Berlinale 2023: Past Lives

Celine Song’s stunning first film revolves around In-Yeon, a Korean concept related to the idea that you are connected to the people in your life because you met before in a past life.

Nora (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) were best friends in Seoul when they were 12 years old, but after she emigrated with her family to Toronto, they lost touch. Twelve years later, they find each other on Facebook and reconnect. He still lives in Seoul; she now lives in New York. Time and distance will eventually complicate their decades-spanning, platonic romance.

Past Lives is about accepting that sometimes our circumstances can make us leave people and places behind, and it finds beauty in that; as painful as leaving can be, it's okay. Celine Song conveys a sense of longing through the expressive eyes of Greta Lee and Teo Yoo, whose gazes are worth a thousand words, while the urban landscapes of New York and Seoul seem a reflection of the impossibility of their love.

The filmmaker balances an intimate drama with a bigger-than-life romance reminiscent of Wong Kar-wai's magnum opus In the Mood for Love. Like that film, Past Lives is a monumental philosophical treatise on time and the ties that bind us, and also grapples with cultural identity. There are many themes underlying Celine Song's deceptively simple storytelling, resulting in one of the most elegant, nuanced and memorable romances in recent years. It's a film whose emotional impact will rip your heart out but its wisdom will also reconcile you with life.

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Past Lives had its International premiere at Berlin Film Festival and is released in the UK later in 2023