"What a good story this is."
"If two strangers walk by each other on the street and their clothes accidentally brush, that means there have been 8000 layers of 'in-yun' between them."
— Nora
Past Lives is a 2023 American romantic drama film written and directed by Celine Song in her feature directorial debut and released by A24. The film stars Greta Lee, John Magaro and Teo Yoo.
In the year 2000, Na Young and Hae Sung are 12-year-old classmates in Seoul who grow feelings for one another. Unfortunately, Na Young's family emigrates to Toronto shortly thereafter, and the two lose contact.
Over the next 24 years, the two establish individual lives; the adult Hae Sung (played by Yoo) stays and finds work in East Asia, while the adult Na Young (played by Lee, and having changed her name to Nora Moon after moving to North America) becomes a playwright in New York City. However, their paths cross on fateful occasion, namely a week-long visit paid by Hae Sung after the full 24 years, through which they reflect on love and life.
The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2023 ahead of a limited theatrical release on June 2, 2023, with a nationwide rollout later that month.
Previews: Official Trailer
Past Lives contains examples of:
- Aside Glance: The first shot of the film, of Nora, Hae Sung and Arthur from the perspective of an off-screen couple observing them, pushes in on the three until it becomes a close-up on Nora; the shot ends with her looking directly at the camera. Celine Song stated that this moment was designed so that Nora's look would simultaneously welcome and implicate the audience.
- Author Avatar: Many viewers noted the similarities between Nora and the film's writer-director Celine Song, as she is also a writer who migrated from South Korea to Canada and again to New York, and who married a white American man, himself a writer.
- Big Applesauce: Nora sets up residence in New York for graduate school and never leaves. When Hae Sung visits her as an adult, she takes him to see the sights of the city, such as the Statue of Liberty.
- Big Damn Reunion: When Nora and Hae Sung meet in New York after 24 years.
- Bittersweet Ending: It's practically a Foregone Conclusion that Nora and Hae Sung don't end up together, but their last conversations indicate that both are deeply affected by the time they spent apart and what could have been between them had things been different. The film ends with Hae Sung leaving Nora, potentially never to see her again, but not before proposing that their current circumstances may be a "past life" with a greater payoff in another life and saying "I'll see you then," after which Nora walks home to Arthur crying.
- Book Ends:
- The first time Nora and Hae Sung part ways, Hae Sung calls out "Hey!" to Nora before he pauses, wanting to say more than he can express, before simply saying "Bye" and leaving. The last time they part ways during the ending, Hae Sung turns back from his Uber to call out "Hey!" again, and this time he says what's on his mind. The film even briefly cuts back to the first instance when they were kids.
- The shot of a young Hae Sung looking out the window of his parents' car with a young Nora asleep on his shoulder is mirrored in the end by an adult Hae Sung looking out the window of his Uber as it drives away from New York City.
- Cathartic Crying: During the dinner scene and the walk to the Uber, Nora is calm and composed, but she breaks down and starts sobbing once she walks back to Arthur.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Nora and Hae Sung were friends in childhood who reconnect in adulthood. The possibility of their love is noted by Arthur:Arthur: What a good story this is. Childhood sweethearts who reconnect 20 years later and realize they were meant for each other.
- Citizenship Marriage: Downplayed. Nora and Arthur were already dating, but they moved up their wedding plans to get her a green card after visa issues arose.
- Disposable Fiancé: Discussed. The writer Arthur worries that if this were a story, he'd be the foreign husband that his wife would dump to get with her childhood sweetheart. He isn't, but the possibility of it all overwhelms Nora with emotion.
- Genre Savvy: As a writer, Arthur openly comments that if their situation were a story, his character would be the one standing in the way of Nora and Hae Sung's reunion. Could double back to Wrong Genre Savvy considering Nora is still with Arthur at the end of the film.
- Happily Married: Nora meets Arthur at a writer's retreat, and after we cut to twelve years ahead, the two of them have married and are shown to be a loving couple. They talk to each other about their problems if anything arises, and Arthur is said to have picked up several of Nora's customs (even trying to learn Korean for her sake), which means he gets along with her family.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In one scene, Arthur comments on how much of a great story Nora and Hae Sung's relationship makes for, and remarks that he would likely fill the character role of "the evil white American husband standing in the way of destiny" in the story.
