Spanning three time periods and two continents, “Past Lives,” the directorial debut of Celine Song (“Endlings”), tells the story of two childhood friends and sweethearts pulled apart by time, circumstance, and fate. They come back together and end in a way that might subvert the romantic fantasies of the audience — but this only shows the important roles people play in our lives, even if it’s not what we expected. 
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Disembodied voices start us off in “Past Lives,” making guesses at who Nora (Greta Lee), Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), and Arthur (John Magaro) are to each other as they sit at an NYC bar. Business partners? Angsty lovers or friends? While their guesses are only that, this intro gives viewers a peek into what’s to come, even though we haven’t been properly introduced to these characters yet. 
Nora — known as Na Young in her home country of South Korea — was a smart kid who tended to cry a lot. She is great friends with Hae Sung, an equally intelligent kid who adores her. As for Nora, she matter-of-factly tells her mother that she will marry Hae Sung because he’s manly and she likes him. What else could a girl want? However, even though her mother sets a date up for them, there is the inevitable fact that Nora and her family are immigrating to Canada before the year is up. And that’s when she and Hae Sung are separated for the first time. 
“Past Lives” shoots ahead 12 years and finds Nora as an aspiring playwright, while Hae Sung has recently returned from his time in the Korean military and is now an engineering student. The two reconnect when Nora Googles Hae Sung and finds out he was asking about her on Facebook. The two start messaging, then Skyping, and it’s like no time has passed. But Nora has to cut it off to focus on her career — she has to be reasonable about what a relationship between them could look like. It’s just not sustainable. 
12 more years pass now, settling into the timeline we saw at the film’s beginning. Nora is now married to Arthur (John Magaro), whom she met at a writing residency in the last time period. They had a sweet start, and as an established married couple, they’re a strong unit. They’re both writers, and Arthur is learning Korean to speak with Nora and interpret her dreams. 
Lee and Yoo give subtle yet strong and moving performances as intertwined souls who were meant to share two decades’ worth of friendship, hurt, and love. And their story plays out beautifully alongside the concept of in-yun. It’s one of the best throughlines of the script — also written by Song — and it’s this notion that two people can have the slightest interaction, and it was meant to be because they were together in a past life. Brushing shoulders with someone or being a branch to a bird’s feet, In-Yun makes sense of the many people who come in and out of our lives, making it all for a reason. When Nora is flirting with Arthur while at their residency, she introduces the concept of In-Yun to him and non-Korean audience members. And from then on, it’s clear that this is essential to the narrative of Nora and Hae Sung. 
In the film’s final part, Hae Sung visits Nora as an adult, and their childhood relationship comes tumbling back, along with any feelings they may have had during their 12 years of rekindling a friendship. But any type of union between Nora and Hae Sung is neither realistic nor meant to be, despite their bond being the film’s central point. 
Magaro also gives a fantastic performance as Nora’s husband, who is so self-aware that it’s nearly meta at moments. He tells Nora he knows how he would look if their story were in a movie format: he’s the white American who Nora married, but Hae Sung is the hot love interest with whom Nora should run off in the sunset. And to many audience members, that might be exactly what they see. But through Song’s writing and direction, it’s also clear that Arthur and Nora have a strong sense of communication with each other and see each other as equals. They’re very much in love, and Arthur’s insecurities and doubts are immensely human and, therefore, very relatable. And when the audience isn’t allowed to hate the husband, Magaro is an excellent source of comic relief while in this messy plight. 
At the start of the film — when those two people tried to guess who Nora, Hae Sung, and Arthur were in relation to each other — those comments gave them another form of a past life. As Hae Sung leaves to return to Korea, he and Nora have a lasting look between them. At dinner, they talked about what they were to each other in their other lives and what they will be in the next. And in the eyes of strangers, they’re given so many possible lives as well. And even though it’s a bittersweet goodbye, Nora’s ending isn’t sad because she ended up with the wrong man or life partner. For the audience, it’s sad because of what could have been and never will be in life. And for Nora, it’s sad because she misses her past with Hae Sung, Seoul, and will miss Hae Sung when he leaves. But “Past Lives” shows that living in what-ifs is not good. Instead, it’s important to be grateful for our time with people, even if it’s not forever. [A-]
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