Romance films are often a celebration of big, dramatic shows of love. Characters show their emotions through passionate flourishes, romantic speeches and boppy love songs. It is a trope that has become loved by all romantic-film lovers, but this is not often the case for real life love. That is why Celine Song’s debut film “Past Lives has been able to resonate with so many people since its 2023 release. It is able to portray the quiet moments of love and loss that so many of us experience.
The film opens with several voices off-camera discussing the scene before them. A Korean man and woman sit next to each other, with another man sitting to the right of the woman, somewhat excluded from the conversation happening next to him. The voiceover conversation debate the relationship between the three people. Are the Koreans a tourist couple and the other man their tour guide? Perhaps the Korean woman and white man are a couple, and the Korean man her brother? Or perhaps the white man is just an American friend to the Korean couple? Maybe they’re all work colleagues? It’s impossible to know.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkFIqzr_YMU
“Past Lives” is a story that follows Nora, a Korean playwright who moves to Canada with her family at a young age, leaving behind her crush, Hae Sung. Nora eventually meets the man that would become her husband, Arthur, a novelist who lives in New York and the two fall in love. Years later, after connecting with her over Facebook and numerous video calls, Hae Sung tells Nora that he is coming to New York on vacation and asks if she will show him around the city. The story focuses on the journey of the two as they explore New York and reminisce about how their lives would be different if Nora had stayed in South Korea.
This film is vastly different from any other romance film that has been released recently and is one of the best portrayals of authentic love that has been seen in cinema for decades. The film captures quiet, intimate moments of love and the way that feelings are able to linger even after decades apart.
One way that Song is able to create this sense of intimacy is through the combination of long camera shots and bouts of silence throughout the film. Each scene is shot in one continuous motion with very few cuts between characters. Rather, Song allows the audience to take a moment to stare at each character for an extended period of time before moving on to the next shot, drawing focus to the slightest changes in emotion on each person’s face.
This also achieves another purpose: we see the awkwardness of love. This is especially apparent when Hae Sung arrives in New York and meets with Nora again for the first time in decades. Both characters are clearly excited to see each other but also unsure of what to say after many years apart. The camera lingers on Hae Sung’s face as Nora embraces him and stays focused on him as she pulls away. We see the pure joy Hae Sung feels while hugging her and then the shift to awkwardness when he looks at her, afraid to reveal his true feelings for fear they won’t be reciprocated.
This atmosphere is enhanced by the complete lack of music, both in this scene and in many others throughout the film. There is little dialogue and rather this scene is punctuated with quiet noises of joy and disbelief from Nora and stunned gasps from Hae Sung. Purely through the lack of noise, we are able to share in their experience, both the joy and the discomfort.
One thing that romance movies often gloss over is the uncertainty that comes with love. The timidness of loving someone and knowing that they don’t feel the same way, but still holding out hope that one day, they might. Hae Sung is the perfect example of this kind of unreciprocated love. Through him, we are able to feel the despair that follows a hopeless romantic and the optimism it brings even when you should move on. This kind of intimate emotion is so difficult to capture in film, but Song does it with such grace that you feel as though you’re experiencing it for yourself.
However, the best way that Song is able to capture an authentic depiction of love is through the film’s ending. In countless romantic films, the main character realises their love for the leading man and races to confess it to him before he leaves forever. It has become a much-loved staple of the genre. However, this is exactly the opposite of how “Past Lives” ends. As Hae Sung is about to leave, he turns to Nora and says, “If this is also a past life, what would we be to each other in our next one?” Nora calls out, “I don’t know.” Hae Sung smiles softly and says, “Me too,” before getting in the taxi waiting for him and driving away.
As she walks back to the apartment, a melancholy track plays behind Nora. Her face is shrouded in shadow and we can’t quite tell whether she is smiling or crying, until she falls into the arms of her husband, Arthur, and sobs. He holds her for a moment before taking her inside and the film ends.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjGPlIUilso
Lovers of romance films will hate this ending. I hated this ending the first time I watched it. But only because it felt so real. I could feel the intense love that Nora felt for Hae Sung but I also knew that it could never be. Nora couldn’t give up her whole life, a husband she loved, a career she worked so hard for and a home that she built. Romance movies end but real life keeps moving and we are left with the consequences of the things we do. Is it worth sacrificing everything for someone you once loved? For many people, the answer is “no” and that’s what makes this movie so perfectly reflective of real, authentic love.
