Past Lives - How Love Lingers…
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- čas přidán 29. 05. 2024
- 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.
FAIR USE NOTICE:
This video may contain copyright material; the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This material is made available under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made "fair use" for the purposes such as criticism, comment, review, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that otherwise might be infringing. All rights belong to its owners.
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
'Undertow' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au
Timestamps:
0:00 Immigation
2:45 Unique Love
6:05 Psychology of Nora/Hae Sung
8:52 The Kind Antagonist
#pastlives #celinesong #videoessay - Zábava
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.
+1
True..and I think such things are just unnecessary..it's not other's fault that they don't manage their relationship and all..they use others as sacrificial tools
I feel for haesung
I'm so glad that there aren't any villains throughout this movie. It would have been so easy to make Arthur a petty a-hole, but I'm glad they didn't go there. As most romantic movies with a love triangle feel the need to make one side evil to show that the couple is meant to be together. But starting around the 90s, movies have slowly began to take a more cynical approach to this, as movie makers wanted to reassure the ex-boyfriend/girlfriend was going to be alright and doesn't really need their ex anymore.
This movie is a good example of this as we know that Arthur would never do anything bad to Nora, and she must realize that she has moved on for quite some time.
Wdym she was lying about how handsome he is?
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
IM a malaysia here and watched past lives too, im intrigued by ur story and hoping that u could find resolvement in there.are u staying in canada now?
@@nurfarzanaabdullah58 Yes, I live in Canada
I lived in Malaysia and Singapore for some time as a young child and teenager. I still enjoy going back to Malaysia to visit and have family and friends there
Wow, that's such an interesting story. I'd love to see that story played out through your mom's POV and yours. =)
I'd love for one content creator to just go step by step from the very opening scene to the next scene to the next and talk about the movie that way instead of all these other analyzations .
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.
I dont know I felt like she cried because she was still in love with haesung and in denial. It felt quite conflicting crying on Arthur
However, she does not return Arthur's embrace.
Nora herself expressed earlier to Hae Sung that she gave up crying in order to survive. It really was significant that she cried at the end. God I love this film.
“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
If u will going to live in regret and making others live in unhappy too..have guts to fight for that thing
Depends on the person. For some its easier to live with a decision because they had no control over it, almost like an excuse.
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.
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"
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.
That added so much depth to what I thought about the movie. I think you nailed it. Thank you.
Well if she would have love hae ..she should not have married arthur at first place..I think marrying someone just like that become fun for people..they don't even let the partner think anything and take one sided decision and also loving someone or having past relationships doesn't mean u have to live in it always...if we can't manage it u should not go in....
@@tingle2323 she needed a green card.
@@tingle2323she was in love with the korean, the movie was a message about Happines and Love but no Economy or Economy and not Happines at all
Love your analysis but towards the end You are saying things that quite goes opposite to what you initially said. I mean Nora would have chosen present life over hae even if she didn't have authur . I think that is quite obvious from the decision she made half way through the movie. And then you go on to say it was not right to have character aurther for her to fall back to.i mean she didn't choose between arthur and hae but her 2 identities like you said. I didn't understand what you didn't like about the movie.
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!
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 😢
Two of my friends watched it. One is a die hard romantic. He bawled watching it. He did not like the husband at all 😂 he thought it was the saddest film ever made.
The other one is not a romantic in the same way. He is very loving to his present partner. I know he has left a few serious relationships in the past. He related a lot to the husband. But i know he has an ex in a foreign country. I've seen him cry at many films but not a tear was shed. I wonder if for him whatever circumstances of life have made him understand the husband "it's a film about loving who you have". He left feeling positive.
It was very surreal to see such radically different responses 😂
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
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!
I've seen this movie in cinema 37 times, and always I thought I'd seen something new. The story, the direction, cinematography, the score and chosen songs, it all is really great. But, for me in the end, it's the acting most that gets me. For me as a 56 year old white heterosexual male in The Netherlands, I could relate maybe most to John Magaro's Arthur. His insecurity was felt and recognized. Also Teo Yoo as former school friend Hae Sung plays fantastic, asking maybe 1 question too much. But for me the true wonder of this most important American movie since Moonlight, is of course Greta Lee. She is SO GOOD playing as the honest Nora, she is even more than her colleagues a person you maybe always new. Sadly enough, the money obsesses types of Hollywood don't see it that way. So after the Golden Globes the Oscars will not be 'our' party also!
