Past Lives

Past Lives is a beautifully understated and emotionally resonant film about the power of love, loss, and second chances. The film follows Nora (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), two childhood friends who are reunited 20 years after they were separated by Nora's family's emigration from South Korea. The film explores the complex emotions that arise when these two old friends reconnect, as they grapple with the choices they've made in their lives and the possibility of what might have been.

Song's direction is assured and sensitive, and she elicits outstanding performances from her two leads. Lee and Yoo are both incredibly charismatic and believable as Nora and Hae Sung, and their chemistry is undeniable.

The film's cinematography is gorgeous, with Shabier Kirchner's lens capturing the beauty of both Seoul and New York City. The film's score is also superb, with a haunting and evocative soundtrack that perfectly complements the film's emotional tone.

Past Lives is a beautifully made and deeply moving film that will stay with you long after you've seen it. It's a film about love, loss, and the power of second chances, and it's sure to resonate with anyone who has ever experienced the pain of separation or the joy of reunion.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Some of the things that I particularly liked about the film include:

The film's understated and realistic depiction of love and relationships.

The film's sensitive and nuanced portrayal of the Asian American experience.

The film's beautiful cinematography and evocative score.

The film's two lead performances, which are both incredibly charismatic and believable.

Overall, I thought Past Lives was a beautiful and moving film that is sure to stay with me long after I've seen it. I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a thoughtful and emotionally resonant film to watch.

Here is a film that looks nothing, offers a beautiful evening, full of sincerity and missed opportunity. Very well played and an irreproachable aesthetic, hard not to be touched by this feeling, that we all knew one day.

The staging fits with the passing of time, we navigate in space as we navigate in our lives, our choices, our hopes and our regrets. There is something very poetic and somewhat tragic in all this and it was difficult for me not to be touched by its final which is as simple as successful.

A film that is as touching as it is just, offering a point of view on expatriation and the roots of feelings, while offering a nice surprise on the veracity of feelings through a life and the choices that result.

Like the characters, I didn't see the time pass...

I really enjoyed this film. What I love about Oscar season is that I'm encouraged to watch films I normally wouldn't go to (yes I know, I'm one of those people). I think the thing I most enjoyed about this film was the purely naturalistic feel to it. Some may call this mundane but life isn't always like a romance novel. Who can really say they didn't have a connection with someone from their past that they wished they had the option to explore. Things happen in our lives and the natural reaction to that is to wonder what could have been and I love how this film shows these characters exploring that and wanting to hold on to something in their past but also acknowledging that life goes on and you can't always live that fairy tale! How it was shot was also beautiful and I really like what the cinematography team did. This is very much a worthy best film nominee!

And first-time director Celine Song has created one of these. It's a masterpiece of deeply genuine human emotion. And that masterpiece is Past Lives.

Song's dialogue is understated to the point of risking not creating a connection with the characters. It would not have worked with sub-par actors. But the risk payed off big time-all of these actors are wonderful, allowing their body language and line delivery fill in the gaps with their characters' true psychology.

A simple plot becomes a richly complex story of lost love, sought closure, and found purpose; and it's all due to Celine Song having the proper understanding of when to allow silence to speak.

Yet despite the frequent bouts of silence, not a moment feels wasted. Every shot and sentence is meticulously edited to give us exactly what we need to feel each moment with its full emotional power.

This very well may be the best film of 2023. It's the work of a master storyteller, and it's only her first film.

I felt like this film touched on so many subtle, unsaid things between people: love that's lost because two people don't know how to/don't want to prioritize it, the convenience of being in some relationships, the feeling like you're saying something just because you think it's the right thing to say (especially around the people that you think need to hear it) when deep down it doesn't feel like the truth whatsoever, and going along with something because you've already committed to it instead of doing it because you want to do it. I know that's vague, but I didn't want to spoil anything, but maybe once you've seen it you'll know what I mean. It was all handled so beautifully and had such heartbreakingly sincere human experiences. I think it's safe to say that in the end, we have no effing idea what we are doing and how it will turn out, but we just hope it's the right decision in the moment.