Post by juicy_but_terribly_drab on Sept 10, 2023 13:19:04 GMT
I saw Past Lives yesterday and it is probably my film of the year so far. So subtle and layered with gorgeous cinematography and impeccable direction made even more impressive by this being a debut feature from Celine Song (I wonder if anyone on here has managed to catch her theatrical work though perhaps not given that her first was cut short by the pandemic and her other was an experimental production of The Seagull performed in The Sims 4 and livestreamed on Twitch). The three leads all gave incredibly nuanced performances and the writing allowed them all to protray convincingly human and complicated characters.
The film follows Nora, a Korean immigrant to Canada and later the USA who has to navigate her relationship with her American husband against her feelings towards her childhood sweetheart who arrives from Korea 24 years after she left. There's a lot more to the film, which has a unique 3 Act structure with each taking place 12 years apart, but that's sort of the central conflict. It explores themes of identity, love, and the messy feelings brought up by people returning to your life and stirring up thoughts of what might have been. A set-up like could be an incredibly cliché forbidden romance or something - perhaps like The Bridges of Madison County which I do actually love and is itself also more nuanced than that makes it sound - but Song manages to avoid all those potential pit-falls, perhaps thanks to the story being based on her own experiences.
It's this year's Aftersun which is the highest of compliments I can give it except that it might even be slightly better, though I'd have to give both another watch to be sure about that. Go and see it!
The film follows Nora, a Korean immigrant to Canada and later the USA who has to navigate her relationship with her American husband against her feelings towards her childhood sweetheart who arrives from Korea 24 years after she left. There's a lot more to the film, which has a unique 3 Act structure with each taking place 12 years apart, but that's sort of the central conflict. It explores themes of identity, love, and the messy feelings brought up by people returning to your life and stirring up thoughts of what might have been. A set-up like could be an incredibly cliché forbidden romance or something - perhaps like The Bridges of Madison County which I do actually love and is itself also more nuanced than that makes it sound - but Song manages to avoid all those potential pit-falls, perhaps thanks to the story being based on her own experiences.
It's this year's Aftersun which is the highest of compliments I can give it except that it might even be slightly better, though I'd have to give both another watch to be sure about that. Go and see it!