37 times???
Well, I have a monthly card so the movie is sort of already paid for. And it was a great movie!@@ladonnakalala
As someone who’s immigrated many times and bounced around between 4 countries, this movie hit me hard, I always wonder about what life would’ve been had things turned out different
The worst fear I have in my life is getting married with someone who still have lingering feelings for his past lover.
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 ” ❤
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!
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.
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.
❤
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.
Its a beautiful story and so close to so many peoples lives❤
I remember meeting a man who was my first real love's husband then and he said :"It is just so easy to love her" and i felt like I saw myself in another life in him, it was sweet and bitter at the same time.
I've been watching your videos for quite a while and I don't think I left a single comment.
Love your videos, watch most of them. This one resonated with me because I had to move to a different country, and even though the language is the same, the life is built anew. So much has been left and lost, and there's no point in missing it. Sometimes I remember how I felt when I made a decision to leave: "There are so many things I have planned to do eventually and now I will never get a chance to". A lost life. Friends left behind.
I'm learning to observe more and more instead of worrying and ruminating. It's still new to me and I sometimes spiral down the rabbit hole of my thoughts.
It's important to see your insecurity and recognize it in others. I had a very strange relationship and I wasn't jealous or controlling. It took effort to behave as I wanted to behave ideally. I'm glad I succeeded.
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.
I felt great sadness at the part at the end when Hae Sung in parting says that they didn’t work it out in this lifetime, but maybe they will in the next.
It’s a beautiful idea, but ultimately we know that each pathway we take in life ultimately and irreversibly cuts off other pathways forever.
It’s hard to stop mourning the lives and loves that could have been.
This so beautifully put into words so many feelings this film had me experience. Thank you for this!
Your videos are really special... Even more when the subject is this mature and you really explain it all lovingly but sincerely
Loved this film and your observations, especially about the short list of our past flames. Once you've shared that connection with another, you'll always care
Love your narration, voice is so soothing
Third!
Welcome back, and keep the videos coming, I missed these analyses weekly.
What a wonderful analysis! I love this film.
Great video, always thoughtful. Thank you.
There was no way to dislike "Arthur". But, once they mentioned green card, there was a mental wedge. I have lived and traveled within a country for almost 10 years. I keep in touch with "my new family", but never feel like we had a chance to fully connect. My dependence on solidifying a satisfying career has always been at the forefront. Changing location, changing of people, changing of relationships when the time comes, struck a cord with me. You are always the same and never the same. You think of the "what could have been and what should have been". All you can do is keep moving in the direction you feel right... for better or worse. One day, hoping, it will just fit in perfectly.
Great video again. Please keep doing what you do!
Beautiful synthesis. Thanks!
Beautiful commentary on a beautiful film
This video is as poetic and beautifully written as the film it critiques. Thank you! PS. Some of your words could end in a beautiful quote book!
I love your insights. Thank you!
I can definitely see why so many people related to this movie 😅
I loved your analysis, and I'm immediately putting this movie on my watchlist! Thank you ❤
I always felt true love to be as what Hae Sung and Nora are experiencing sitting together in the park in New York City …. sitting in the silence and being so comfortable without the need to say anything to eachother ❤ I haven’t watched this movie - but I’m excited to now , it looks like a really nice one !
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.
I loved that this film didn’t play out in the typical Hollywood manner. I have often pondered that and you nailed it.
incredible video analysis. Well done!
My family moved around a lot due to my dad's work and as a result I grew up with quite a multicultural understanding of the world. On the one hand I am very lucky because by the age of 20 I have lived in 4 different countries, to be very open-minded as a result and it clearly helps me in my life and work decisions today. On the other hand I can't help but feel still out of place even being back home in the country of origin, because of all this experience, I feel like a can relate to my current friends because we have work experience but can't share my student life for example, because their university years were completely different to mine. Or some childhood experiences. Also I remember feeling very angry at my parents during my first teen year when my dad announced that we have to move once again. By that time for 2 years I spend trying to fit in at school, make new friends, adapt to another culture. And then again another shift. During that move I met someone I feel in love with for the first time ever and it was heartbreaking for me to understand that nothing could come of it because in a few years we would move again and I could not build any future with that person. I still long for him almost 10 years later and still haven't found that other person I feel that same connection. He is married and has a family and happy and I am happy for him, yet a part of me always wonders how could things have turned out if I didn't move at age 13 , remained in the place I was and built something without having to know him.
