“Past Lives”, by Celine Song, with two Oscar nominations, is the story of the underground passion of a man who could not forget the love of his childhood.
The first scene of “Past Lives” enters the heart of the story as a witness outside of it would do or, if you prefer a more sophisticated way, a “novelist of objectivism”: that is the initial point of view chosen by the Korean newcomer Celine Song, who with this film has already obtained two Oscar nominations, Best Film and Best Film. for Best Adapted Screenplay (also her responsibility).
That scene finds, sitting at the bar of a bar, three characters: an Asian man and woman, and a Western man. The first two talk, sometimes they smile politely, she much more than him; The third seems to be bored, but he maintains his good manners while he surely hopes that this meeting will end as soon as possible.
Then, off-screen, a man and a woman, also customers of that bar—who act as the viewer, or the narrator—begin to ask themselves questions: “What relationship will they have?” “It’s hard to say, maybe the Asian woman and the white guy are a couple, and the Asian guy is his sister” “or not: maybe the Asians are the couple, and the white guy is the American friend.” “But look: they only speak in Korean, among themselves, and leave the other out.” “Maybe they are tourists and the target is just the guide.” And so.
A long flashback of more than twenty years then begins to tell the story in a classic way: the Koreans, then schoolchildren, are the best friends at school in Seoul, although very competitive. He is already in love with her; she does not. His name is Hae Sung and she is Nora, the Western name he will assume when he leaves the homeland to pursue a career in the West (her most ardent desire of him), first in Canada and then in New York. Instead, his most ardent desire, as always, is her.
In tango terms, Nora would sing “Today you are going to enter my past”, and Hae Sung “although I did not want the return, it always returns to first love.” That is the present of the story, where we saw them at the beginning: she, established and with an American partner (the white man who gets bored with the conversation), and he, visiting, remembering some old, good times. In the middle, some more things will happen, worth seeing.
“Past Lives”, remarkably structured, told and interpreted, is the story of one of the many Noras and the many Hae Sung that there are in the world. For her, life continues to be a permanent present and future; For him, a past that resists, that cannot, stop being part of a present that no longer admits it. She seems, or pretends, not to notice the passion that she still feels for her former friend from her childhood and early youth; He imagines some miracle, one of those miracles that never happen, in which Nora abandons everything, especially her American husband, to run once into her arms.
The film does not stumble upon sentimentality or overflow; It is the refined story of a passion that revives (in him, of course), when the “networks” of the 21st century put them in contact again., which for her is a joy, of course, and for him the silliest chimera that he refuses to give up so much that he even crosses the ocean to find it again. The impartial witnesses of the first scene would need to ask themselves something that the viewer may ask themselves, when they are already aware of that passion repressed for years: “doesn’t she realize it? Or will she enjoy keeping a secret lover on the other side of the world? It’s difficult to know, there is no one Nora equal to another, nor one Hae Sung equal to another.
“Past Lives”, USA-Korea, 2023). Dir.: C. Song. Int.: G. Lee, Teo Yoo, John Magaro, Moon Seung-ah.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
