With over a century’s worth of cinema behind us, how many genuinely great romance films can you say you’ve seen? I’m sure, right off the top of your head, several will spring to mind, but of those, how many capture the real essence of love and romance and not just the glamorized and commodified one we’ve been trained to accept as authentic? It’s easy to long for Bogie and Bacall or the kind of stylized whirlwind affair Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn had as they traipsed around Italy, but that’s not real life, and it never has been.
To be honest, Hollywood love stories are much better at depicting what we hope our romantic lives could be like than they are at representing anything close to the things normal people say and do. It’s this disparity between reality and fantasy that makes films that accurately capture the emotions of loves lost and found again stand out like a beacon on a hill. Celine Song’s Past Lives is one of these rare exceptions.
Yet, perhaps frustratingly for some, Past Lives isn’t exactly a romantic film, at least not in the traditional sense. While it’s true that it gets to the heart of what love is, what it means, and the many forms it comes in with more honesty and self-awareness than decades of predecessors, it doesn’t operate by any known formulas and frequently takes fascinating swerves that force personal and emotional exploration. It works on principles of sincerity rather than manipulation, and pragmatism rather than excess.
Spanning over twenty years, Past Lives follows the lives of Nora (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), a pair of close childhood friends from Korea (their younger versions played by Seung Ah Moon and Seung Min Yim, respectively) who are separated, eventually reunite via social media, drift apart again, and finally meet in person after spending most of their lives apart. Through it all, and through a myriad of personal and professional changes, Nora and Hae Sung contemplate the meaning and importance of their relationship and how it can fit into their present lives, culminating in what is sure to be the most emotionally fulfilling climax of the year, if not many years.
Song accomplishes this with a refreshingly reserved style that allows her sentiment to shine without overpowering her story or risking her film becoming a mushy gruel of melodramatic saccharine. It’s the story that matters, after all, and the kind of flash and idealized glamor found in most romantic movies would weaken the very sound foundation the film is built on – a foundation that also includes its stunning cast.
Greta Lee and Teo Yoo are absolutely magnetic as Nora and Hae Sung, with each bringing a unique sense of humanism that mixes perfectly with Song’s vision. As both struggle with their own sense of culture, heritage, and place in the world, it’s very easy to empathize with them thanks to their unmatched chemistry and the warm emotion with which they interact. This outstanding awareness of human nature and the complexities of relationships of all kinds makes Past Lives not only one of the best films of the year, but a treasure to be admired for many years to come.
James is a writer, skateboarder, record collector, wrestling nerd, and tabletop gamer living with his family in Asheville, North Carolina. He is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association, the North Carolina Film Critics Association, and contributes to The Daily Orca, Razorcake Magazine, Mountain Xpress, and Asheville Movies.