Great work!
My favourite channel on CZcams, thank you for all the hard work and effort you put in your videos. You've really been topping yourself lately. Such a beautiful movie and analysis.
Btw, I would love to see your take on Zone of Interest!
Thank you very much for the kind words and donation!
Thanks for this video! I can relate to this film.
Amazing analysis
As a big fan of music I think a out this dynamic when I find artists who are from another country but are nowlive in the U.S.
Like when I got into 9m88, she still lived in Taiwan. Now she lives in New York and an album she's made since then has a number of American features on it.
Looks like she is doing alright adjusting as an artist already networking so quickly.
Awesome analysis ❤
Made me emotional
I'll rewatch the movie ❤
I think this was the first film I’ve seen that focused on and depicts how immigration effects the life path of children
wow this is a very deep analysis, deeeeeeeppppp!
I just love that movie for the first sight with all the layers and unspoken things.... and @JustanObservation comment ❤
This movie is so beautifull. It breaks my heart at the end, when Nora just star crying.
Alright now I have to watch it because this describes something I've been dealing with for a while
If she feels so much attachment with someone she has not talked to for 12 years, has not seen in person for 24 years, and never had more than a first date with it would seem that her feelings for her husband are fleeting at best.
This masterpiece of a movie will forever be 'my movie'.
Thank you very much
And let's not forget the editing!
Ok…now I’m waiting for “How Jeremy Allen White perfected Carmen Berzatto.” But good video tho. Got snubbed at the Oscar nomination ceremony
i neeed these videos cheifton plz come back
He’s just like me
the bar scene hits way too hard
You should debate Low-res on this movie. That would be funny.
oof. sounds like a great movie, but a little heavy for me at the moment. I'll put it on my list. Thanks
i have dated a boy in highschol that i never got to meet..it was mostly online...we lost connection coz of stuff that happened in our lives and then reconnected again ..planned to meet up for the first time this january he didint show upthough i waited for five hours. we still have each others numbers but i dont think it would change anything.......its pointless for my case
When I watched the movie, I can't quite understand why Nora cried after bidding her farewell to Hae Sung and I didn't want the reason to be because she regrets her decision and that's why she apologizes to her husband because she will eventually choose Hae Sung, that was what my mind kept telling me. So, I searched on google or the reasons and one of the reasons I found that I think is very reasonable and was that her bidding her good bye to him as her bidding good bye to her 12 year old self that she didn't get to properly let go off because of the sudden changes that happened in her life. That 12 year old girl that Hae Sung carries along with him and she gets to meet her and get the proper closure as well. That's when I bawled my eyes out and understood everything. That it must have been hard for her to leave that part of herself that Hae Sung clearly reminds her of but she chooses this new life she has and that's the better choice. It doesn't mean it makes the pain less but that's just how life is. You make decisions and you are bound to get hurt by some of them.
I had found the movie relatable, but not particularly because of the whole migrant experience. I think anyone regardless of their background can have a past flame that they didn't get to explore the relationship with due to circumstances and don't end up together despite lingering love, and it doesn't particularly involve speaking different languages.
Nora is clearly a better match with Arthur since they have the same creative ambitions and work in the same line of work. But there is probably that 10% of herself that Arthur didn't know-- she finds it with Hae Sung.
And I find the story relatable, even though I am currently with a partner that has a similar cultural background as mine. For me; my "Hae Sung" is actually someone who is from a very different culture, someone I met on a trip in a different country. But the feelings are very similar-- I find them a different kind of soulmate than my partner is to me, someone who knows one particular adventurous and nerdy side of me, meanwhile with my partner it's more about mutual care and support and being a good team. I love both of them immensely, but had remained platonic with my friend in another country, and they have their own dating life too. It's still beautiful to have that connection and have a partner who trust you for keeping your boundries.
