“I think of it as you’re the bridge between these two languages and cultures. It feels less like a switch because you’re not fully one thing,” director Celine Song muses when I ask her about switching between her Korean and American identities.
Song’s acclaimed debut feature film, Past Lives, opens with a scene in which our protagonist, a Korean-Canadian-American expat, Nora, sits in between her American husband Arthur (John Magaro) and Korean childhood beau Hae Sung at a trendy bar in New York. We briefly adopt the point of view of a stranger as they wonder what is happening with the peculiar threesome across the bar counter before the film cuts to Nora’s life before this particular moment.
The scene, in all its understated glory, perfectly encapsulates the experience of living between two cultures. You’re constantly existing between two spaces, two languages and, at times, two identities. It’s such a singular, unique feeling, almost impossible to put into words or to visualise, but Song has not only done it but made it look effortless.
Credit: Studio Canal
Past Lives has been bulldozing its way through film festivals around the world. It’s one of the most critically acclaimed films of the year; the tender (non-)love story between Nora (delicately emotive Greta Lee) and her childhood sweetheart Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) has truly captured the hearts of many since its slow, but steady roll-out to global cinemas.
That opening scene, as well as the whole film, is based on Song’s own experiences.
“Writing is an objectifying process where you turn the subjective experience into an object,” the director muses during the Sundance Film Festival London as whynow sits down with her to chat about Past Lives, which would go on to win the Audience Award at the festival only days later.
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As Nora in the film, Song also immigrated from Seoul to Canada and later to New York to become a playwright. It wasn’t until Past Lives that Song found herself as a filmmaker.
“Honestly, the part of myself that I poured myself into the most was filmmaking. This movie really was a discovery for me as a filmmaker, because I didn’t know that I was a filmmaker until I was on set, making a movie,” she tells whynow.
Song says that making Past Lives has changed her life. She’s already working on a new movie, but Past Lives, released in the UK on 8 September, might have legs to become a major awards contender. To even be in the discussion is a pretty impressive achievement for a debut filmmaker.
Although Song has plenty of experience in spearheading plays, the responsibility of filmmaking was a completely different beast.
“You’re responsible for the time and space of hundreds of people, right? On top of having to make a great movie that makes their time worthwhile!” she laughs and notes that she turned to her producers when she needed advice herself.
John Magaro, Celine Song, Greta Lee and Teo Yoo attend the “Past Lives” New York Screening at The Metrograph on May 31, 2023, in New York City. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images)
“They were the only ones that I could be open about what I’m going through and my uncertainties because they’re not going to be the ones who are going to be scared of them,” Song describes.
At the heart of Past Lives is the Korean concept of in-yeon. According to it, if two people meet in life, that means that they must have also met in a previous life. Lovers, typically, will have met each other thousands, maybe millions of times in previous lives in order for their relationship to bloom in the present.
It’s an achingly romantic concept, and the understated romance that is constantly on the verge of materialising between Nora and Hae Sung is like straight out of a play or a romance novel. You spend a large portion of the film hoping they will get together, to finally admit that they belong together.
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In order for the non-romance between Nora and Hae Sung to work, you need a third player. Arthur, Nora’s husband, played by John Magaro, is the awkward third wheel in the film, and Past Lives would never work without him.
Credit: Studio Canal
“At the end, the audience needs to understand the choice that Nora makes. And for that to happen, Arthur has to be somebody who’s capable of a great deal of love,” Song points out after I confess how drawn to Arthur I was for his all-encompassing empathy and understanding.
“You make my world so much bigger, and I’m wondering if I do the same for you?” Arthur timidly asks Nora as she ponders her relationship with both men. It’s a small moment in a film full of profound ones, but it’s a potent one.
Song describes both Arthur and Hae Sung as sex symbols for “an average straight woman”. Song isn’t drawn to the hypermasculine idea of men with their chest puffing and rock-hard abs. She describes how she loves the inner strength it takes for a man to discard his own needs and put the person he loves first.
This is where Arthur comes in. He might be loosely inspired by Song’s own husband, writer Justin Kuritzkes, but Past Lives ultimately tells a fictional story. While the bar encounter is pretty accurate, Song has previously stated in interviews that the love triangle is made up, and she and her childhood sweetheart were only ever platonic friends. Ultimately, Song just wanted to tell a thorny story of some good people.
Past Lives won the Audience Award at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival London. Courtesy of Sundance Film Festival: London.
“It’s about people that you may encounter in life who are doing their best to behave well. I think that it is always a little bit easier when you’re pulling from your real life inspirations when you are telling a story that is about the goodness of people.”
Past Lives arrives during tumultuous times in Hollywood. Not only are actors and writers currently striking, but the industry is starved of representation. Thankfully, with films like Lulu Wang’s heartfelt The Farewell, Jon M. Chu’s charmingly romantic Crazy Rich Asians and Lee Isaac Chung’s Oscar-winning Minari, the Asian-American experience is finally represented on the big screen. Song is thankful for a space where there finally is room for all kinds of films.
“I think that to me the most exciting thing is that [we’re] just getting to see such a wide range of stories from so many different people and from different parts of the world, different perspectives.”
Past Lives is now in cinemas.
