This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
Edgar Cochran ✝️’s review published on Letterboxd:
This review may contain spoilers.
Celine Song just thought she could reach international territory with another “love” story trying to reach the levels of Linklater’s meditative evolution on a self-destructive couple for intervals of 9 years, or Kiarostami’s exploration of a crumbling relationship while on foreign soil...
And she not only got international recognition: she has just single-handledly surpassed Linklater’s entire trilogy combined with a magnificent psychological dissector! What a gem of a film; what a gem of a woman!
I must confess this required a rewatch, since I greatly suffered throughout the entire running time as to how the film would evolve and conclude, and if it would be another moralless case of affair glorification. Gladly and fantastically, Past Lives destroys that notion without ever suggesting any human can have no temptations concerning infidelity. The tragedy here is of grand scale and involves many significant altercations, but only a mind like that of Song’s could place something over the table to reflect on as to how human relationships have no comparison when it comes to the axiomatic human experience (except that of a person with God through Jesus Christ, which is my personal input on the film’s analysis).
During the first watch, I thought the villain was Nora: two men were given illusions of a life with her and she completely destroyed these two lives. I was too distracted to make an objective verdict on the film since I was feeling really nervous and disturbed as to where the film was heading, and how it would end. I don’t blame this film at all; it’s the leftist sickening libertarianism the one that has deeply affected me and then be attacked for my thoughts on loyalty, fidelity and consistency of thought: every single negative word I ever dared to utter against the disgustingly manipulative and immoral Me Before You (2016), the capitalist glorification of the vapid an stale Comrades: Almost a Love Story (1996), the sexual abuse and violation of consent testament that Call Me By Your Name (2017) stands for, or the celebratory filth that is Muccino’s L'Ultimo Bacio (2001) before he used Will Smith in terrible dramas, has garnered me the honor of being called the most wonderful adjectives. However, they all have something in common:
- “This review reeks so much of insecurity that it is embarrassing.”
- “You consider yourself superior for judging based on your Stone Age moral standards instead of being capable of watching two human beings.”
- “You confuse capitalist glorification with a woman making a living in the world; you must scare women.”
See the pattern? I’ve been in a relationship happily for 18 years now with my wonderful future wife Stephanie Castro, currently engaged and making our wedding plans for it to be the best, and openly share the same faith. The above comments attack non-existent insecurities and state conclusions about me concerning the opposite sex because they are hurt. Speaking about these films negatively is like speaking about politics in a rally, carrying the Christian flag during a pride march (many Christians like Hillsong belong to the LGBT community), having a cross next to your name, or sitting in the Barcelona side of the football stadium with a Real Madrid flag: you’re signing a death sentence.
Should that silence us? It will never silence us. I’ve been unfollowed and blocked by the most grandiose caricatures recently, and gladly so.
I left an idea incomplete: during my first concerned and very distracted watch, I was confusing the villain. Nora is still the one that destroys everything around her, and she is still responsible, but the true villain is the founder of the modern structure of the world: the devil. She is intoxicated with the ideas of success, and she makes an idol out of this dream even over the possibility of sharing this with someone that truly cared for her: Hae Sung. When she irrationally abandons Hae Sung for the “pursuit of a dream” and meets Arthur, the reactions from people where: “Oh, the ugly American lover lol”. It’s interesting how we have implanted xenophobic biases in our heads and judgments before meeting someone.
The main clue that should work for you concerning Nora’s character is how she expects less every time from a relationship, and the second most important one is how she is more conformist every 12 years of gap concerning her career with a declining ambition:
-She first dreamed with being the first South Korean writer to ever win a Nobel Prize
-Twelve years later, she dreams with winning a Pulitzer Prize
-Twelve years later, she is fine with pursuing a Tony Prize
Both ambition (which is not inherently bad) and relationship stability crumble with every bad decision she makes thanks to a world that sells you the idea that you’re Mr. Nobody if no one knows who you are and leave a permanent legacy. Sure, Lady Godiva has cemented her place in history, but for all the wrong (chauvinistic, morbid) reasons.
