Josh’s Favorite Movies: Past Lives
I'm taking this moment to declare this my newest favorite movie.
When movie awards season comes around, my parents and I usually try to watch as many of the films nominated for Best Picture in the Academy Awards as we can. This year, for the first time, we managed to see all ten of the nominees. Normally when I’m watching those movies, I know I have to watch them through an artsy fartsy lens, because a lot of them are not exactly what you’d call entertaining. Which is why it surprised me so much when one of the films just absolutely connected with me in a way I’d never felt before. You’ve probably read the title to this and know what movie I’m talking about, but I really am not sure too many people have seen it, and so I wanted to use my platform to spread the word for anyone who is looking for something good to watch.
Sometimes it can be hard for me to put into words why I like something, other than saying I enjoyed it. Past Lives is different. I can express exactly the things about this movie I resonate with, and why I’m willing to now call it one of my favorite movies.
First, the setting. Not necessarily the where, although Seoul and New York City are fantastic film locations, this is more about the when. The film tracks three different chunks of time: 24 years ago, 12 years ago, and present day. We first meet two of our three main leads, Nora and Hae Sung as 12 year olds in 1999. For me, as someone who was just a few years younger than this, this is an incredibly nostalgic time. A time before cell phones and technology really took over everything, and when childhood felt truly innocent. The movie reflects this so well, which is a thing I’ll be saying a lot as I go through this. After Nora and her family move to Toronto, leaving her friend Hae Sung behind, the movie flashes forward 12 years to 2011, where Nora is a playwright living in New York City, and is able to reconnect to her old friend Hae Sung via Facebook. Hae Sung is an engineer doing his mandatory military service at this time, and the childhood friends begin chatting and reconnecting using Skype calls, until Nora gets frustrated that the two of them will not be able to meet for at least a year, and says the two of them shouldn’t talk anymore. Again the way technology functions in this part of the movie is so nostalgic. We had smartphones and video calls, but they were in a pretty primitive era compared to where we are now, and again it’s nostalgic for me. By this point, you can tell that the two characters share a love for one another, but that circumstances and timing are preventing them from building a life together with that love. Soon after this, Nora goes to an artist’s residency, where she meets our third lead, Arthur. Arthur is also a writer, and the two immediately hit it off. Fast forward another 12 years, and we find out that Arthur and Nora are married, and that a newly single Hae Sung has connected with Nora to share that he is coming to New York for a visit.
Which brings me to the next thing about this movie that makes it so effective for me, the characters. Well, the acting that brings those characters to life. There are really 5 actors who have any significant screen time in this movie (Greta Lee as Nora, Teo Yoo as Hae Sung, John Magaro as Arthur, Seung Ah Moon as young Nora, and Seung Min Yim as young Hae Sung) and if any of them doesn’t just nail their part, the movie falls apart. The kid actors do such a good job of acting in the silent moments where all the audience is given is the characters body language and facial expressions, and so much is communicated in those moments throughout the movie. Without those two performances, I’m not sure how effective it is emotionally when Nora and Hae Sung are reconnected years later. And if Nora and Hae Sung’s chemistry in those moments where they aren’t on screen together doesn’t come through, then there’s no real stakes. And, if Arthur and Nora don’t share a relationship where you can see how much they intimately know and care for one another, then it puts the audience in a really weird position to root against marriage. Instead, we get a really, really beautiful portrayal of what this looks like in reality. For Hae Sung, he gets to make the trip to see this person he has loved, and in the end he cares for her enough to accept that she is receiving love and care from another man. “I didn’t know liking your husband would hurt so much,” he tells Nora. For Nora, she just really wants to see and spend time with her childhood friend, even though she has matured past the type of love that she shared with Hae Sung, and it breaks her heart to have to break his heart all over again, but she also understands that he needs that very specific type of closure. For Arthur, he knows that he needs to be the supportive husband who lets his wife spend time with her old friend, but even as secure as he is in their relationship, you see flashes of jealousy, or the way he asks Nora certain questions hoping she answers one way, and seeing the subtle disappointment in his eyes when she doesn’t. The best thing about Arthur, though, is that he totally understands Hae Sung’s perspective, and even tells him that coming to New York was “the right thing to do.”
There are so many things that I could go on and on about here, but I think the best way to put it is to say that I’ve never seen a movie that captured certain emotions or moments I’ve felt in life better than Past Lives did.
Please find a way to watch this movie. I want there to be more movies like it.
Josh
I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment of this film. I only went to see it because it was an Academy Award Nominee but it turned out to be an awesome film.