In 2000, Seoul, South Korea, Na Young and Hae Sung are 12-year-old classmates who develop feelings for one another and go on a playdate set up by their parents. Shortly thereafter, Na Young's family immigrates to Toronto and the two lose contact. Na Young changes her name to Nora Moon.
Twelve years later, in 2012, Hae Sung has finished his military service and Nora has moved to New York City. One day, Nora discovers on Facebook that Hae Sung had posted that he was looking for Na Young, unaware of her name change. They reconnect through video calls but are unable to visit each other, as Nora plans to attend a writer's retreat in Montauk and Hae Sung is moving to China for a Mandarin language exchange. Eventually, Nora tells Hae Sung they should stop talking for a while, as she wants to focus on her writing and life in New York.
At her retreat, Nora meets Arthur Zaturansky and they fall in love, at one point discussing the Buddhist-derived concept of inyeon (인연, dependent origination), how a relationship between two souls in the present life is influenced by their relationships in thousands of past lives. Hae Sung also meets a woman, whom he begins to date.
Twelve more years pass, with Arthur and Nora married and living in New York. Hae Sung, no longer with his girlfriend, goes to meet Nora there. Arthur wonders if he is a roadblock in their own imperfect love story, suggesting to Nora that, if another man with a similar appeal had met her at the time, Nora would have engaged him and married him to secure a green card for U.S. residency. Nora affirms that she loves Arthur. The following night, the three go out to dinner. Initially, Nora translates each dialogue, but eventually speaks with Hae Sung exclusively in Korean. He wonders what they were to each other in their past lives, and what would have happened if she had never left South Korea and they stayed together. When Nora goes to the bathroom, Hae Sung apologizes to Arthur for speaking alone with Nora, but Arthur says he is glad to have met him.
They return to Arthur and Nora's apartment. Hae Sung invites them to visit him in South Korea and calls for an Uber. Nora waits with him, and the two exchange long, meaningful looks at each other until the Uber arrives. Hae Sung wonders whether they were, at that moment, experiencing a past life, and asks Nora what their relationship will be in their next life. She says she does not know. Hae Sung says, "I'll see you then." He leaves in the car and she walks back to her apartment, crying in Arthur's arms.
In January 2020, it was announced Choi Woo-shik would star in the film, with Celine Song set to direct from a screenplay she wrote, and A24 set to produce and distribute alongside Killer Films and CJ ENM.[6] In August 2021, it was announced that Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, and John Magaro joined the cast of the film, with Yoo replacing Choi.[7]
Cinematographer Shabier Kirchner shot Past Lives on 35 mm film.[8] Production took place during July and August 2021 at locations around New York, including the city's ferries, and under and along the landmark Manhattan Bridge. The apartment sets for Hae Sung and Nora's Skype/Zoom conversations were built adjacent to one another at Greenpoint Studios, Brooklyn, and filmed simultaneously. The production then moved to Seoul, South Korea, and filmed from late October to early November.[9]
Past Lives grossed $11.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $31.3 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $42.5 million.[4]
The film grossed $232,266 from four theaters in its opening weekend, an average of $55,066 per venue.[17] By its sixth weekend, the film had a running total of $8.4 million.[18]
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 95% of 314 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 9.1/10. The website's consensus reads: "A remarkable debut for writer-director Celine Song, Past Lives uses the bonds between its sensitively sketched central characters to support trenchant observations on the human condition."[19]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 94 out of 100, based on 52 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[20]ABC News reported that the film received critical acclaim.[21]
Manola Darghis, writing for The New York Times, compared the film to French romantic cinema, complimenting its restraint in the presentation of its main themes, and stating: "The movie’s modesty — its intimacy, human scale, humble locations and lack of visual oomph — is one of its strengths. The characters live in homes that are pleasant yet ordinary, the kind that you can imagine hanging out in, the kind you want to hang out in. There are few big, look-at-me details, though you might notice a poster for Jacques Rivette’s 1974 classic Céline and Julie Go Boating in Nora’s father’s home office in Seoul."[22] Writing in The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw was fulsome in his praise of the film comparing it to those of Richard Linklater, Noah Baumbach, and Greta Gerwig. He said of the film: "Past Lives is a glorious date movie, and a movie for every occasion, too. As ever with films like this, there is an auxiliary pleasure in wondering how much of her own past life Song has used. It's a must-see."[23]
Filmmaker Daniel Scheinert, who co-directed A24's Everything Everywhere All at Once with his partner Daniel Kwan, praised the film, saying: "It's remarkable, the way she [Celine Song] pushed past the story of 'picking mister right' and the story of 'fighting to win the girl' and somehow brought her audience to this painfully relatable heartbreak on the other side of those stories. I'm inspired by it. And mystified by how the filmmaking team did it. But when I was lucky enough to see a Q&A and have some brunch with Celine, I saw how curious and thoughtful and passionate and charmingly bossy she was, and I was instantly convinced that this movie was no accident. It's a smart, confident, unique poem because Celine is a smart, confident, unique poet."[24] Filmmaker Christopher Nolan also praised the film and named it one of his favorites, describing it as "subtle in a beautiful sort of way".[25]
Retrospective lists
Collider ranked it number 7 on its list of the "20 Best Drama Movies of the 2020s So Far", calling it "a story that could only exist because of modern circumstances, but feels timeless in its approach. How does someone choose between two lovers, one that represents the most fruitful days of her youth, and the other someone she has grown to love as part of her reality? Celine Song examines these critical conversations through the perspective of an immigrant story."[26] In 2024, IndieWire included it on its list of the "Best American Independent Movies of the 21st Century".[27]Looper also named it the "Best PG-13 Movie of All Time," calling it "a master class in the art of subtlety while evoking complex human emotions. The minimalist love story is like no other in how it expertly captures the slow-burn nature of fate. It's a bittersweet experience that'll leave you aching for all of life's "what-ifs.""[28]
Accolades
The National Society of Film Critics named the film its best picture of 2023.[29]
^Jeon Hwa (February 21, 2023). "유태오, 선댄스 이어 베를린 환호,,"K콘텐츠 뜨거운 관심"" [Teo Yoo, cheers in Berlin following Sundance,, "K-content hot interest"] (in Korean). Ilgan Sports. Retrieved February 21, 2023.
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