Imagine that.
You are an American.
You and your Korean girlfriend are married.
Your wife's first love boyfriend is suddenly coming to her.
The three of you meet in the bar, eat, and chat.
While chatting, your wife and her first love suddenly began to chat in Korean, and they had a good conversation.
Of course you can't interject, you seem to have been forgotten.
Is this scene uncomfortable? It's right to be uncomfortable -
"Past Life"
Past Lives
2023.6.2. United States
A blockbuster
This is the feature film debut of Korean-Canadian director, Celine Song, written and directed by herself.
The film is adapted from the director's personal experience.
At the age of 12, she immigrated to Canada from South Korea with her parents.
Later, because of his career, he settled in New York with his husband, who was also a writer, and became a theater director.
and the experience of the heroine in the film is almost the same.
However, the most important similarity lies in the opening scene.
The same childhood sweetheart came to New York for a vacation.
She took her husband to chat with him at a bar, and suddenly found that she had become the interpreter for the two.
The director is acutely aware that, in a way, she has become a bridge between the two cultures.
After polishing it out, she expanded that feeling into a feature-length film.
When the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2023, it received rave reviews.
Later, he was selected into the list of nominees for the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival and is also a popular candidate for the next Oscar.
Many people say that this movie is the best romance film of the year so far.
My assessment is, nothing is wrong.
Long farewell reunion
Let's start with the story.
Your Korean wife is called Yayoung.
Her childhood sweetheart is called Haecheng.
The two live close to each other and often go home together after school.
Both of them have good academic performance, always winning one or two places, and the most classic relationship between two little guesses.
However, the personality differences between the two are quite large.
Hai Cheng is restrained and traditional, while Yaying is strong and cheerful.
Once in the exam, Yaying was surpassed by Haicheng and only won the second place, and she cried so badly.
Because Na Young's parents are about to immigrate to Canada, she will soon leave South Korea.
By the way, he also changed his English name to Nora (this title is used below).
Nora is very happy, feeling that after she goes abroad for further study, she will have the opportunity to fulfill her Nobel dream of literature.
Only Hai Cheng looked a little confused in the face of this sudden difference.
Fast forward twelve years.
One day, while talking about her childhood with her mother, Nora remembered her childhood friend.
Under the rise, he searched the Internet and found that Haicheng had been trying to contact her all along, so he left a message for him.
A long-distance relationship after twelve years resumed.
The process of falling in love is always sweet.
Although the two were separated by one day, the time difference was almost reversed.
But the two will still do everything they can to get stuck in a video chat.
Nora even picked up Korean, which she didn't speak much anymore.
However, the passion will always fade and the reality will always emerge.
Love is no exception to Jin Jian's first love.
There are always times when two people miss each other, but the other person can't respond.
Most importantly, as the relationship increases, the desire to meet each other becomes stronger and stronger.
However, the reality is that both parties already have their own lives, dreams, and friends in their respective settlements.
Nora is unlikely to return to Seoul, and Hae-sung is unlikely to settle in New York.
Especially Nora.
Thinking of her current situation, she woke up like a dream-
He immigrated twice before coming to New York to pursue his dreams.
But now he is staring at the ticket to Seoul in a daze, almost letting the impulse of love overwhelm his dream.
This choice was difficult to make, but Nora eventually chose to let go of the relationship.
He said that he was temporarily separated and busy with his own business.
In fact, it is a more tactful proposal to break up.
Soon after, Nora enrolled in her favorite writers' residency.
There, she met her boyfriend, who was also a writer, and the rest of the story fell into place.
In order to save rent, the two lived together, and in order to get a green card, the two got married.
And Haicheng, who went to Shanghai for exchange and study, also has his own new love.
Life is like a stream, trickling forward.
In the blink of an eye, another twelve years passed abruptly.
I thought that this relationship would be buried in the depths of my memory like this.
Unexpectedly, Haicheng suddenly fulfilled his promise twelve years ago and came to New York for a vacation.
Although Nora didn't say anything, she was still a little panicked in her heart.
Really vacation? Or in the name of this, want to continue the frontier with her?
On the other hand, Hai Cheng's heart is actually bottomless.
He couldn't even tell why he had to see Nora.
In the respective apprehensive moods of both parties, this first love also ushered in the final test...
Three goodbyes
I have to say that A24's vision is indeed vicious.
Although it is a new director, the calm and mature shown by the director is almost like a battle-hardened player.
