SCREEN SHOT - Past Lives

When I was at Primary School, I escaped being bullied by the boys in the boys playground by taking refuge in the girls playground. I had 'girlfriends' and some of those girls professed their six year old love for me in letter form. Somewhere in my papers I still have two of their clumsily written notes. I don't remember them now as individuals that I once was in a naive 'love' relationship with. We all have memories from our childhood of deep friendships, that for whatever reason do not survive the test of time. My family moved away from the town of my birth when I was eleven. This effectively meant any sense of continuity between my childhood friends and my adulthood was cut off. There was no shared experience of growing up and maturing together.

Celine Song's wonderfully tender film takes the idea of soul mates from our childhood and says what if they came back to meet you in adult life? What mixture of emotions would this conjure up in you? The philosophical centre of this movie revolves around the Korean notion of 'in yun' that individuals you encounter do not come into your lives by chance, but by a type of karmic fate. That you have some previous past life connection with this individual manifesting in the moment here and now of your present life. But that is not always meant to be a love connection.

Nora (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) were childhoods sweethearts, whose love and appreciation for each other was abruptly terminated when Nora's parents emigrated from South Korea to the United States. Twelve years later via the internet and Skype, they reconnect. Nora is at the beginning of her burgeoning career as a writer, Hae Sung still working his way through college towards a future career. Though they talk of meeting up, neither feels able to do so. Their conversations churn up Nora's emotions, they start to impede and confuse her career ambitions. Making her decide to cease communicating with Hae Sung. Many years later Nora, now married to Arthur (John Magaro) she hears from Hae Sung. That he is coming on a visit to New York. And its clear he has come to see her. 

This film is full to the brim with real heart, that doesn't avoid the complicated emotional territory these three individuals find themselves in. How does Nora feel about Hae Sung, and vice a versa? What on earth is Arthur to make of Hae Sung and his reasons for wanting to meet Nora? All the tender insecurities of Arthur's relationship with Nora's become exposed. Meanwhile Hae Sung stands there as one protracted ache of longing for a past life, he so much wants to reclaim, but finds he really cannot. Life has moved on, the depth of their childhood connection is lost in a past that only Hae Sung continues to live in.. At the end of the movie he asks Nora - do you think that our connection in this life comes not from the past but from a relationship in a future life? An unanswerable question which is holding out one last hope into the future, which is just a heartrendingly tough watch. This debut film of Celine Song's, which she both wrote and directed, is worthy of all the awards and praise that has been heaped upon it.

CARROT REVIEW - 8/8