PDecades may pass, there may be hundreds of kilometers apart, but a sincere passion never goes out and is destined to burn sooner or later. It happens like this in Past LivesCeline Song’s dazzling directorial debut which quickly became a cultso much so that it obtained two nominations for the 2024 Oscars, for Best Film and Best Screenplay. The opportunity to (re)discover it is today Friday 13 February, on Rai 3 at 9.25pm.
Past Lives on Rai 3: plot and review of the film broadcast on Friday 13 February
Seoul, 2000. THE twelve-year-olds Na Young and Hae Sungclassmates, they are happily in love of each other. Suddenly, Na Young’s family chooses to emigrate to Toronto, Canada, and the two momentarily lose contact. Twelve years later, Hae Sung has finished his military service and is studying engineering at university; Na, now called Nora, has moved to New York, where she works as a screenwriter.
One day the young woman discovers that Hae, unaware of her new name, is looking for her on Facebook and so she sends him a message. Reconnect tiesthe two begin to talk more and more frequently. Meanwhile, Nora meets and then marries another man. Another twelve years pass and Hae finally travels to New York. Flashback or is it too late?
Past Lives remember how a simple story can always be powerful, if told well. Director Celine Song knows how to find the right shot and lets the protagonists’ feelings flow spontaneously, without forcing. Although placed in a specific context, the events have a universal flavor. As an immigrant, Nora feels out of place and without lifelinesa discomfort common to all those of his generation.
Greta Lee and Teo Yoo play the protagonists of “Past Lives”. (Lucky Red)
The peculiarity of the film is then telling a sentimental triangle with the female figure at the centre (it is Nora’s gaze and desire that direct the narrative) without marginalizing the male ones, evident for example in the woman’s husband, a sensitive and open man.
And then say bringing timeless feelings and dynamics into the coordinates of contemporaneity: social media, here Facebook and Skype, are the tool for the two lovers to get closer despite the distance. Aspects that will be taken back into Material Lovewhich features a modern matchmaker, second film with which Song proved to be one of the most promising voices in contemporary cinema.
The female version of Challengers?
There’s a reason why the story of Past Lives it seems so intense: it is largely autobiographical. The director was in fact born in South Korea before moving to Canada at 12 and then to the United States to pursue her career dreams. In an interview with IndieWire at the time of the film’s release in June 2023, he revealed that the idea for the film it was born directly from a situation that actually happened. “I was sitting with my childhood sweetheart and my American husband and acting as a translator between the two of them.”
Words that came back into fashion months later, when he arrived Challengers by Luca Guadagninowritten by Justin Kuritzkes, Celine Song’s husband. Many viewers have in fact noticed that both works have as protagonist is a young woman disputed between two boysalbeit in Past Lives the relationships take place in different times and continents and the two men meet only at the end of the story. When asked about it, Kuritzkes reiterated that the story of Guadagnino’s film is “pure fantasy”, without however completely extinguishing the fantasies of fans.
The cast of the film
Greta Lee, interpreter of Norais not an unknown face to the public. On the small screen, took part in the series Wayward Pines And The Morning Show. At the cinema, we recently saw her in Tron: Ares And A House of Dynamite. Teo Yoo (Hae) appeared in the film Decision To Leave and last year in the series TheRecruit. John Magarothe face of Nora’s American husband, took part in the series The Umbrella Academy and we will find him again shortly The bride!.
