"Exploring Longing and Heartache in 'Past Lives' - A Review"

"Past Lives" is a nuanced love story that explores the tender feelings of relationships at various stages, from budding playground crushes to adulthood's alleged certainty. The film follows two characters, Nora and Hae Sung, who illustrate how relationships, both fully realized and not, influence our lives. Celine Song's feature debut is a masterclass in storytelling, visually and narratively focusing on Nora and Hae Sung, making the world around them seem to dreamily melt around them when they're in each other's company. The film carries echoes of other movies like Wong Kar-wai's "In the Mood for Love," Richard Linklater's "Before Sunrise," and David Lean's "The Passionate Friends," but "Past Lives" so confidently belongs to Song.