Past Lives

BornKnight 1/28/2024 5:25:46PM 8.4

An american A24 very adult romance and drama movie that gets in you little by little, slow burning with a gentle flame and involves more than just love, but personal choices and fate too. Compared to a lot of romances this one is very real, and tells the story of two korean child, that lives closely together in their 12yo in sort of a "proto-date" till she emigrate to Canada and then US, already searching better changes at what she planned to do as a job (writing). Jump 12 years later accidentally she discovers that he was looking for her, and they start to chat online together, and the old fire starts to ignite again... till the day she says with a broken heart that because neither of them can see each other too soon and because she need to focus on her work they should to stop talking for a while. A while that passes in another 12 years and she gets on her life in America even marrying another writer aspirant while he gets a girlfriend. Then he decides to come visit her in NYC (that's shown in the very start (2min) of the movie, watch closely for the details in expressions that this tells so much) . A great strat for Celine Song at her debut on the big screen (as director and screenplay) and great performance of Greta Lee. An 9.5 out of 10.0 / A+ for me - most real than 80% of the ommances that you see around. Got a nomination for Academy on original screenplay and best Movie but should get more categories imo.

Cinema_Snobb 7/16/2024 4:08:21PM 8.4

Celine song directed this wonderful and emotionally complex film about holding on to the past no matter how fleeting it is. Ha Young is a young girl living in Korea. She has a crush on a boy at school named Hae Sung. The time comes when her family is immigrating to Canada. It is devastating to young Hae, who is going to miss his friend. Twelve years go by and Ha is now living in New York City and goes by the name of Nora. One day while browsing the internet she looks up Hae out of curiosity. She contacts him and learns that he has also been looking for her. They talk online for awhile, but Nora worries that the time is being taken away from what she should be doing. They stop communicating. Another twelve years passes and Nora is now married to Arthur, a writer. Hao contracts her out of the blue and says he is coming to New York and wants to see her. The scenes when he arrives are golden. The dialogue and conversation and hidden innuendo are flawlessly displayed. They have so much to say to each other, yet so much is not said. It boils under the uneasy surface. The final moments of the film are devastating, but not in the way you might expect. It leaves a longing and emotional feeling that is hard to pinpoint. "Past Lives" soars as one of the years best films and in my opinion should not be missed.

badelf 8/26/2023 4:50:20AM 8.4

Wow. For a director, Celine Song, just coming out of the gate, this is quite an impressive film. The lead actress, Greta Lee, fit the role like a soft leather glove, which speaks volumes, both for her talent, and for Song's casting. Lee's Hollywood Critics Association Best Actress award is well-deserved. Song wrote an excellent screenplay, and her direction turned it into a stunning film. Kudos to A24 for taking a chance on her. I presume they are happy with the outcome. It's rather interestingly paced in a Buddhist or Asian kind of way - slow, meditative, and more is shown than is said. Overall, it's not a perfect film, but it's close. This isn't precisely a coming-of-age movie, but the plot revolves around that (perhaps even more difficult,) developing period between the ages of 20 and mid-30s. I've held a long-standing belief that our life chapters change every seven years. You know: there are seven chakras, seven days in a week, the Seven Sisters (Pleiades), or whichever mystical seven you'd like. Over the course of three of these "theoretical" chapters, this movie focuses on two relationships in the protagonist's life, from roughly twenty-one (7*3) to approximately forty-two (7*6). She was married at about the time of a chapter shift (7*5), as if to validate my weird belief. In my world, it all makes sense. This movie is certainly somewhat autobiographical, even by Song's own admission. It will be added to my Directors About Themselves list. I can't wait to see Celine's next project!