Outside the play, such as helping actors perform -
Many directors will probably let Nora and Haisei have a chemical reaction between them and let the two contact in advance.
Celine Song deliberately let the two have no physical contact in the early stage, and Haecheng and Nora's husband did not meet.
Therefore, several actors are cramped and embarrassed when they first meet and hug for the first time, and they are not exactly acting.
Therefore, that nuanced sense of precision will make it easier for people to empathize.
In the play, let's just talk about a very small lens design -
Nora and Haicheng first met in New York, and the two took the subway.
Through the shaking of the carriage junction, the director designed a shot scheduling in which Nora slowly framed with the sea.
Without saying anything, we can experience the emotional flow between the two characters.
This is our most common scene, but it is very cleverly used by the director.
Throughout the film, this ingenuity can be seen almost everywhere.
But not for showmanship, but always for the story and characters.
It can only be said that the director's sense of lens and rhythm is really good.
Many netizens said that this film is like the popular "Holiday After Sun" some time ago, which is not unreasonable.
On the one hand, the shots of the two films are basically close to the characters and pay attention to their inner emotions.
"Holiday After Sun"
On the other hand, perhaps because of personal experience adaptation -
The characters and the very subtle emotional expressions between the characters were accurately captured by the director.
When expressed through the lens, it is also unpretentious, sincere and natural.
And this comes to the story of the film.
This is certainly a love story, telling the story of a first love who was reunited after a long absence, and finally failed to reunite.
But the good thing about this film is that it combines the story of first love well with the identity of immigrants.
It comes down to our protagonist, Nora, which tells the story of how she finds and says goodbye to the past.
The whole story is actually made up of three goodbyes.
For the first time, the two were still young and did not understand anything.
Haisei was silent as usual, not knowing what to say, leaving only a "goodbye".
Nora only knows how to pursue her dream of a Nobel Prize in literature.
She didn't know that this parting could be forever.
The second time, the two reunited, but faced a difficult choice.
Hai Fei is a person who is content with the status quo, does not think about it, or unconsciously avoids it.
Nora, who was more entangled and more active, finally chose to leave the past behind.
Therefore, the difference between the two is more obvious than the first time.
And the third time, and the most important.
When Nora saw Hae-sei, she learned that the twelve-year-old girl had never disappeared.
The director used a very interesting example to illustrate this feeling -
When Nora talks in her dreams, she only speaks Korean.
A very poetic, yet realistic metaphor.
Those pasts will not disappear because Nora voluntarily abandons them.
When Hae-sung appeared in front of her, the habits and memories formed by childhood also awakened.
She will suddenly want to eat chicken wings, and she will take a cruise ship with Haecheng to see the Statue of Liberty.
And she and her husband have lived in New York for many years, but they have never seen it together.
She thought that those pasts were obstacles that prevented her from moving forward.
So when she reconnected that year, she chose to take the initiative to let go because she was afraid.
In other words, leaving behind her past self, the twelve-year-old girl.
As everyone knows, it is precisely because of those pasts that I came to New York and bravely pursued my dreams.
When Hae-sung asked her, "What award do you want to win now?" ”
Twenty-four years ago, her answer was the Nobel Prize in Literature, and twelve years ago, her answer was the Pulitzer Prize.
Now, her response is "I haven't been thinking about these things lately."
When Hae-sung continued to ask her, now as a dramatist, she replied, "Tony Award."
Haicheng is of course his first love, but he actually represents the "past life" that Nora actively abandoned.
On the other hand, for Haicheng, he just wanted to solve the confusion in his heart.
The reunion twelve years ago allowed him to see the little girl back then, and it did not disappear.
So at some point he would fantasize about whether it would be different if she came back that year, or if he went.
And when he saw Nora, he understood that this was a doomed reunion.
What he loved from beginning to end was the strong girl who would cry if she won the second place.
And such Nora is destined to leave.
The title of the film is "Past Life", which comes from the "cause" we are familiar with.
There were bonds in previous lives, and we can only meet in this life.
And the memories of twelve-year-old first love, to some extent, are the past lives of Nora and Haecheng.
After the holiday, the two said goodbye, and Haecheng turned around and called Nora.
The picture instantly returns to the scene twenty-four years ago, when Haecheng said goodbye to Nora.
However, in the flashback, the director deliberately changed the time from day to night.
The director is saying that these two children have been locked up in the dark for decades.
And when the two can finally say goodbye, it is also when they see the light again.
Your past life, your present life, cannot represent you.
Together, they make up a more complete you.