By: Kiara Co, SFU Student
This was the first time I’ve ever experienced watching an A24 film where the entire theatre was full for its first showtime slot in Vancouver. It surprised me because of how little marketing this film had. A24’s newest release, Past Lives, presents a story of self-reflection, with the main thought being “what if?” A24 continues to showcase new dirctors, such as Korean Canadian filmmaker and writer of this film, Celine Song. This marks another showcase of A24’s Asian-led projects.
Throughout the film’s hour and 46 minutes, I felt immense emotions alongside such a simple story. The narrative follows two childhood friends, Na Young and Hae Sung, from Korea who separated because Na Young, now Nora’s (Greta Lee) family moved to Canada. 12 years later, they reconnect through Facebook and Skype. Months pass and they stop contacting each other. Finally, 10 years later, Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) finally reunites with Nora in New York where she is married to Arthur (John Magaro).
The strongest part of this film was the script. It portrayed an authentic relationship between all of the characters, especially with the way each of them communicates. Both Nora and Hae Sung as children perfectly match, to the point where they could be considered “childhood sweethearts.” But as time flies, both part ways, and they change as people. Nora dreams of being a successful playwright in New York, and Hae Sung an engineer who seeks a great opportunity in China. We see Nora’s many “what if’s” throughout the film.
Nora and Hae Sung’s relationship shows the tension they experience through the cultural differences they experience growing up in different countries: Hae Sung in Korea and Nora in Canada. Their diasporic experiences cause some tension in their budding relationship. For instance, Nora is not as fluent in Korean as Hae Sung since she only speaks Korean to her mom. There’s also long distance hardships the two experience, like the constant glitches shown through Skype on their laptops when they call each other.
The film makes you think through so many what if’s in a poignant way.
Arthur, who Nora meets at an out-of-town writers gathering, is also an author in New York. When applying the film to real life, I think “what if,” seeing Nora and Arthur: “What if it was somebody else who I met in that situation?” “What if I’m supposed to be with somebody else who was actually meant for me?”
When you reach adulthood, it’s very common to connect with people out of convenience. One of the most crucial and casually cruel questions Arthur and Nora’s relationship poses to viewers is: “What if we just met out of convenience?”
The end of the film demonstrates that everything happens for a reason. You realize just because you’re no longer the same you doesn’t mean that version of you has gone away. When Nora and Hae Sung reconnected in person after 20 years, they demonstrated they were each other’s “what ifs.” They both shared a real connection that is rooted in the people they’ve become today. Past Lives makes you think about the person you have become today based on the surroundings and people that were once in your life. It makes you think, over and over again, “What if you took a different direction?”
