A thwarted puppy love is resumed after 12 years, and vanquished by long distance. So can a fateful, belated reunion after another 12 years alter the status quo? This is PAST LIVES, South Korean-Canadian filmmaker Celine Song's feature debut, a semi-biographical slow burner which invokes David Lean's BRIEF ENCOUNTER (1945) for its emotional weight, namely, the pathos elicited from a pair of star-crossed lovers .

In the 2000s, Nora (Lee) immigrated with her family from Seoul to Toronto when she was an elementary school pupil, leaving behind her sweetheart Hae-sung (Yoo), a fellow schoolmate, they didn't even have a proper goodbye.

12 years later, both in their college years, Nora and Hae-sung are reconnected thanks to the progress of social media. But soon, their frequent video chats are closed up short by Nora, who doesn't have the luxury of dissipating her time with their pedestrian but cordial sweet nothings, since there is no immediate future for them to be reunited in the same city. It is a rational move on Nora's part, and even we all feel they are made for each other, we can concur it is the right decision for both. Nora must find her own footing in her adopted country, she has relocated to NYC and abandoning herself to a relationship germinated in the past can only defer her progress.

Then another 12 years whizzes by, Nora has officially naturalized as a USA citizen and married to Arthur Zaturansky (Magaro), a Jewish New Yorker she meets in an artist residence retreat, for 7 years. She and Hae-sung finally reunite in person after more than 20 years when the latter comes to visit. The pair has 2 days to come to terms with their feelings towards each other, and Song's Eastern Asian warrants that the process is anything but hokey, the concept of "fate" or "kismet" casts a great shadow over the whole film, every encounter between two fellow human beings can be construed as a cause-and-effect result due to the accumulative actions of their previous lives, thus why on earth one shall harbor any other sentiment other than appreciativeness when two souls can come across each other in their ephemeral life span.

This is the philosophy behind PAST LIVES, which is honed with a prosaic sensibility by Song and company, the sublime cinematography underlining the psycho-geographic subtexts, the slow-moving camerawork reflecting the characters's inner thoughts, coupled with an evocative score, everything flows and ebbs in an organic rhythm that can be ascribed as PAST LIVES's best feature.

Acting, likewise, is very contained, feelings are registered by carefully chosen words and slightly awkward gesticulations, and Song wrings the most innocuous outcome out of an eternal triangle situation, making a great play of the chasteness between Nora and Hae-sung to declare that there is a civilized, rational kind of love existing in this world, where passion and desire can be kept at bay. Both Lee and Yoo act as natural as possible and allow what is left unsaid and undone to speak volumes of what their characters really want to but fail to convey or express. It is a tricky maneuver because it risks debasing the whole affair into a navel-gazing pretense, if audience cannot empathize with the personages. However, courtesy to the two leads's incredible facility, especially Yoo, who radiates in his "sigma male" aureole and unfazed comportment, Nora and Hae-sung's inner thoughts, although predictably common or garden, are never lost on audience, plus with Magaro soberly enacting a discomfitted third wheel (Arthur is the husband!) in an awkward "language barrier" situation, the film sticks its landing alright.

It doesn't live up to the hype of being another A24 awards magnet, but for what it is worth, PAST LIVES is a candid, well-meaning and well-crafted billet-doux to someone who has got away. When the crunch finally arrives before the closing credits, its emotional weight hits just right on the nose, and might also turn on some waterworks.

referential entries: David Lean's BRIEF ENCOUNTER (1945, 9.0/10); Lulu Wang's THE FAREWELL (2019, 7.8/10)

Title: Past Lives

Year: 2023

Genre: Drama, Romance

Country: USA

Language: Korean, English

Director/Screenwriter: Celine Song

Music: Christopher Bear, Daniel Rossen

Cinematography: Shabier Kirchner

Editor: Keith Fraase

Cast:

Greta Lee

Teo Yoo

John Magaro

Moon Seung-ah

Leem Seung-min

Yoon Ji-hye

Choi Won-young

Ahn Min-young

Rating: 7.6/10