Past Lives - How Love Lingers…

This video essay analyzes and reviews A24's Past Lives which has been nominated for several Academy Awards. This video deep dives into the theme of how love lingers by studying the character writing and the creative choices by writer/director Celine Song in Past Lives. This is Past Lives explained.

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Music used:
If You Close Your Eyes I'm Still With You by Late Night Feeler
Eternal Garden by Dan Henig
Zodiac Structures by NoMBe
No 4 Piano Journey by Esther Abrami

Timestamps:
0:00 Immigation
2:45 Unique Love
6:05 Psychology of Nora/Hae Sung
8:52 The Kind Antagonist

#pastlives #celinesong #videoessay

[phoenix_teardrops]

The moment Arthur meets Hae Sung for the first time, you can see how powerless he feels because Nora was clearly lying about how handsome he is.. and because Nora and Hae Sung are standing next to each other while Arthur is facing them, he feels so much out of place in that dynamic where those two clearly look like a couple who belongs together. Arthur's brokenhearted expression at that moment just crushes me and i feel for him.

[FishareFriendsNotFood]

"He doesn't deserve to lose his wife just because someone else has loved her for longer, from further away. While most people would automatically restrict their partner from seeing someone they suspect is here to steal them away, Arthur respects the complex layers to their connection and does the honorable thing by letting them finish their story." Beautiful man, just beautiful.

[boboblueblue]

"Over our lifetimes, so many of us will never even meet. Others we will merely brush past. Whereas for a special shortlist of people, we collide and afterwards our lives for better or for worse are never quite the same." those lines made me cry! excellent video!

[natedogg]

This hits pretty hard for me, my mom is an immigrant from Malaysia and, like Na, she moved to North America (Canada in this case) fairly young and ended up marrying a local Canadian and starting a family here. That's my origin story, but I found out that an old friend of hers back in Malaysia had proposed to her before she married my dad, and if she had accepted, I, and our whole family, would have never existed. She told me it was a very hard decision, as it was a choice between a life in Malaysia that she had never really chosen to leave (as she left when she was 11), and her new life and the possibilities in Canada. I often wonder if she would have been better off if she had chosen different, as there is such an uncrossable cultural rift between my mom and dad that has just grown as they have grown older together, and has left both of them very unfullfilled. Though I have gone back to Malaysia several times, and love it there, there is an alienation to both Malay and Canadian culture within me that I don't think will ever be resolved. It's very complicated stuff, interracial/intercultural relationships are become more and more mainstream and accepted, but have never been explored with much nuance at all past comedy and fetishization, so I hope for more films and content like Past Lives

[Arthur-nrci]

I was so moved by the last scene where Nora, who never cries, let it all out into the arms of her husband. I needed that release for myself, lol.

[Dilmahkana]

Noting that Nora and Hae Sung are shown in silence yet are intimately communicating is such a good point. In the past few years I've noticed it's the people I can just sit with comfortably that are the special ones.

[caydenrichmond]

“As it’s so much easier to live with a decision you made, than one that was dictated by forces outside of your control”

I’ve thought about this movie constantly since seeing it and that just about sums up the ending

[yunkal]

Sure is nice to hear this voice talking about love and relationships again.
Whilst it is difficult to look back and see all the "what could've been"s, one of the most reassuring lessons I've learnt is "Don't worry, you're gonna be fine"

[trao]

