Past Lives is a film that anyone in the Film community has at least heard of or are aware of. The film premiered at Sundance to some rave reviews, including being the best film at the festival this year for fellow critic friends. I was able to finally check it out at an advanced screening at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto. I waited an hour in the rush line and I thankfully was able to get a last minute seat to the screening.
The best way to describe the film is a blend of Lost In Translation and Wong Kar Wai’s romance films. To put it simply, the plot follows a woman and a man that she knew when she was 12 as they find themselves on a 24 year long journey to find themselves again. The pair really were fond of each other, but she was taken by her mom to live in Toronto, and she moved to New York after to pursue a career in writing. The film is cut into three sections and I think it helps the film. The first section sees the pair as 12 year olds as they meet and grow a bond until Nora moves away. The second section sees the pair (Nora and Hae Sung) find each other when they are 24. They begin to bond, but certain things drag them apart once more. The last section of the film is them at 36 finally seeing each other again, but it’s more complicated since so many things had changed since they last saw each other. The film has a great structure that keeps you invested throughout.
The one stand out element that most agree on is the performances. Greta Lee and Teo Yoo as Nora and Hae Sung are two perfectly developed characters. Part of that comes from the fantastic direction and writing from Celine Song, who did amazing seeing that this her first film. The other part that caused me to have such a connection to them as characters was the fantastic performances. Greta Lee and Teo Yoo are two to watch when awards season comes around. I could see them try to sell them like they did last year with Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan as a double performance, or what should have been done with Drive My Car and the stellar performances from Hidetoshi Nishijima and Toko Miura which unfortunately didn’t play out. These two have such a good chemistry that helps cement the story around it as the whole thing is focused on them specifically. The performance from John Magaro as Nora’s husband in the second half was also perfectly tuned to the frequency of the film. He’s definitely one of my choices at this moment in time for a possible Best Supporting Actor nomination.
As I stated in the last paragraph, so much of this film hinges on the story and how much you get from it as a viewer. The film is definitely following a structure and style that has been done a lot in the romance genre, that being the love triangle, long lost lovers idea, but this film finds a way to keep it fresh and unique. The film focuses on a concept called “inyeon” which I haven’t really seen in another film that probably made this film unique to me. The idea is that there are ties between everyone and some people have more ties between other individuals. Kind of a korean take on the star crossed lovers concept, but very interesting and compelling in connection to this film’s premise.
The film wouldn’t be able to have such a rich story and characters if it wasn’t for Celine Song and her writing and directing. As stated before, this was her first feature film and I’m quite impressed. Many filmmakers throughout the years have shown promise in their first works, but there were things that held these early works back from being truly perfect. There’s been quite the amount of filmmakers of late who have been able to defy that concept and continue their quality throughout the rest of their work. Peele and Gerwig are two great examples of that and Celine Song definitely deserves to sit with those talented filmmakers in the list of fantastic first features. The film feels so personal to Song as a person, yet the film is also super relatable and easy to vibe with on a more general level.
Past Lives is another success from A24, continuing to show the fact that if you give filmmakers a modest budget and let them make what they want, magic is created. From Celine Song’s pitch perfect writing and directing, to the fantastic performances from Lee and Yoo, Past Lives is a film that proves that personal stories work really well when the artists are allowed to fully tell it. A24 has another awards season smash if they market it correctly and get the word out as well as they have for some of their previous films. If you see Past Lives playing at your local theatre, definitely check it out!
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