of Nora, radiates such an integrity and an understanding of the nuances of love and feeling. She shows us an important lesson that you can delight in the memories of your past life while acknowledging that life has moved on and valuable things have been left behind.

It is also about being uprooted, about immigration, leaving behind a life and culture and starting again in another place and culture. To meet the reality that through that act doors have been closed and new doors have been opened. Nora’s mother said when they left Korea: ”If you leave something behind, you gain something, too.”

The visuals of the walks during the week in New York and those between home and school in Seoul, the ease of connection between the childhood friends, the integrity of everyone involved and the deeper issues the film presents, all this makes Past Lives a film to love!

Rinus Baljeu, October 2023

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