😍
I always thought that anyone who wants a realationship with me needs to keep looking elsewhere because I work alone. Once my parents are gone I decided that I want to live on my own. So I’m not trying to be relatable to others and I want nothing to do with the human experience because it makes me inferior to someone else. I’m Batman if he had his parents and did not grow up rich. So even when I think there could be better opportunity’s, I continue to live my life in a way that it has no meaning so I could forge my own path without the need to build relationships with others. It may be hard for other people but I can manage it because I have social skills. I don’t need close relationships I just need associates that are reliable but I don’t have close ties with.
I'm glad you realize living a life with no meaningful connections or human experience. It doesn't make you inferior or superior but it just means you have the emotional maturity to know what you need. I will say that Batman was afraid of connection because he was continously grieving, afraid of loss and hated seeing those that were close to him suffer because of his chosen path--- so he is not a classic introvert --- which what you seem to describe yourself as -- so I would say you are better than Batman actually.
@@aprilanderson8547 I’m surprised I got that answer from you I thought someone would be angry with what I said.
This movie destroyed me. 10/10, no notes.
Great observation, as always. But a man not wanting his wife to see where things will go with her ex because of life circumstances is not insecure. That's respecting your marriage. If the wife still wonders about her past romance and love, then that's who she should be with. No man should subject themselves to that type of emotional abuse.
You are right in a way. But then again, the husband shows a rare maturity, letting her solve her internal struggle. He knows that otherwise she will always have a question mark which at the end of the day will affect both of them not being truly happy.
@alexandra-ru3ls The husband is nice not mature. This is a married man. You make a good point if this was a boyfriend and girlfriend scenario. Marriage comes with more responsibility. Watching your wife reconnect with a past love is emotional abuse.
@@gmsprinceahhawad8481 yes true that's why I started by saying you are right in a way, because your point of view is valid as well
"women aren't allowed to be emotionally intimate but anyone except their husbands, especially men." what in the world?
Bassically : "When women are independent and ambitious fairy tale romance dies"? As it should.
This movie killed me. I'm welling up again just watching this review. I have a past life friend of my own and I see so much of myself in Hae Sung. I find it desperately sad that they can't be together. The attempted closure at the end I understand is the best they can achieve in the circumstances, but it just feels so wrong that this happens in the world. I think there's a mismatch in that Nora needs Hae Sung less than Hae Sung needs Nora, which makes me feel even sadder for Hae Sung, and, at the risk of offending 50% of the population, for men in general, as modern women don't need men so much anymore. I don't even know what to think. It's great movie, but desperately sad.
I don’t like the opening why couldn’t it just be a pan in without people talking, the audience is smart enough to ask those questions on our own imo
arthur doesn't also deserve to have a wife who may feel much stronger for somebody else. everybody deserves to be truly happy and truly loved, and that means you have to move on sometimes...
First
2 middle aged asians acting like decent human beings. Oscar worthy! But jokes aside. I'd rather watch in the mood for love.
This movie might be lost in translation but it’s very overrated. The story is very flat, it’s a love story but she’s not into him at all, it’s just him. Then it turns into a bizarre love triangle except, she doesn’t care, the husband says it’s ok to see this other guy and the guy is still in love. It just doesn’t lead anywhere, why should we care? Also the casting of the lady was a mistake. She can’t act while not being able to speak Korean well and she just comes off as cold.
I didn't want Na Young and Hae Sang together. I wanted Na Young and Arthur. They were meant for each other; their chemistry, their passions, their understanding of each other.
This just sounds like selfish tripe about ppl who don't live whole lives. Of everyone in your life only gets parts of you, you're not bot genuine and I don't want to be around you. Just sounds selfish and childish
You should really watch the film. It's one of the best movies I've seen this year. It's certainly a lot more poignant than what you're suggesting.
Wtf are you even talking about
I really think you should watch the movie as in the end Na Young/Nora spoke to Hae Sung about what I suspect you are trying to say here
Great review!
I completely agree with you! I loved this movie. Unspoken missed chances as life always continues ❤🥹 I felt she was too scared to her feelings for him (it was too strong), so she took the comfortable outcome because it's easier and less messy. 😢 but it happens... for a lot of people. Being brave is hard to do sometimes with a lot of things.
I;m obsessed with this movie! This movie stays with you longer after its over
i just watched this movie yesterday