My favorite character is Arthur: he is the second victim of a woman that wants everything in the world at the expense of having no one in her life, and ends up empty-handed. Arthur constantly adapts to her situations and feelings, incessantly trying to understand what is on her mind. Then comes the test in his life that puts his loyalty through the fire: the arrival of Hae Sung. Nora begins to hang out with the man she left alone selfishly and uncaringly, and how that she is in a relationship, she begins flirting with the possibilities of what could have been, taking him to local places Arthur didn’t even know. Also, like pretty much every man on Earth, he accepts this because we will almost never give “no” for an answer even if we are in a relationship. Yes, did you know that having a couple for men does not imply they will say “no” to another woman categorically? That happens from both sexes, and any sex that says “one sex does it more than the other” is biased, and even if it was true, what then? Defend your sex passionately when your stats are 0%.
This is an opportunity for Arthur to do two things: immediately assume things and drop off, lowering the risk of his heart being broken in the future again, or learn from the situation, sit down, and listen to both human beings. He was emotionally intelligent enough to realize Hae Sung had unfulfilled dreams, and Nora was frustrated for making incorrect decisions that never ended in the desired outcome. She had an inertia of pretending she was going somewhere.
The pivotal sequence is the dinner scene, which we see in the opening from an “American” perspective, a couple of curious watchers that are hypothesizing on what the situation is between the three. None of the conclusions are correct. Sounds familiar? We love building theories and then marrying them as the absolute truth because “in my experience...”. That’s the philosophy of the comments sections of any site; just head to Redditt and have fun at the verbal battlefield. Even more, Google “4Chan”, which was a thing back in the late 2000s and early 2010s, and behold the gratuitous toxicity (I discovered two years ago there was a whole thread made on my name that lasted for years and it got taken down).
What does Arthur do? He listens to their intangible philosophy of human metaphysical connections, tries his best to understand the conversation between Nora and Hae Sung, and from a third POV, one realizes he is completely ignored and sidetracked. After Nora aggressively puts guilts on Hae Sung that never corresponded to him, she leaves and lives the two men alone. Arthur now shows his hero (heck, superhero) attributes: he shows compassion and understanding for Hae Sung, embraces their philosophy while recognizing there is inyeon between the two (!) and signs the bloody check of everyone’s dinner!!!
You know... People need more men like that in the world.
During the climactic sequence, there is a notorious, beautiful prolonged shot with the longest Uber wait in the world, and my soul was screaming: “Celine, don’t screw this up! Don’t! A farewell can also leave permanent scars! Just don’t......”. She doesn’t. She does things the right way, and the ending hints all conclusions clearly:
✓Hae Sung leaves at peace, although empty-handed; it shows in his ride back home. He will no longer deal with someone that doesn’t correspond to her, and he deserves better. It is time to move on.
✓Nora is left with nothing: no happiness, crying a river in front of his man without caring how he could feel about this (imagine your wife crying in your face because a man she once had feelings for leaves), no literary prize, and a small apartment that was never in her dreams. You reap what you sow.
✓Arthur is left with an unfaithful woman that has abandoned all ambitions that cries for another man. He embraces her and takes her inside.
Arthur once again shocked me. He receives the enemy home instead of getting away from that relationship. He gives her acceptance and empathy. “What the hell are you doing?”, I internally screamed while I was watching with my mother and brother during the first viewing. I insist, I was too distracted. Then again, the rewatch helped knowing the final outcome: He is giving her undeserved love, and also deserved love: undeserved in the sense that she is not worthy of it, but deserved in the sense that no human is perfect and we always beg for second chances. Where the story goes is left open.
However, it is not the ambiguity of the ending that interests me, as people love to end open stories in their own way: Arthur represents God’s love: merciful, non-judgmental, and yet undeserved. He loves us even if... He loves us despite that... Daniel and Paul leave this clear:
“Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, hear and act! For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.”
-Daniel 9:19
“He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of His own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.”
-2 Timothy 1:9
And so, this film made me grow even more as a person: a language is not the ultimate obstacle of communication.
90/100
