Past Lives Movie Review: An Achingly Beautiful Love Story
Past Lives is a movie that explores a relationship between two people who, over the years, have always had the potential to be together but never quite made it happen. Now, 20 years after meeting in elementary school, they reconnect and have to confront their feelings for each other under very different circumstances.
The film introduces the main characters, Nora and Hae Sung, as elementary school students in Korea. Nora leaves Korea with her family to immigrate to Canada. Hae Sung stays in Korea and the two lose touch. Fast forward many years, and Nora is now married to her husband, Arthur, in New York. Hae Sung has also dated here and there, but after a “break-up” with his girlfriend, he decides to pay a long overdue visit to Nora in the US. The childhood sweethearts reunite and realize that they have something special between them. But they also feel like strangers to one another.
This movie is a beautiful way of exploring the age old question of “what if”? As humans, it’s part of our nature to look back on our lives and think about those people who you connected deeply with, and potentially even loved. But for some reason, maybe the friendship or relationship fizzled out and there’s an emptiness between you both. These could be exes, crushes, you name it. Exploring this feeling helps make the movie feel so relatable.
There is one line in the movie where Hae Sung tells Nora, “To me, you are the one who always leaves. But to Arthur, you are the one who always stays.” I think this line is another way of saying, “when one door closes, another opens,” but in a way that feels very personalized to Nora’s life. There’s no doubt that Hae Sung and Nora have something special. But at the same time, Nora and Arthur have something that is also special, maybe even more special, because Arther is the person Nora has decided to spend her life with. There’s no point in regretting the past, because every decision made has led a person to being who they are today. And we should never take for granted the love and relationships we are surrounded by in our present lives.
Past Lives is a film that makes you feel nostalgic and thoughtful. It has an artsy feel to it, with many moments when characters are standing in silence and communicating without words. Even in the silence, you know exactly what each character is feeling and experiencing, because it’s palpable in the air. Would highly recommend this film!