I generally don’t get too bent out of shape about the Academy Awards. I guess my attitude comes from a lifetime of disappointment stemming from the fact that Oscar voters don’t like the same things I like. Academy Awards nominations and wins are best viewed as conversation starters, not any objective (whatever that means) measure of the best films of the year.
Having said that, Past Lives was ROBBED! Yes, I’m YELLING ABOUT IT!
Maybe it seems strange to be crying — no, YELLING foul about such a quiet film that has been lavished with accolades. Yes, it is nominated for Best Picture, and writer/director Celine Song was nominated for Best Original Screenplay. Both of these nominations are well deserved. But Past Lives deserved more.
The film opens in millennial Seoul, South Korea. Na Young and Hae Sung (played as children by Seung Ah Moon and Seung Min Yim, respectively) are middle-school classmates. Just as they move from fast friends to puppy love, they are separated when Na Young’s family immigrates to Toronto, Canada.
Twelve years pass. Na Young has Westernized her name to Nora Moon, and is now played by Greta Lee. She has moved to New York City for her education and to pursue a career as a playwright. Hae Sung (now played by Teo Yoo) is finishing up his hitch in the South Korean military and trying to figure out what to do with his life. Hae Sung does some internet searches for Na Young, but since he’s unaware of her name change, they come up empty. He puts out an open call for help in reconnecting with his long lost not-quite-girlfriend via Facebook, and word gets back to now-Nora via the Korean diaspora. It seems she has never stopped thinking about him, either.
From opposite sides of the world, they reconnect on period-appropriate video conferencing app Skype. (Song may be the first director to induce nostalgia with Skype’s “boodle-oodle-oodle-oop” incoming call alert sound, but she probably won’t be the last.) It’s these conversations where Teo Yoo and Greta Lee shine. They’re subtle, quiet, and totally relatable. Nora and Hae Sung are hesitant at first. They’re happy to see each other, for sure, but also feeling each other out. Emotions are complicated on both sides. A lot can change in 12 years, especially when that time period is half a lifetime. They become each other’s comfort, something to run to after a hard day. But the distance between them seems unbridgeable. Eventually, Nora breaks it off, saying she wants to devote herself to her career by taking a slot at a prestigious writer’s retreat, while Hae Sung goes to China for language lessons. The first person Nora meets at the writer’s retreat is Arthur (John Magaro), a fellow writer, and they immediately hit it off.
Then, 12 more years pass. Now Nora and Arthur are married and living in New York City, both with reasonably successful careers, but no children. Out of the blue, Nora gets a message from Hae Sung. He’s going to be in New York on business and was wondering if they could finally get together and see each other in real life for the first time since Seoul. Nora accepts, but when they finally do lay eyes on each other, things become a lot more fraught and complex than either one of them ever imagined.
Lee, who has been low-key brilliant in Russian Doll and What We Do in the Shadows, absolutely deserved a Best Actress nomination for her work as Nora. She juggles conflicting motivations and feelings with remarkable subtlety — which is perhaps a strike against her with an Academy that tends to equate good acting with MORE acting.
The same with Teo Yoo. In lesser hands, Hae Sung would have been a whiny loser or a John Cusack-ian perfect (yet kinda toxic) boyfriend. Instead, he’s a successful, otherwise well-adjusted guy who is following a deep impulse he doesn’t fully understand. And while we’re at it, John Magaro could have easily come off with a Best Supporting Actor nomination as the long suffering Arthur.
Maybe if it had been released in 2024, Past Lives would have gone on to a big Oscar sweep. But 2023 was the best year for film in recent memory, so the competition is crowded with worthy nominees. Even the ones I would have swapped out for Past Lives (I’m looking at you, Maestro) are still well-made and enjoyable films. Just like the star-crossed lovers it portrays, there’s an alternate world where things worked out better for Past Lives.
Past Lives
Now Streaming
Hulu and Amazon Prime Video
