Review: Past Lives

Just when you thought the Korean Film Renaissance was over, this freaking film shows up.

Past Lives is the directorial debut of writer/director Celine Song and is based around Song’s own personal experience immigrating from South Korea to North America. This film made quite the splash at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and after finally finding a screening (relatively) near me I can see where all the hype is coming from. Much like Charlotte Wells’s 2022 debut film Aftersun, Song’s debut film establishes herself as a promising director to keep an eye on for the future.

The film as a whole is very romantic in its presentation despite not being a traditional romance. The cinematography is gorgeous to look at and very purposeful in its framing; there were a lot of instances where reflections and light shining through a window pane or puddles serve as a heavy visual motif, echoing the film’s overall theme of destiny or “in-yun” as our main characters call it.

Song’s screenplay is very personal in how it slowly reveals details about our characters’ wants and desires while giving us hard-hitting lines of dialogue for us to mull over. These characters are further enhanced by Song’s confident direction and the subtle yet powerful performances from the actors. Greta Lee was solid throughout, Teo Yoo manages to give so much emotion through such a low key performance, and some props need to be given to John Magaro for his brief but memorable presence in the film.

The score was appropriately melancholic, the editing was concise, presentation wise this is about as impressive as you can get with a first-time feature. If I had to nitpick and make any complaints about this film it’s that the screenplay could actually use a little more development with its characters. This film is a brisk one hundred minutes, and when you compare this film’s story to others that are similar in concept such as Richard Linklater’s Before Trilogy, the themes and emotional beats don’t quite hit as heavy in this film as they do in others.

Overall though this is still a fantastic film and an impressive debut for Celine Song. Past Lives is a special kind of film that tells a love story without falling into the usual melodrama traps these kinds of films far too often fall into. Also any film that acknowledges the genius of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind gets bonus points in my book. When this film gets a wider release go check it out and see for yourself.

Final Verdict: 9/10