I’m on a two week staycation at the moment, and that means I’m probably going to be seeing more movies over that time. But at the same time, I don’t feel like hitting the multiplex every day, and the Stacker Challenge is taking up a good deal of my time anyway. But hey, I can get out to see some sort of independent arthouse thing like Past Lives. As near as I can make out, the movie got nearly universal acclaim, and it was likely not going to be staying at the local AMC for very long anyway.
There was actually a decent-sized group at my screening considering how many seats there were.
The movie opens with two people, off-screen, wondering what sort of relationship three people sitting together at a bar have. The three are later identified as Nora Moon (Greta Lee), Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), and David (John Magaro). The unseen pair are wondering whether Nora is with either of the two men. And the answer to that question is, well, maybe a little complicated. Nora grew up in Korea under her original name of Na Young before her family immigrated to Toronto. Before she left, she had a date with her classmate Hae Sung. The two then didn’t speak for twelve years, reconnected online before a period when she was in New York and preparing for a writer’s residency and he was getting ready to go to study engineering. Then, twelve years later, he’s coming to New York to see her. David is her husband. She met him during the countryside residency.
So, Nora and Hae Sung really like each other and do connect well, but David is not a bad guy in any way. In fact, as a writer himself, he hangs the proverbial lampshade on it by pointing out how, in a story, he’d be the evil American who gets in the way of the childhood sweethearts, and the thought of this is breaking his heart. However, the relationship between Nora and Hae Sung is a bit more complicated than what David’s story suggests. He’s a likable man, not some ogre standing in the way of true love. So, what exactly is the relationship between Nora and Hae Sung?
That’s the question for this movie, and it doesn’t answer it in a simple way. The movie plays with the Korean concept of in-yeon, something that implies connections through past lives and maybe with a bit of destiny thrown in. Hae Sung and Nora, to varying degrees, both believe all three of them are connected through these past lives, and Hae Sung admits to liking David himself. There are other factors, most notably how Nora has become much more American while Hae Sung is still the very model of a Korean man. The relationship between these two is not what the premise or trailers might have implied.
And that is what makes the movie as good as it is. Nora is in the middle between two men, either of whom might make a good match, but the movie is clear which one she’s going to be with. For all that Hae Sung may be interested in her and her interest in him is somewhat undefined at times, the two only had one date together before they were physically separated for over twenty years. This is a movie that takes a mature look at young love and how people grow over time. This isn’t some sort of standard Hollywood rom com. It’s a look at what sort of love people can feel for each other in a more realistic sort of story.
Grade: A
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