Film Pick of the Week: Past Lives - review by Yvette Huddleston

It opens in a bar in New York with the camera focussed on three people – two men and a woman, two are Korean, one is a white American. A voiceover dialogue playfully speculates who these people may be and the relationship between them. Then we flash back to ’24 years earlier’ in South Korea and meet 12-year-old friends Na-young (Seung Ah-moon) and Hae-sung (Seung Min-yim) who are walking back from school together. Hae-sung asks his friend why she is crying and works out that it is because he has, for once, got higher grades than her in class. There is that slight competitive edge to their friendship but they are close and easy in each other’s company. Then Na-young announces to the class that her family is emigrating. Before they set off to their new life in Canada, a ‘date’ is arranged by the two children’s mothers at a nearby park. It is sweet and innocent – the two hold hands in the car on the way home.

We then cut to 12 years later when the pair are in their 20s. Na-young (Greta Lee), who has changed her name to Nora Moon, is now an up-and-coming playwright living in New York while Hae-sung (Teo Yoo), having completed his military service, is a student in Seoul studying engineering. They reconnect through Facebook, Hae-sung has left a message on Na-young’s film director father’s page saying he would like to get in touch with her, and they begin to have regular conversations online. Their connection and obvious affection for one another is palpable, it is clear that they have missed each other and there is definitely a sense that they should be together. But distance, and other factors, get in the way…

Another 12 years pass and Hae-sung visits New York on vacation. By this time, he is single again, having split up from his girlfriend, while Nora is now seemingly happily married to American writer Arthur (John Magaro). Where might the two friends’ relationship go from here? And how could their story have been different?

Song and her cinematographer Shabier Kirchner create some truly stunning compositions and the whole tone of the film is gentle, lyrical and totally engaging. Subtle, profound, moving and emotionally intelligent, this is one to savour.