January Movie Pick: 'Past Lives'

 

I don't feel that you can piece all of what is written here together if you haven't seen the movie. So, I guess this is a spoiler review, but more likely, it is an ongoing process that the movie opened.

From where do I start? I guess I should start from the beginning. The moment I saw Greta Lee acting in an A24 film, I was sold. I love the studio; it brings some of the most interesting and weird stories to the surface. Put Greta Lee, whom I came to love after watching her for two seasons in 'The Morning Show' and I am in.

I had to wait a couple of days to be in the right mindset for 'Past Lives', but yesterday I finally saw it. Now I understand why Lee and the director Celine Song are in talks for an Oscar nomination. I would like everyone involved to be nominated, even the assuming couple from the beginning. Seeing 'almost' the end of the movie from the start has been done so many times, but this time, director Celine Song started with a conversation from the opposite table of people who don't matter to the story. However, they talk about our main characters, leaving their assumptions on the table. Later on, you can see the couple as extras in this great story, right there in the corner of the bar as the main plot progresses. It shows that so much is happening in one person that even those assumptions, often coming offensively, cannot begin to scratch the surface of what's really going on in people's lives. I think this film is brilliant; it is capable of capturing so many emotions yet, at its core, remains a positive experience.

I love the conversation about immigration between the mothers of the then-small kids Nora and Hae Sung. The notion that you gain something when you leave something behind is explored in every decision in this movie, from Nora moving to New York, to leaving it for recreational time, to ending a brewing online relationship with her childhood sweetheart who lives across the world. All those things bring new and fresh memories. I say memories because the movie also captures how quickly time shifts, and one day she is doing something, and 12 years later she is a totally different person with the distant memory of what one was. That talk between the two mothers, watching their children play, got me thinking of a famous quote that stuck with me from Amy Chua that a foreign accent is a mark of great courage.

Do you have a friend from your childhood that you wish you could reconnect with? I don't, but the movie got me thinking how beautiful it would be if I was more open to such a scenario. Don't get me wrong; before I came up with this sharp answer, I have tried it a couple of times, only to remind myself that if our paths were once split before, it was for a reason. This is where I ended up, and this is where I am supposed to be. Like Nora Moon, who had the most honest conversation with her husband late at night in bed about Korean culture, language, and past lives, says that she is where she is supposed to be, I feel that way. The movie speaks of Inyeon and how relationships form over many lifetimes in Korean culture, and at the same time shows how many versions of us could exist in one lifetime. The way we are constantly changing, a never-stopping process, seems like we lived many lives before, especially if you are an immigrant. So much is happening in this film, like in real life, and sometimes even with the clear ongoing line of one emotion that I got by the end of it, the movie took many forms like an abstract painting expressing much more. It is a complex story, and much of that complexity is shown in the conversation between Nora and Arthur, where he tells her that he could never compete with such a story, and that she talks in her sleep only in Korean. Nora realizes that her past life is catching up with her, and she is tempted to explore the feeling, but she is so far ahead in the other direction she could never let herself do it. That is why her husband allows her to get a look at this past life and lets her feel all that could have been, so she could finally let go of the past and choose to be in the present. Working through these emotions to take a stand and choose to be here, not being led to this moment by some entity or destiny but by herself. The film explores taking control of your destiny not only from the point of immigrants, but also from the point of commitment and relationships. I love that Nora describes her relationship with her husband as two trees in one pot. And seeing Arthur playing PlayStation at home was such a funny-meta moment because before the movie, I was doing exactly that, looking exactly like that.

I am fascinated by other languages; they are the key to the culture they are representing. I love how she feels less Korean with her childhood love, but she feels a lot Korean with her husband. It is another path that the movie walks. Where do we fit exactly after changing so many times? The radiant performances from everyone here, especially in the first Skype call and the first live meeting after years between Nora and Hae Sung, were impressive and incredible to watch. The honest joy that these scenes provided was exhilarating. You know how sometimes the movies now feel like complete chaos, and you are bombarded by so many emotions at the same time, leaving you with anxiety? This one strikes one note just right and lets you feel it for enough time before it hits another and then another. Exploring the Korean culture and the language is not severe, but it is the closest I have gotten so far, and it was mesmerizing. This look into other cultures, even for an hour and a half, always broadened my vision about the world.

Iliya Badev