‘Past Lives’ elegantly weaves a tapestry of love, memory and identity

Leonard Cohen's heartbreak ballad "That's No Way To Say Goodbye", the opening track used in "Past Lives" carries a profound resonance that perfectly captures the sudden parting in the story of two childhood sweethearts. The gentle wisdom expressed by the poet also captures the subtle cleverness that is equivalent to the allure of playwright Celine Song's first film as a director.

The movie unveils a captivating conundrum. A woman and two men sit in a bar, wining and chatting as a sense of slight melancholia hangs in the air. It becomes tough to distinguish whether the obvious two amongst the three exchange sly glances and sorrowful stares between them. Playwright Nora Moon (Greta Lee), her American husband Arthur (John Magaro), and her South Korean childhood sweetheart Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) are thus introduced.

This scene is possibly the most explicitly autobiographical moment in "Past Lives", the story of which follows Nora as she reunites with Hae Sung sporadically over several decades and continents. The inspiration for the movie came to Celine Song while she was sitting in an East Village cocktail bar with her husband, screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes – who spoke only English, and an old flame from Seoul who spoke only Korean.

In many ways, Nora's narrative is parallel to Song's as both are playwrights who have lived in the same places and who met their spouses during retreats for artistes. Both are aware of the difficulties involved in juggling different cultures. Song, though, prefers to refer to the movie as an "adaptation" of her life. A bit of "objectification" was a necessary part of the filmmaking process, according to her. "And in doing that, it stops being about recreating something autobiographical. It becomes its own story."

"Past Lives" is the definition of a subtly heartbreaking and captivating story in every scene. Although Nora and Hae Sung aren't precisely in a relationship and aren't exactly friends, "Inyeon" aligns with their need for a label. The Korean word "Inyeon" makes periodical appearances throughout the movie because the characters use it to express their unattainable longings. "Inyeon is this thing where for some reason the universe has placed you somewhere where the connection is deeper than it has any right to be," explained Celine Song.

In a film filled with enormous stretches of negative space, not a single shot or line in the film is unintentional – Nora and Hae Sung are deliberately kept apart from one another onscreen. When Nora recounts the Korean concept of "Inyeon", which holds that people's lives are destined to cross repeatedly through cycles of life and reincarnation, she signifies that pure love is the result of 8,000 such intersections.

"Past Lives" makes an elegant effort to explain how our memories may sometimes result in turning other people into projections of our conflicted desires, and it isn't exactly the drowsy lovelorn drama that its trailer had presented it out to be. For example, Hae Sung tells Nora that to him, Nora is someone who leaves, but for Arthur, she is someone who stays. Nora struck me as a constellation of possibilities and yearning however she would seem frustrated as though she is waiting for a revelation. Hae Sung, on the other hand, adores Nora. He is the almost surreal manic pixie dream boy of the life Nora left behind in Seoul. He is an ardent romantic, almost to the point of naiveté.

Arthur, meanwhile, is never reduced to an obstacle; he understands what Hae Sung means to Nora, and does not get caught up in the ordinary sort of jealousy. Nora makes a tiny deflection when he asks her if she is happy with him. She insists, "This is where I am supposed to be". However, Nora's voice trembles just a little bit as she wonders how anyone can ever be certain that they are content when they could potentially live with many other possible outcomes.

The prospect of returning home someday sounds like a seductive siren call in tales about immigration, desire, and grief, including in this film. It starts to resemble a place that could ease all one's aches by returning them to their complete self. The fantasy suggests that when they get there, they'll be satisfied and have a place to call home.

Although family and identity are vaguely addressed in "Past Lives", Nora and Hae Sung's stories reveal another frequently repeated idea of the 'prodigal return' fantasy; the person who departs remains mobile while also being the true subject of plots, while those left behind remain static and wait to extend a welcoming hand at all times. Nora's brilliant code-switching between her Korean identity with Hae-sung and her American identity with Arthur is fascinating, as is Arthur's wary questioning for he suspects (justifiably) that she is deeply in love with their Korean visitor. As writers, Arthur and Nora can see how Hae Sung while being a provincial country mouse in compared to them, is unquestionably more captivating and magnificent. He is a dashing, dignified, modest, heartbroken romantic hero who has given everything in his life for a far-off true love.

To emphasise the emotions of its protagonists, "Past Lives" frequently uses extremely long lingering shots and close-ups. Instead of articulating sentiments via dialogues, director Song is passionate about demonstrating the emotions of her characters. The sparing use of music, acoustics, and the few actors' well-selected conversations all contribute to the enhancement of her demonstrations.

Comprehensive shots of Seoul's streets and landscapes as backgrounds dictate the same for her selection of the places. The film's camera work conjures a forgotten time and place sentimentally so that the scenes successfully infuse remnants of previous lifetimes. For viewers who might not fully comprehend the diasporic experience in words but through feeling, "Past Lives" skillfully transmits emotions through visuals.

Shabier Kirchner's cinematography tries to convey silence, which is clear in Nora and Hae Sung's reconnection decades after their last meeting. The landscape of forgotten memories is what the two of them travel through while she shows him around New York. The moments of silence that punctuate their conversations are more revealing than anything they can say to each other. The conceptual underpinnings of "Past Lives" are the silence of lost love, an unbreakable yet forbidden connection, erased identities, and discarded memories. Kirchner's visual language is unable to endure such a deafening silence, nevertheless. The silence cannot be sustained by the cinematography, which makes it easy to misinterpret it for emptiness.

"Past Lives" goes beyond passionate longing and pressing questions, even if it is foremostly a love story. Song uses the movie as an opportunity to talk about her feelings regarding her diasporic experience. For instance, Nora's mother gives this justification for the family's decision to relocate overseas before leaving her own country (Korea)- "If you leave something behind, you gain something, too". It's a sentiment that Nora has experienced in her life, leading her to a career in New York City and marriage to the compassionate Arthur. It's vastly different from the childhood she was familiar with, and she even admits that she doesn't even use Korean to speak very often as an adult. The same can be said for Celine Song.

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As Song's writing enabled these remarkably mature and sensible adults to process some extremely complex emotions, then again the solution eludes Nora, "Past Lives", and even the director herself. In a world where blockbuster franchises often dominate the cinema landscape, "Past Lives" dives deep into the labyrinth of human existence and stands strong as a testament to the power of independent filmmaking. Celine Song's visionary direction, coupled with the exceptional performances of the cast and the creative talents of the crew assembled a cinematic experience that lingers long after the credits roll.