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Past Lives Movie Review

Past Lives is a 2023 romantic drama film directed by Celine Song and starring Greta Lee. It’s one understated yet deep statement on first love, immigration and lost opportunities.

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“You make my world so much bigger

and I’m wondering if I do the same for you?“

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Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrest apart after Nora’s family emigrates from South Korea. Decades later, they are reunited for one fateful week as they confront destiny, love and the choices that make a life. Past Lives is a romance, which in and of itself is a small miracle as we do not get many romantic movies these days. But in keeping with the tradition of an era where examining our emotions is of the utmost importance to most people, the film is an introspective and tragic take on the genre.

Some basic parallels can be drawn between this picture and David Lean’s seminal 40s weeper ‘Brief Encounter’ – both feature characters sharing a couple of days together and both end with heartbreak due to too many things stacked against their relationship. But what sets this film apart is its very understated, but unusually insightful and sophisticated exploration of deep themes about the human condition that ring true for everyone.

Past Lives is, yes, a very depressing film, but also a necessary one. I got lost in its pensive and wistful tone that allowed for an even deeper probing into these themes. First love is explored so beautifully here. The movie states that we always romanticize our first relationships, but it is also very much a cautionary tale about the dangers of settling instead of trusting your instincts. There were so many times during the film when the protagonist and her past love could have reconnected, but they never did, and it is exactly this whirlwind of emotional highs that makes the movie so delightfully cinematic.

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What Celine Song did here was truly incredible for a debuting director. She managed to imbue the film with so much raw cinematic power and a great emphasis on simplicity and elegance while still not forgetting to include nuanced and provocative conversations that really stuck with me. It was obviously a personal film for her and her exploration of immigration was also beautifully handled. When you leave your country, you will always feel like a stranger in a new place, but when you go back, you will also feel alienated from the people you left behind, and that sense of nostalgia and the impact of different paths in life was at the core of this story.

Greta Lee was absolutely marvelous as Nora, a very well realized and empathetic character whom Lee acted out with so much subtlety and poise. You could just see so many conflicted emotions playing over her face and hopefully the Oscars will recognize her strong work here. While Nora very much felt like a real, fleshed out character, the men weren’t as believable. We do get to see a glimpse into the life of Hae Sung, but not nearly enough as Nora is the main focus of the story.

Her husband Arthur also felt too unbelievable. He was way too chill about this whole situation, even going as far as going on a date with his wife and her past love. The movie, thus, obviously tried to depict men in a positively modern, less controlling manner, but this was not a healthy way to deal with this situation at all, not to mention that the vast majority of men would not be like this. So, even though I thoroughly enjoyed their discussions and how they explored insecurities and gaping holes within relationships, I still found them too difficult to buy.

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Past Lives very much has that Asian cinema flair, which made it unique and lovely. The cinematography confidently captures the imposing beauty of a large city such as New York. The highlights were the scenes where the characters were in the distance talking while the camera stayed firmly put to capture them within this environment, making them seem like misfit strangers in this strange new world. The film is slowly paced, but it’s one of those stories that are so captivating that ultimately I did not mind that pacing.