Past Lives
Directed by Celine SongNora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrested apart after Nora's family emigrates from South Korea. Twenty years later, they are reunited for one fateful week as they confront notions of love and destiny.
Cast of Past Lives
Past Lives Ratings & Reviews
- cultfilmlikerJuly 12, 2025“Ah… what can I do?” Probably the most beautiful film I’ve ever seen all around. From the cinematography to the story. Stunning.
- TanalienJanuary 9, 2025Past Lives is a film that leaves you in a melancholy state of reflection. These characters share a sense of trauma that only time can fade away. Beyond asking myself, what would I do if I were in any of these characters’ situation, the film is bound to bring up old stories and events long past. Why is it that we ended up where we are? The scientific answer is mere probability and coincidence, but that has never satisfied a soul. Our universal sense of destiny is the most human element in all of us. Celine Song tugs at our human chords and asks those questions that make us wonder: "Is this where I was meant to be?" Her answer: "Yes."
- Evan MayJuly 12, 2025“Past Lives” is a very human story told with restraint. Celine Song resists opportunities to indulge and make these moments any less real. It might be less entertaining, but no less meaningful. Fitting for a movie about maturity. Thoughts: 1) I want to watch more films shot on 35 mm film 2) Not a *spoiler* per se but skip reading if you’ve yet to see it: The final scene is an emotional release not only for the character but for the viewer, and it takes both character and viewer by surprise.
- Desmond DaleJanuary 24, 2025It's both romantic and cyclical like a well written villanele. It's ripe with drama and passion while portraying fully rounded characters who are flawed in minute unique ways which lends the movie the stubby backbone of realism it needs to be worth endearing. Kudos to the screenwriter for eschewing the classic love triangle trappings and opting to show the beauty of an interrelationship between three beautiful self-aware soulmates.
- Kevin WardJuly 2, 2025Past Lives marks an exquisite debut film for Celine Song. The film details a decade-spanning romance comparable to Richard Linklater's Before Trilogy. The film incorporates the Korean (Buddhist) concept of In-yun, in which thousands of connections from our past lives inform our relationships in the present (and future). Childhood friends in Korea, Na Young and Hae Sung seemingly share such a connection. They're drawn to each other as classmates, rivals, and friends. But when Na Young's family emigrates to the United States, the pair's relationship is abruptly cut short. It’s not until 12 (and 24) years later that we see the two reunite. But while Linklater's trilogy is marked by seizing fated opportunities in the moment--getting on that train, meeting up in Paris, etc.--Past Lives explores what happens when we don't. It's a meditation on the paths not taken, opportunities not seized, and whether or not those fated connections from our past lives can endure beyond. I watched this on the opening night of SIFF 2023, followed by a Q&A session with Celine Song. The film is clearly a deeply personal story to the director, but it touches on universal truths that will likely resonate emotionally with anyone who watches it. The dialogue in the script is honest, open, and genuinely humorous. Greta Lee and Yoo Teo, who play the adult versions of Na Young and Hae Sung, deliver nuanced performances through their dialogue but even more so in their brilliant non-verbal communication. Their silent glances, posture, and body language become more critical when Nora's husband, Arthur (John Magaro), enters the picture. More than just being about a pair of star-crossed lovers, there's also a moving immigrant story. Na Young's immigrant experience involves saying goodbye to Korea and leaving that life behind. In New York, she adopts the name Nora Moon and sees her life take a completely different trajectory. Like so many immigrants, Nora leaves behind essentially the whole of her identity to this point. Does the Na Young, that 12-year-old Korean girl aspiring to be a Nobel laureate and who experienced that deep connection with Hae Sung, still exist? Song described the film as "a death," implicitly an acceptance of things lost or left behind. It's a devastating romance impeccably crafted by an exciting new voice in cinema. I highly recommend you check it out.
- Rowan KrzysiakFebruary 13, 2025Pretty bog standard story of childhood friends rediscovering each other later in life.
- RyezooFebruary 4, 2025Feels very real and very sad. That's what love is.
- VarunOctober 19, 2024An amazing dreamy film with great performances that really captures the immigrant experience when you leave an important loved one behind in your country of origin. The regrets, possibilities, childhood memories, longing for your past self, loss of community and culture, it can be difficult for the soul to fully let go even years after moving and achieving success in your new life. The desire to somehow travel back to your past by reconnecting with that once important person is very tempting but you know that your soul will be filled only temporarily and eventually tear apart again because all the pain of loss you couldn’t process as a child will come rushing to the surface.
- rg9400November 1, 2024Past Lives seems to get lots of critic love, but whenever I talk to people, they don’t seem to love it nearly as much. This intrigues me because I can understand both perspectives. I feel this movie is highly subjective based on how much the core emotional struggle will resonate with your own experiences. For me, it hit pretty close to home. This idea of yearning, of relationships that are maybe not the right ones but are nonetheless something you desperately want. Everything is so subdued and gentle, on the surface, with the movie wearing its heart on its sleeve. Lines are delivered effortlessly and suffused with sentimentality. I found it compelling even if I understand how a lot of people might view it as just a very boring look into two people who drifted apart.
