» Past Lives at Sydney Film Festival – review Something You Said

Past Lives at Sydney Film Festival – review

June 12, 2023

We sent Addy Fong along to check out Past Lives at Sydney Film Festival. Here are her thoughts:

Inspired loosely from her own personal experience of reconnecting with a childhood friend, Celine Song’s debut film Past Lives speaks of the tension between what is and what could have been. Centred around two childhood friends Nora (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), who reconnect after decades of being apart, the film paints a bittersweet picture of a possible missed romance and ideas of what could have been.

Past Lives opens with three characters sitting together at a bar as a voice asks, ‘who do you think they are to each other?’ Without clues or context the audience is left guessing, An Asian male in a neatly kept button-up shirt on one side, an Asian female in a black dress in the middle, and an American male with a scruffy beard and white collared shirt on the other. The voice comments on commonly made assumptions about the trio, and cleverly so, presenting the viewer with often thought about assumptions about those we observe before truly getting to know them.

Audiences can’t help but get caught up by the whirlwind of romance felt throughout. The camera is always moving, it’s meditative and at times slow, intertwined with shots of objects, of landscapes and buildings, close-ups of things observed paired beautifully with a emotionally calming soundtrack.

Everyone of course is beautiful, allowing audiences to be mesmerised by story and romantic ideals of In-Yun, destiny, or fate. In the film the words, ‘12 years pass’ appear twice throughout, an intentional decision by Song whose script touches on Buddhist concepts of reincarnation, fate, and intertwining souls. Perhaps the mention of these twelve years parallel the twelve zodiac animals many Asian cultures believe in, the idea that love or fate is dependent on Zodiac compatibility of what year you were born in or the cyclical reset of each zodiac as time cycles through. For 12 years to pass twice in Song’s Past Lives you’re almost left wondering if one cycle has been gifted to Nora and the other to Hae Sung, For each new year, each new cycle, comes with new opportunities and choices. Further more, the idea of destiny or fate’s cyclical nature is shown when the opening scene of the trio at the bar is revisited towards the film’s conclusion.

Thanks to social media, connecting or reconnecting with those we once knew is almost easy, instantaneous event, but there is still a disconnect when the reality of life comes crashing down. Song shows the ease both Nora and Hae Sung share reconnecting with one another through a series of Skype calls and messages, followed soon after by the harsh realities of opposing time zone, busy lives, and missed calls. Perhaps this is destiny or In Yun, as the film hints at throughout.

There is a cleverness and an awareness throughout the film’s structure regarding romance as Song weaves cliches of romance throughout. The two childhood friends Nora and Hae Sung ride the New York ferry, walk across the pier and chat and speak about each other’s past and present romances, sharing candidly as they reconnect. In this scene Song splatters couples across the frame, they’re just outta focus but are seen making out, as if hinting that the stars have aligned and the two are meant to be together. The only caveat: Nora is already married.

In the film it is almost as if Nora’s husband Arthur (John Magaro) is introduced as a third additional character, as Song’s introduction of Arthur feels foreign to audiences who have developed an understanding of the relationship between Nora and Hae Yung in the scenes prior. Social taboo dictates the shamefulness of divorce especially within Asian families, perhaps to do with the breakdown of marriage and family structure, but for Nora being an American Korean, a child of immigrant parents, married to a Jewish man, there is a conflict between these two worlds which parallels the feeling audiences have. Despite knowing that Nora is married to Arthur it feels as if she should be with Hae Sung.

This is strengthened by Song’s commentary on society’s need to group those ethnically, culturally, and visually similar, together is shown in the film’s opening scene where a voice remarks, ‘Are they brother and sister?’ ‘Are they married?’ It’s interesting how the assumption of romantic, heterosexual relationships are based on the observation of two people of opposing genders who share similar features such as ethnicity merely sitting next to one another will evoke assumptions of romance. Couples who look different from the norm seem to subconsciously, and through social bias, be categorised as the outsider, the unconventional.

Past Lives plays on the romanticisation of star crossed lovers travelling across seas to reconnect, perhaps longing for what could have been and the consequences of the choices made. It presents us with the consideration that life itself is made up of a series of decisions and choices, some lead to love and others to heartbreak. At the start of the film Nora’s mother speaks to a friend in the park about their family’s decision to move, she remarks to her friend whatever decision made there are always things to be lost and things to be gained.

Nora and Arthur’s are both writers, the film loosely autobiographical as Song’s script shows a certain self-awareness, self criticism, in her work. Whilst watching I was drawn into a sense of introspection and self reflection about my own past decisions, perhaps related to the introspective nature of writing, reviewing, and societal observations I’ve held but perhaps this is just me. Contemplating on love or romance, as presented through the charm of cinema, Song’s portrayal of a overly romantic fairytale sweeps you up in romantic ideals. Like decisions made in life, whilst watching you can decide if you want to tune out or dive deeper into thoughts about what love is.

For myself I came up with these takeaways: love itself, as we all grow to realise as we get older, isn’t lusting or a longing for something or someone we cannot have. Perhaps what love is instead is a shared cultural understanding about sacrifice, the art of letting go and focussing on what is best for the other and not on oneself. Past Lives presents us with acts of love beyond the romantic but regarding choice and sacrifice. The sacrifice of Nora’s Korean parents who decided to immigrate to Canada for their children to have a better future, the sacrifice Hae Sung made in not pursuing Nora as she was married, the sacrifice Arthur made in allowing Nora to see Hae Sung despite his insecurities, and the sacrifice Nora made in choosing a English name and giving up her Korean name in order to assimilate into Western Society.

The assimilation of immigrant families in trying to fit into a westernised society includes the adoption of western names to fit in to a world that feels foreign. Song hints at the complexities of immigrant families and their conflicting sense of identity and place as we exist between two worlds. During the film Nora makes a remark to her husband Arthur regarding Hae Sung ‘He’s so Asian!’ she exclaims. It’s a comical scene which was met with laughs, as we observe Arthur’s slight discomfort, Nora explaining to him that her supposed Asian like qualities is less than her childhood friend Hae Sung’s. These assumptions and internal conflicts regarding identity spoke more to me than the film’s romantic themes which initially drew me in. Perhaps drawing from my own personal experience, I felt that I could relate to Nora’s character, the child of immigrants living in a westernised society with two names, having to decide between two cultures and at times left wondering what could have been.

Review by Addy Fong.

Past Lives plays on Friday 16th June at 6:30pm at Ritz Randwick, as part of Sydney Film Festival. For more information on the festival, visit the official website.