These characters are written without biographical detail, quirks, personalities, relationships, or identifiable chemistries, which makes it hard to care about them in any meaningful way. (Pixar routinely makes like animated toasters feel more "real")
Also, it is hard enough for a 30 year old to convincingly play a 20 year old, so why in the world did they cast 40 year olds with deep crows feet to play 20 and 30 year olds?
Greta Lee makes this film. She is the connecting force between two worlds and her uniquely subdued and charming performance explains the reason she is desired.
Dull actors with zero chemistry, and a lousy, soap-opera musical score. And the world-building was just so lazy. This "epic" story spans over 20 years, yet the characters just exist in a static void and have the bare-minimum number of people in their lives required to keep the narrative moving. The guy has a few Korean friends, but they're only there to turn up in a few stilted eating scenes and give him an excuse to tell the audience how he's feeling. The woman is supposedly a successful playwright, yet has none of the intense passion that the job demands. She'd rather just sit at her computer and idly muse about a guy she knew years ago. Sure. I happen to be someone with an enormous, romantic "What if?" hanging over his life, and yet this story did not connect with me at all. But I'd be curious to know how/why that great old John Cale song was picked as one scene's background music.
A bit of a ham-fisted attempt to talk about fate/destiny. Sure the cinematography is mostly beautiful, but it also uses very clichéd movements and framings to show loneliness (one shots in dark hallway) and togetherness (two shots in various guises).
The sun breaking through the crack in the window signifying a new dawn in Nora’s life as she ends things with Hae Sung. The flashback to the statue on their childhood date, even though we’ve already figured out the allusion before it’s shown.
The thesis of the movie being stated aloud by a character in the first few minutes:
“Sometimes when you leave something, you gain something too.”
It’s all a little Oscar-baity.
Overall it’s fine, but Hae Sung comes off as
a psycho stalker who really needs therapy. He is SO weird.
The movie has too slow tempo for me. And it is "too realistic", seems like a documentary of actors' real life.
By the way it looked like a "typical Estonian movie" - slow tempo, dark tones and discreet communication.
Child love stories films are legion but in this film there is something more and this make it interesting for me: First the rupture that immigration causes in people but also about the cultural colonization of South Korea by the US. Symbols of the American domination are abundant in the film: the Music, Facebook, Apple, Uber from Korea we only hear about In-Youn and that people are exploited economically and mentally.
Recommended
A beautiful, subtle film about the ache of unrequited love—the pain of holding on, the pain of letting go, and the pain of wondering what could have been. Nice score, nice script, and fantastic performances from all three leading actors.
Men are desperate and needy in Celine Song's Past Lives, but perhaps we'd rather say that they allow themselves to be vulnerable, honest, and accepting. Grace Lee plays the grown up version of a girl who immigrated to North America as a 12-year-old, leaving behind a boy who she had fancied marrying when they were older - as 12-year-olds might (though that had perhaps more power in Korean culture). As adults, they find each other again, and it seems he, at least, had built something up in his head. Had she? "What might have been" are dangerous words, and her current husband feels naturally insecure when that handsome boy comes to visit. The film creates an awkward tension between the three points of this romantic triangle, in part sustained by our notions of the romantic normally hardwired into romcom tropes. The characters even address the expected narrative, preparing us for a tipping point where the film must decide if it indeed a romcom that leans into those tropes, or rather a romdram that subverts them. Impeccably acted and very adult, with a crucial piece of Asian myth giving it poetry, Past Lives isn't just one live story, but two, or shall we say 16,000.
Add your comment
Comments 1 - 14 of 14
jlfitz
also streaming on Paramountgreenhorg
These characters are written without biographical detail, quirks, personalities, relationships, or identifiable chemistries, which makes it hard to care about them in any meaningful way. (Pixar routinely makes like animated toasters feel more "real")Also, it is hard enough for a 30 year old to convincingly play a 20 year old, so why in the world did they cast 40 year olds with deep crows feet to play 20 and 30 year olds?
beasterne
traistboar
Greta Lee makes this film. She is the connecting force between two worlds and her uniquely subdued and charming performance explains the reason she is desired.Ebbywebby
Dull actors with zero chemistry, and a lousy, soap-opera musical score. And the world-building was just so lazy. This "epic" story spans over 20 years, yet the characters just exist in a static void and have the bare-minimum number of people in their lives required to keep the narrative moving. The guy has a few Korean friends, but they're only there to turn up in a few stilted eating scenes and give him an excuse to tell the audience how he's feeling. The woman is supposedly a successful playwright, yet has none of the intense passion that the job demands. She'd rather just sit at her computer and idly muse about a guy she knew years ago. Sure. I happen to be someone with an enormous, romantic "What if?" hanging over his life, and yet this story did not connect with me at all. But I'd be curious to know how/why that great old John Cale song was picked as one scene's background music.wilyhawk
Background music in rainy NYC reminded me of Minecraft background music... loud, strange, and annoying.frankqb
A bit of a ham-fisted attempt to talk about fate/destiny. Sure the cinematography is mostly beautiful, but it also uses very clichéd movements and framings to show loneliness (one shots in dark hallway) and togetherness (two shots in various guises).The thesis of the movie being stated aloud by a character in the first few minutes:
It’s all a little Oscar-baity.
Overall it’s fine, but Hae Sung comes off as
4 stars out of 5
NourNasreldin
It hurts.CodeV
The movie has too slow tempo for me. And it is "too realistic", seems like a documentary of actors' real life.By the way it looked like a "typical Estonian movie" - slow tempo, dark tones and discreet communication.
grapenomad
A nicely paced film about disappointment, longing and the "what ifs". Great script, great acting. Will watch again.elcid
Child love stories films are legion but in this film there is something more and this make it interesting for me: First the rupture that immigration causes in people but also about the cultural colonization of South Korea by the US. Symbols of the American domination are abundant in the film: the Music, Facebook, Apple, Uber from Korea we only hear about In-Youn and that people are exploited economically and mentally.Recommended
pegs404
A beautiful, subtle film about the ache of unrequited love—the pain of holding on, the pain of letting go, and the pain of wondering what could have been. Nice score, nice script, and fantastic performances from all three leading actors.nymets138
Available to download on the Pirate BaySiskoid
Men are desperate and needy in Celine Song's Past Lives, but perhaps we'd rather say that they allow themselves to be vulnerable, honest, and accepting. Grace Lee plays the grown up version of a girl who immigrated to North America as a 12-year-old, leaving behind a boy who she had fancied marrying when they were older - as 12-year-olds might (though that had perhaps more power in Korean culture). As adults, they find each other again, and it seems he, at least, had built something up in his head. Had she? "What might have been" are dangerous words, and her current husband feels naturally insecure when that handsome boy comes to visit. The film creates an awkward tension between the three points of this romantic triangle, in part sustained by our notions of the romantic normally hardwired into romcom tropes. The characters even address the expected narrative, preparing us for a tipping point where the film must decide if it indeed a romcom that leans into those tropes, or rather a romdram that subverts them. Impeccably acted and very adult, with a crucial piece of Asian myth giving it poetry, Past Lives isn't just one live story, but two, or shall we say 16,000.