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FILM REVIEW: Past Lives

An out-of-body experience Cast: Greta Lee, Yoo Teo, John Magaro, Moon Seung-a, Seung Min Yim, Jojo T. Gibbs   Rating: 4/5   Watchi...


An out-of-body experience

Cast: Greta Lee, Yoo Teo, John Magaro, Moon Seung-a, Seung Min Yim, Jojo T. Gibbs

 

Rating: 4/5

 

Watching Celine Song’s feature-length debut Past Lives is a very evocative and emotional experience. The main theme of Past Lives is “What if?” “What if I’d done that?” “What if I’d not done that?” “What if I’d stayed?” “What if I’d left?” and that’s a universal pain of being.

Past Lives explores the simplest of decisions and how they could’ve gone either way.  It’s about fate and it’s about decisions and how they intertwine. The film makes the viewer regret some choices and happy about some specific decisions. The film plays like a dream and the moments between moments. It’s a film that celebrates life in the most beautiful way.

The film starts with Nora and Have Sung in a bar with their voiceovers talking about who they thought these two individuals meant to each other and it perfectly showcases regret. Past Lives makes us feel so many emotions in such little time that it can be overwhelming at times. It showcases life in all its beauty and its grimness, it showcases us as humans in our best and worst forms, it showcases everything that makes us humans beautifully.

Celine Song’s direction is perfect for this film alongside the perfect performances and beautiful visual imagery.

Easily one of the best films of the year so far, Past Lives makes us think about those minute decisions we made and how our life would be completely different if we hadn’t made that decision.

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