‘Past Lives’ review [Berlinale 2023]

After a world premiere at Sundance just a few weeks prior, Celine Song’s Past Lives lands in Europe at the Berlinale to bigger rapture with audiences leaving screenings in floods of tears.

The film opens with the camera looking across a crowded New York bar at three people, all chatting among themselves while offering a commentary from another couple – off camera – attempting to analyse the relationship between them. This, of course, is what the film does for the next two hours, the narrative starting over two decades previous in South Korea. We meet the twelve-year-old Nora and Hae Sung, two friends who have seemingly known each other their whole lives. However, it is revealed that Nora and her family are about to immigrate to Canada, so the two are on the verge of having to say goodbye. To soften the devastating blow, Nora’s mother has arranged a ‘date’ for the two to go on – purely to capture a memory of their beautiful friendship. Writer/ director Celine Song then fast-forwards 12 years, the two now in their mid-twenties, Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) still living in Seoul and having to look at carrying out compulsory military service, and Nora (an exceptional Greta Lee) now in New York, trying to break out as a playwright. The two manage to reconnect, first over social media, and then through Skype calls, both of them still obviously having a deep connection with one another over a decade on.

After interactions between the two, the narrative then moves on another twelve years, another shift in time that sees them in different circumstances again, Haw Sung, still in Korea and just split up with a girlfriend, and Nora now married to an American writer and living in an East Village apartment. The film delves deep into the dynamics that are involved in these three meetings, and the emotion that comes with ‘past lives’ resurfacing over a number of years. It deals with a lot of things, and there is tons to relate to for all. It’s a story of lost souls reconnecting, but also the what if and what would’ve been, melanchlic looks back at a different time and a different world to people that reconnect us to how we once were. In fact, the more I think about it, the more emotional I get about it all over again.

The two actors at the heart of the story are mesmerising, and totally brilliant in every scene. They deliver heartfelt, but also funny performances, while John Magaro’s Arthur shows a different perspective and he is equally as good.

Funny, heart-tugging, and continuously emotionally involving, the film is one that I connected to immediately. Everything is underplayed, from those three performances at the film’s core to the flawless writing and direction from Song. Then there’s the cinematography from Shabier Kirchner who offers stunning visuals – lots of frames within frames – that, while visually stunning and noticeable, doesn’t pull you away from the understated, natural feeling that is constantly present.

Another sure-fire hit from A24, and a striking announcement of Celine Song to the world. This is one of the best films of the year and will still be at the top of many ‘best of year’ lists come Christmas.

Past Lives was reviewed at the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival.