Past Lives

6/10/2023

As the son of parents who were childhood sweethearts/soul mates, I tend to be a sucker for movie romances that address this subject. In this case, however, the only “sucker” aspect applies to the money I plunked down to watch this two-hour snoozefest. Writer-director Celine Song’s debut feature has been praised as a masterful piece of filmmaking and one of the best pictures of 2023, but I heartily beg to disagree. When a pair of young, tightly knit Korean friends, Nora (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), part ways from their native Seoul and are later reunited in New York after a 24-year separation, the reunion of these childhood pals provides them with an opportunity to reflect on what might have been. However, their time together consists mostly of a series of overly bloated pregnant pau

8/26/2023

Wow. For a director, Celine Song, just coming out of the gate, this is quite an impressive film. The lead actress, Greta Lee, fit the role like a soft leather glove, which speaks volumes, both for her talent, and for Song's casting. Lee's Hollywood Critics Association Best Actress award is well-deserved. Song wrote an excellent screenplay, and her direction turned it into a stunning film. Kudos to A24 for taking a chance on her. I presume they are happy with the outcome. It's rather interestingly paced in a Buddhist or Asian kind of way - slow, meditative, and more is shown than is said. Overall, it's not a perfect film, but it's close. This isn't precisely a coming-of-age movie, but the plot revolves around that (perhaps even more difficult,) developing period between the ages of 20

10/22/2023

"Na Young" (Moon Seung-ah) and her best pal "Hae Sung" (Leem Seung-min) are pretty much joined at the hip at school. They do everything together. That is, until her family decide that they are going to emigrate to Canada. The young lad is a bit bereft, he doesn't really understand and he certainly doesn't approve! Anyway, off they go and after quite an hiatus, she discovers that he had tried to get in touch previously and so she now gets in contact. Now called "Nora" (and played by Greta Lee), she has married "Arthur" (John Magaro) and moved to NYC, but as they continue to chat online they gradually rebuild their friendship so that a visit from Korea to the USA seems the natural next step. What now ensues are a poignantly constructed series of reminiscences that extol the virtues and innoc

1/28/2024

An american A24 very adult romance and drama movie that gets in you little by little, slow burning with a gentle flame and involves more than just love, but personal choices and fate too. Compared to a lot of romances this one is very real, and tells the story of two korean child, that lives closely together in their 12yo in sort of a "proto-date" till she emigrate to Canada and then US, already searching better changes at what she planned to do as a job (writing). Jump 12 years later accidentally she discovers that he was looking for her, and they start to chat online together, and the old fire starts to ignite again... till the day she says with a broken heart that because neither of them can see each other too soon and because she need to focus on her work they should to stop talk

7/16/2024

Celine song directed this wonderful and emotionally complex film about holding on to the past no matter how fleeting it is. Ha Young is a young girl living in Korea. She has a crush on a boy at school named Hae Sung. The time comes when her family is immigrating to Canada. It is devastating to young Hae, who is going to miss his friend. Twelve years go by and Ha is now living in New York City and goes by the name of Nora. One day while browsing the internet she looks up Hae out of curiosity. She contacts him and learns that he has also been looking for her. They talk online for awhile, but Nora worries that the time is being taken away from what she should be doing. They stop communicating. Another twelve years passes and Nora is now married to Arthur, a writer. Hao contracts

9/15/2024

<em>'Past Lives'</em> - quality! It's an engaging watch, I was invested in the two main characters throughout. It does get, by design, extremely awkward at a certain moment towards the end, as I was squirming in my seat; shows how well made it is. Greta Lee and Teo Yoo are excellent, John Magaro plays his more minimal part well too. I don't have much else to note, it's simply an impressively made movie.