Spoiler warnings: I liked this movie but didn't love it as much as everybody else. It's beautifully filmed, and very easy to watch. Celine Song's gift lies in her ability to express so much with so little. My main issue with the storyline is that Nora's character arc resolves halfway through the film, when her decision about Hae Sung is made. She realizes he'll never emigrate from South Korea and tells him, via laptop, that she needs time away from him. That's it. That's the climax. Everything after that is what's commonly called the 'falling action, ' ie the consequences of her choice. Once she makes her decision, Nora marries Arthur and goes on with the rest of her life.
So I was never rooting for them as a couple, because the decision they wouldn't be was already a done deal.
And also because I didn't believe Nora was in love with Hae Sung, but rather the memory of the young girl Hae Sung knew growing up. By contrast, Hae Sung clearly carried emotional feelings for Nora, so their meeting would ultimately help him to find the closure and acceptance needed to move on with his life. When the couple is finally parting ways, Hae Sung is saying goodbye to the girl he's loved for so many years.Whereas Nora is saying good-bye to her past. Nora's tears are for the Korean girl she was forced to leave behind. Hae Sung was just somebody in Nora's life who made that girl feel more familiar and alive.
Past Lives isn't a film about a woman choosing between 2 men, but rather two conflicting self-identities. For this reason, I think it would have been a better film if Nora didn't have her marriage to Arthur to fall back on as an excuse. Because Nora is all about getting what she wants and would leave Arthur, had she truly been in love with Hae Sung. There was no 'love triangle, ' because even without Arthur in the picture, the movie would've ended the same way. It's Nora's present cultural identity that wins out in the end. Despite how muvh they care for one another, , both painfully realize that Hae Sung belongs where he is, and Nora belongs where she is. They can't be together, and still be who they are.

[georgiemeredith]

For me, this story is not so much about Nora’s character arc but it’s very much about Hae Sung’s need for closure. His ability to move on cannot be resolved until, in his own words, he sees her one more time 😢

[Artyom_P]

great analysis. i know my younger self would be the insecure husband that restricts nora from seeing him. how you explained it, letting them find closure, and not stepping in between, is a great real life philosophy as well. thanks for uploading!

[alexandrakarolidis]

the last part of analysis was really nice … and very relatable :) “some people you just meet in life and collide and after your life is never quite the same when you are on your own afterwards ” ❤

[lucaswatson]

The bit where they talk about Arthur not understanding Nora on a first language basis resonated so strongly with me and my partner, as we currently communicate 99% in her third (my first) language

[Flyover]

Such a beautiful and passionate description. Past Lives was my movie of the year. It made me feel in ways I could never hope to feel in reality. It's a very personal movie to me. And all three actors, Greta Lee, Teo Yop and John Magaro gave their best performance. That ending 26 minutes of the movie will stay with me for a long long time.

[brimichelle]

This movie was very healing for me. A boy I grew up with had a crush on me, but I never really "saw" him until years later, when we were 25, and hadn't spoken in 8 years. I very quickly fell in love with him, but I wasn't ready to be with him. It's now been 3 years since we last spoke, and I don't know if I'll ever see him again, but in that time I've really embraced the maturity that the heartbreak I felt after losing him has brought me, and applied it in a way that's made me a pretty successful artist (I also published a book of poetry about him, and sometimes I wonder if he'll ever find it/read it). I loved how the ending was all about moving forward, sticking to your commitments, and doing what's right for you, even if it means moving on. Ngl, I really needed to see that lol. Grateful for this film.

[eliseadayme]

Your words, whether about colliding with a few or how the process of living in another country makes you feel like you have lived a few lives, struck a chord with me. Beautiful!

[marimota]

I adored your analysis of this movie particularly. It resonates so much in my head. I've moved 5 times to different countries and the little pieces of your heart that you leave behind is beyond words painful, but you moved with the hope that things will be better, to come to the conclusion when you get older that, there's no place like home.
It is interesting but I'm sick and tired of being the foreigner. I miss being truly me.

[GabrielaEncinaPsychologist]

Thank you so much for this beautiful analysis. For me, this movie touches the uprooting subject both effectively and accurately. "I'm not from here nor there" is a feeling that accompanies us migrants forever. Her encounter with her childhood sweetheart made her face who she was, the Nora who stayed in Korea, the child who's not there anymore.
We create our home within ourselves, because home is not a country anymore (maybe several, maybe none).
In the end, this movie is about acceptance and grieving what we left behind when we moved away.
Congratulations on your channel, I love your insightful videos!

[DavidN]

Absolutely beautiful and spot-on analysis of an absolutely beautiful and spot-on film, tied with "All of Us Strangers" -- with which it would make an exceptional double feature -- as favorite film of 2023. Thank you so much for your sensitive perception and insight.

[rohersal]

Loved the analysis about the script and director's choices. I felt this film was so pure and true. What also hit hard was its music and the use of silence/background noise to emphasize emotional moments.