Synopsis
Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrest apart after Nora's family emigrates from South Korea. 20 years later, they are reunited for one fateful week as they confront notions of love and destiny.
2023 Directed by Celine Song
Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrest apart after Nora's family emigrates from South Korea. 20 years later, they are reunited for one fateful week as they confront notions of love and destiny.
ครั้งหนึ่ง...ซึ่งคิดถึงตลอดไป, 怕死來福, 패스트 라이브즈, パスト・ライブス, 過去の人生, 过往人生, Geçmiş Yaşamlar, الحيوات السابقة, Минали животи, Minulé životy, Past Lives - In einem anderen Leben, Περασμένες Ζωές, Past Lives (Vidas pasadas), Past Lives – Nos vies d’avant, חיים שלמים, Prošli životi, Előző életek, Praėję gyvenimai, Poprzednie życie, Din Alte Vieți, Прошлые жизни, Pretekla življenja, Прошли животи, Минулі життя, Muôn Kiếp Nhân Duyên, 從前的我們, 之前的我們
You know when a movie is directly made for you to feel ripped apart into 1 million pieces but that feeling alone makes you feel like a complete person and then you get to drive alone home and cry to Radiohead? Yeah :) yeah one of those ones for lil ol’ Edebiri (me!)
telling your long lost friend and potential lover to watch eternal sunshine is an act of emotional violence
he was the boy every girl in school liked, but i liked him most. to be fair, it wasn’t much of a competition. i knew him best, because i was his best friend. but for awhile, i thought that’s all i’d ever be. because i’d had the misfortune of being a girl born in a boy’s body.
we met in eighth grade. he was the new kid, and i was his first friend. later, i liked to say that i “got to him first.” we had been paired up as partners in health class, and we were inexplicably a perfect fit - i had no other friends in class, and he had no other friends at all. so, we found…
the kinda movie that makes you want to sit down and write a book about your life
him: where’s montauk?
her: have you seen eternal sunshine of the spotless mind?
me: these are my people i’m with my people
An incredibly moving depiction of those intangible forces that pull us together, but sometimes rip us apart. Powerfully acted by all, but even more impressive is Song’s disciplined direction— which allows us to absorb every heart-aching moment. There’s patience, even in the moments where we so desperately want answers.
The extraordinary thing about Celine Song’s Past Lives is how it’s able to pose so many questions, but none that have any definitive answers. Should they be together? Should they not? What if this or what if that. It’s an exploration of the fundamentally simplest life questions— the kind where the arrived answer is sometimes the most agonizing.
Adding the — You dream in a language that I can't understand to my own depressing cinematic universe that already includes hits like:
— I love you. It'll pass.
— Feelings can creep up just like that.
— I'll go. And I'll stay.
— I think it's nice that we share the same sky.