Rent Past Lives (2023)

Underwhelming - Past Lives review by JR

We never really know Nora, the protagonist, because we have to just accept, without evidence, her brilliance (aspiring to win a Tony), and because of her rather opaque, underdeveloped characterisation. Her callous treatment of the adoring Hae Sung, first neglecting to say goodbye to him aged 12, and again in her 20's abruptly ending a series of intense late night video calls filled with longing (on his part), makes her a rather unsympathetic character. There were slight echoes of Nora (is the name a coincidence?) Ephron's 'You've got Mail' and 'Sleepless in Seattle' but without the fizz and verve. The film is long and slow and offers little that's new in the 'What if/Unrequited love' romantic genre. The music is good and some of the cinematography is interesting.

Subtle & Emotional Romance - Past Lives review by GI

A romance about lost love and a film that asks What if?, a question amplified by the power of social media giving people the ability to reconnect. It also is suggesting, in my mind, that that is not always a good thing. Two young children live in South Korea and become friends and have a funny little date arranged by their mothers which leaves the boy thinking they are destined to be together. But then the girl's family emigrate to Canada and they lose contact. Years later and Nora (Greta Lee) is now living in New York, a budding writer, and through social media she gets in touch with Hae Sung (Tae Woo) and they begin speaking via Skype but Nora then feels the past is intruding in her future and cuts off the communication leaving Hae Sung feeling hurt and distraught. More years go by and Nora, now married to Arthur (John Magaro) , and Hae Sung reconnect again and this time he comes to the US for a visit. This opens up emotions and issues for all three of them. This is a simple and yet sophisticated relationship drama that looks at childhood crushes and their impact that can be exacerbated by the ability to connect very easily with persons from years ago and many miles away. This is a sad film in many ways and the narrative doesn't allow you to take sides as you'll see the heartbreaking issues that the three adults here struggle with. No one is being 'bad' or even unfaithful and the film opens up the debate about repressed feelings based on images and affections long since suppressed. In this it's a gentle and warm film and a love story for the modern age.

Still Waiting for the Screaming, Shouting and Throwing Stuff About..... - Past Lives review by Strovey

From a storytelling point of view Past Lives pulls no punches and for me was saying from the start Nay Young or Nora and Hae Sung were meant to be together from the moment they bonded as children, but as the old, tired and well-worn cliché goes, life got in the way. The question is, what do you do when it does? Past Lives looks at this and gives us the answer it does.

Only a three-hander with Lee and Yoo beautiful and soulfully playing the leads, there is obvious chemistry on screen, their performances are well complimented by John Magaro, in a role, if this were a rom-com, he would be the ‘baddy’. You know the trope and decent, earnest man, who has done nothing wrong, but gets dumped by his wife (or fiancée more properly) for the flashy, slightly wacky leading man. Well in this role Magaro is a decent caring man and acts so well you can see his conflict but the willingness to let his wife explore her past and feelings and discuss them all with her old friend. It is a great piece of believable acting and just once it is nice to see three people in a love story of sorts who are not a-holes, not one of them.

Past Lives boiled down to his basic components is a ‘What If?’ tale. What if they had got together back at school, what if they had stayed in touch for twenty years. All questions of course that can never be answered and you could be forgiven for saying there is literally no point asking those questions.

But of course, we all do.

Celine Song who wrote and directed Past Lives has a soft touch and the whole film sensitively approaches its topics. There is the clash of cultures, longing and nostalgia and love, and what loving a person really means.

It was a pleasure to see a soft gentle film with normal characters thrown into perhaps a slightly abnormal situation but nevertheless believable and entertaining. It is slow and quiet so if that is not your bag, if you have to have a baddie to boo and goodies to root for, with a lot of screaming and shouting, Past Lives is not for you.

There is a sense of anticipation throughout the story, and although the pace is slow it somehow still zips along, the change in language from the leads, from Korean, to English and back to Korean again certainly keeps your focus but also nothing is signposted or given away so you do not know how this will end. How you want it to end is up to you.

I have to recommend Past Lives as a sensitive and intelligent take on a non-traditional ‘love-triangle’ that is acted realistically, sensitively and not without a sense of fun and some sorrow. It is great.