“There’s a word in Korean, 인연; In-yun. It means providence or fate; but it’s specifically about the relationship between people. It’s an In-yun if two strangers even walk by each other in the street, and their clothes accidentally brush because it means that there must have been something between them in their past lives. If two people get married; they say it’s because there have been 8000 layers of In-yun over 8000 lifetimes.”
Grief is such an interesting journey and often, it’s in the moments that you swear you’ve healed from the ache that something knocks you back to the moment when you lost someone. For me, it was Blindspotting in 2018, last year it was the song “High Water” by Bishop Briggs and last week it was the film Past Lives.
It’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that this movie is Celine Song’s directorial debut. Not only is the script full of nuance and emotional maturity but the tone of the film felt extremely melancholic; Celine Song had a clear vision for the film and she executed it perfectly. Childhood best friends Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) and Nora (Greta Lee) are growing up in South Korea when Nora’s family decides to emigrate to the United States. Decades later they find each through Facebook, though there’s still many miles between them they work on getting to know the new version of themselves. Keeping in touch becomes difficult for Nora and she asks for a break in the friendship. More decades pass, now Nora is happily married and Hae is about to embark on a solo trip to New York, where Nora now lives. They reunite and reminisce over their shared experiences, as well as all the lives that they have lived since they last saw each other.
This movie will cradle your heart through a journey of emotions that I guarantee you are unprepared for. The dialogue is emotionally intelligent and it drives the entire story, the real stand outs here are Greta Lee and Teo Yoo. Greta Lee’s performance is quiet, she moves so stealthily throughout the film that the impact of what she’s done on screen doesn’t truly hit you until the last scene. Teo Yoo and the man that he is! His performance is the heart of this film. Teo is magic on screen and perfectly captured every emotion in a way that made my heart ache. Their chemistry together is so palpable that they have you invested in their love from the moment the movie starts.
More than a love story though, this film is a love letter to Korean culture and to the immigrant experience. We don’t often get to hear about the things, and people, and moments that get left behind. This film not only reminds us of the love that so many families leave behind when they go in search of a better life. Celine Song beautifully centers this struggle in Past Lives. More than that though, this film allows you to mourn for the versions of ourselves that were left in countries that we no longer feel at home in.
The ending of this movie, much like life often is, feels complicated. It will make you ache and if you’re the girl sitting next to me at that AMC in Los Angeles, then it makes you curl into yourself and let out a loud sob. This story lives in the gray area, the area that is often so difficult to explain. People are layered, experiences aren’t easily dissected and sometimes people take impact you in a way that will alter your entire existence. This story is for the people that left holes in the parts of us that we don’t often talk about.
Everybody say, “Thank you Celine Song for making this film”.
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