Peneflix MOVIE REVIEWS BY PENEFLIX
Experiencing this elegiacally exquisite film knowing that no one could have written it without having lived it; religiosity reverberates throughout; “Past Lives” is a hymn, a devoted prayer to bygone loves; remembered souls whose sincerity episodically, flowed in and out of one’s life; the “if only’s” “what if’s” are ubiquitously echoed throughout “Past Lives”, stirring memories, mostly ignored, but awakened by this prosaic film.
Director/writer Celine Song excavates the depths of a relationship commencing in primary school; two intuitively intelligent twelve-year-olds, geographically separated; “Na Young/ Nora” (plaintively perfect Greta Lee) emigrates from South Korea to Toronto, leaving behind a wretched, lovesick “Hae Sung” (achingly tortured Teo Yoo) only to reconnect, via the internet, twelve years later, eventually, intentionally disconnect; meeting in New York after a twenty year hiatus; Nora is married to “Arthur” (sublimely gentle John Magaro) and thus commences one of the most deliciously, painful studies of cultural disparities, fickleness of fate, karmic recurrences; how circumstances, talents, geography determines one’s choices; in Korean it is defined as “in-yun” (fate, providence) governing the rhythm of one’s options; selecting the “road less traveled”, warranting it will make “all the difference”.
The “past” never disappears, it reshapes itself in the present, defining one’s life, enriching, creating, allowing the actualization of one’s potential. “Past Lives” profundity will resonate beautifully, poignantly well into the future.
FIVE STARS!!!!!
Peneflix