- Leaving You to Find Myself: After Hae Sung has found Nora online and they have been chatting for a couple of months, she unexpectedly ends their online relationship with little explanation as to why apart from wanting to focus on her life in New York.
- Mighty Whitey and Mellow Yellow: Arthur notes that, in another story, he might be the evil white American husband stopping his Asian wife from reuniting with her true love.
- Moody Trailer Cover Song: The trailer uses Cat Power's subdued cover of Rihanna's "Stay" to set the pensive and romantic mood.
- Most Writers Are Writers: Nora is a playwright, and Arthur is a writer (his book, Boner, is presumably a novel).
- Naturalized Name:
- Na Young chose the name Nora after immigrating to Canada and then the United States. Hae Sung is the only one who calls her Na Young in the present.
- Na Young's sister, named Si Young, similarly chose the name Michelle.
- The Oner: The final shot of the movie holds on Nora and Hae Sung walking from Arthur's apartment building to where Hae Sung's Uber picks him up, and Nora walking back, with a total runtime of three minutes.
- The One That Got Away: Nora and Hae Sung are "what could have been"s for each other. Hae Sung flies to America just to visit her and muses that if she hadn't moved away, they might have dated or even married.
- Product Placement: A good amount of focus is put on Nora's MacBook Air as she uses it (e.g. in this shot).
- Reincarnation: A common motif throughout the film. Nora believes that people who have relationships in the present must have been something to each other in their past lives. At the end, after she and Hae Sung agree that they'll likely remain apart, Hae Sung asks her how she thinks they'll turn out in their next life. She responds that she doesn't know, and he agrees that he doesn't know, either.
- Shout-Out: During one of Nora and Hae Sung's Skype calls, as Nora preps for a writing retreat in Montauk, she naturally brings up the appropriate movie reference — Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind — and asks if Hae Sung has seen it; we then see him watching it on his computer. In fact, there are multiple parallels between the two movies.
- Silence Is Golden: In the film's final minutes, Nora waits with Hae Sung for his Uber. The two childhood friends stare at each other for a long time, their body language making it obvious that there is a lot left unsaid.
- Symbolism: When the young Na Young and Hae Sung say their goodbyes back in Korea, they walk down separate paths. Na Young climbs up the stairs to the right which indicates her social climbing by moving to Canada, while Hae Sung continues on an even path to the left.
- Talking in Your Sleep: Discussed. Arthur tells Nora that the only time he hears her talk Korean is in her sleep, which sometimes scares him since she "[dreams] in a language that [he] can't understand", and says that it's why he wants to learn Korean. Nora replies that she probably just says gibberish.
- Time Skip: The movie has two main time skips. We open with a shot in the present and then cut back 24 years for the childhood scenes in South Korea. Then we cut forward 12 years after Nora's arrival in Canada and again another 12 years ahead after she meets her future husband.
- Title Drop: Dropped by Nora during one of her voiceovers."It's an 'In-Yun' if two strangers even walk by each other in the street and their clothes accidentally brush. Because... it means there must have been something between them in their past lives."
- Translation: "Yes": When the three protagonists are chatting at the bar, Hae Sung tells Nora about the hard work he is doing including him first having to do his boss' work and then his own. Her translation to Arthur? "Work is hard."
- Translator Buddy: Hae Sung's English is poor and Arthur's Korean is basic, so the Korean-American Nora translates between the two of them.
- Understanding Boyfriend: Played with. Arthur comes off as remarkably accepting of the situation between Nora and Hae Sung and doesn't stop them from meeting, even saying at one point that such behavior would probably be expected of him if they were characters in a story. However, it's implied that his feelings on the matter are more complex than what he ends up sharing, which is indicated through several exchanges he has with Nora (such as when he jokes that she wouldn't drop everything to run away with Hae Sung, only to then sincerely ask for assurance that she won't), the non-verbal elements of his performance, and how the script describes him at certain moments like this one:NORA: Are you mad?
ARTHUR: (yes) No. - V-Sign: Hae Sung peace-signs with both hands while Nora takes a picture of him on the Staten Island ferry.
- Wistful Smile: One of the film's posters◊ centers Nora smiling sentimentally at Hae Sung, as he broadly represents what she left behind in South Korea.
