(Movie Review) “Past Lives” (2023)

By Vani P Nair -

                                             

                      (Movie Review) “Past Lives” (2023)



A colleague of mine urged me to watch Past Lives repeatedly, and me being the lazy sloth that I am, kept procrastinating it for no particular reason. Finally, the day before yesterday, after watching Untamed, since I had nothing better to do, I decided to watch Past Lives. As soon as I started viewing the movie, I could not but notice the resemblance it bore with another film I had watched recently in the theatre. I watched Materialists the last month. The story was, to be frank, nothing exceptional. It was predictable and pretty straight forward. Having said that, what really got me going was the cinematography; the colour schemes and the unhurried pace. You could pause at any point during the runtime of the movie and you would get a perfectly curated frame, ready to be hung on a wall. Every scene was neat and controlled. I don’t know if it makes any sense to you, but in my head that exactly how I felt. I watched the Materialists primarily for the actors: Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans. I am not ashamed to admit that I simply adore all three of them. 

While watching movies like Vaaranam Aayiram (2008), Sillunu Oru Kaadhal (2006), Mazhayethum Munpe (1995), Diamond Necklace (2012), Chori Chori Chupke Chupke (2001) and The Age of Adaline (2015), to name a few, I have wondered how the narrative gains its gravitas from the hero’s evolution as a man, informed by his relationships with the women  who come into his life, and the consequent choices he makes that defines him. It made me think, what if it were women who were at the center of these stories, with them making choices between their romantic interests? (Now don’t accuse me of being blinkered by the heterosexual elements here. These movies are about straight people. I am sure I have enjoyed, for instance, Blue Is the Warmest Colour (2013) as much as any of the above-mentioned movies.) Celine Song has decentered men by focusing on women’s desires in both her movies: Materialists (2025) and Past Lives (2023). I was planning on writing a review of Materialists first, but it will have to wait. 

Do we always end up sharing our life with perfect partners? Let me rephrase the question. Should we choose to love only those people who meet all our needs – emotional, nostalgic, intellectual and practical? After watching the movie, I feel like saying that it doesn’t matter. Celine Song has very unassumingly touched upon several aspects of modern-day romance in her first feature film. The movie opens to a scene at a speakeasy, with a woman flanked by two men, sitting at the counter. The voiceover is that of an anonymous woman, trying to guess the nature of the trio’s relationship with the question: “Who do you think they are to each other?”. That single question is all it takes to rope us into the vortex of the story. In many respects I felt that it was a genius move on Song’s part to have placed the scene right at the beginning of the film. It takes a lot of gumption to attempt something as radical as that. The movie, as it unfolds, takes us to their past while being firmly anchored in the present, reminding all the while that the question is still open to us to figure out. The setting is made atmospheric with mood lighting and mild ambient noises. As the first scene ends, Nora, the central character, looks past the fourth wall, right into our eyes, almost as if she knows we are lost......... 

Relationships are like brass wares. They can shine upon being constantly revisited, touched and handled or lie unattended in a corner, corroded and tarnished. What could have been a relic of a fond memory from their childhood grows into something more meaningful and deeper when a casual curiosity aided by tech allows Nora and Hae Sung to cross each other’s paths again. Na Young aka Nora and Hae Sung who had parted ways as children, once again reconnect via video calls, after 12 years. Nora’s family had immigrated to Canada, and she had left behind her roots in hopes of a better life and more creative opportunities. When Nora’s friends ask her why she wanted to leave Korea, she answers, “Because Koreans don’t win the Nobel Prize for literature”. (Its funny because in 2024 Han Kang, the South Korean writer, did win the Nobel Prize for literature. But it is not relevant to the current discussion.) Drudgery of routine soon creeps into their conversations and Nora fears being weighed down by her past and Hae Sung. Nora once again separates herself from Hae Sung and seeks fulfillment through her work and other relationships. Nora eventually marries a fellow writer, Arthur, and settles down in New York. Years later, Hae Sung reaches out to her and takes a trip to New York to meet her. 

Their meeting takes on a restrained tenor. Hae Sung doesn’t want to get too familiar with his married friend and Nora tries to convince herself that there is nothing more to what was left of her relationship with Hae Sung. However, it is revealed that her husband Arthur feels incapable of reaching certain parts of her which still remains accessible to Hae Sung due their shared past and a language that they both dream in. Arthur tells Nora that she sleep-talks in Korean and that he doesn’t understand her words and consequently her latent desires. The night at the speakeasy serves as the climax of an interaction spanning over multiple decades. During their first meeting at the writer’s retreat, Nora had discussed with Arthur the concept of inyoen, according to which, the relationship between two people in the present life is influenced by thousands of interactions they would have had in their past lives. Presently, at the speakeasy, Hae Sung tells Arthur about inyoen as a way to explain how Nora and Arthur were always meant to be. How what they have in this life is a result of destiny playing across their past lives. Nora underscores time and again that she never ever considered entertaining an alternate reality despite Hae Sung asking her what would have happened had she stayed behind in Korea. As he takes leave, Nora walks unhurriedly to her husband Arthur waiting on the steps, only fall on his shoulders crying. I couldn’t help tearing up myself and a weight lifted from heart .......

Arthur knew that he was the expendable one in Nora's life. He was her practical choice, a means to her end. It wouldn't have made any difference had Arthur been a Jacob, Taylor or Conrad. The story would still be the same. Hae Sung was a part of Nora's Korean dreams which would remain indecipherable to Arthur. Yet, it was Arthur's shoulders that Nora sought to hold her tears.......Some choices are like that they lack rhyme and reason.........

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