The Chinese zodiac (and the Korean one that is derived from it) has a 12-year cycle, with each year under the sign of one of the animals that successfully passed the legendary test of crossing the river challenged by the Jade Emperor. Nora and Jung Hae, the two main heroes of ‘Past Lives‘ are 12 years old in the first of the three episodes of the story. The next episode takes place 12 years later. The last one, now, after another 12 years. Is this cyclicity random? What is certainly not accidental is the fact that the script writer and director Celine Song (in her debut feature!) was 12 years old when she emigrated with her family to Canada, that she, like the lead heroine, lives in New York and is married to an American. A film with an autobiographical tone, therefore, and which falls into the trend of multicultural films, very visible in recent years, which brings together events and components from Western and Far Eastern cultures. ‘Past Lives‘ does it with sensitivity and good taste.
The two heroes live a short pre-adolescent love story in their native Korea, after which Nora, the daughter of an artist, emigrates with her family to Canada. 12 years later she is in New York trying to build a career as a playwright, while he is learning without much enthusiasm the ‘routine’ profession engineering. The solitudes of the two meet, one seems to have missed the other, the connection re-clicks, but the distance cannot be eliminated. The relationship remains virtual and breaks again. Another 12 years later, Nora is married to Arthur, a Jewish American writer and lives in New York. Jung Hae comes to visit her and the two physically meet again after 24 years. What remained of the original flame? How do the memories of the past two love episodes reconcile with Nora’s marriage to Arthur? What is the connection and influence of the Korean concept ‘inyeon’, according to which romantic ties are perennial, they do not belong only to this life, but develop over the centuries?
This film could only be bilingual and the way each of the heroes speaks defines their character. Jung Hae speaks almost exclusively Korean. Nora uses perfect English and a ‘rusty’ Korean language, as do many of us who have emigrated to another country, live in a different social and cultural space and have not practiced the mother tongue except maybe in family relationships . Between them, however, there is a chasm that the use of a common language cannot cover, determined by the different life experiences but also by the differences in character and approach to the relationship between Mars and Venus. Arthur, Nora’s husband, is learning Korean, if only to understand what his wife is speaking in her dreams. The three actors – Greta Lee, Teo Yoo and John Magaro – are admirably cast and live their roles with discretion and sensitivity. Silences and restrained gestures speak louder than words. I really enjoyed the second part, the one where the connection between Nora and Jung Hae resumes and develops virtually, remotely. Although it takes place 12 years ago, the story is visibly influenced by the periods of isolation and loneliness we’ve all experienced in the pandemic and how virtual connections have replaced (or not) physical contact. The third part suffers from a slight excess of verbosity. Although Nora is the one who should – by the nature of her profession – handle words more skillfully, it is up to the man to explain in dialogue what the two feel. Paradoxically, the two characters are more expressive in their silences. ‘Past Lives‘ is a film with many very beautiful moments and – I think – the debut of a first-class filmmaker.