#past lives review

[use-ur-inside-voice]

Past Lives: How can a movie be so beautiful yet painful?

I watched Past Lives this past Tuesday, and I have some thoughts. I won’t necessarily speak to the movie itself, but instead to how this movie made me feel. After I left the theater, I felt this wave of sadness rush to me. I couldn’t shake the feeling of sadness as I thought about Nora and how her story is so similar to the stories of other immigrants. I know that a lot of people have been taken with the romance in this movie, but I think we all need to step back and refocus for a bit. This is a movie about immigrants, and how immigration can impact everything and everyone. As I was saying, I couldn’t shake this feeling of sadness after leaving the theater. I could only think about my mother, and how her life would be different if she didn’t immigrate to the U.S.

Would she still be a nurse? Would she have followed her passions of being an English teacher or a lawyer? Would she have more kids? Would my sisters and I know our mother tongue fluently instead of constantly asking, “What does that mean?” Would I be close with my grandmother whom I never see or understand? Would I feel the pressures of having to be extremely successful in order to feel like my life was worth it? That my parents’ pilgrimage to the U.S. was worth it? That their sacrifice was worth it? How would being the eldest daughter be if not for my immigrant parents making me feel like I need to be the saving grace of the family? Would be mother be happy? Would we be happy? 

Every so often, my parents pull out their old photo albums and show me who they once were. Photos of large smiles on faces I don’t recognize. Photos of friends, aunts and uncles at parties that I have never met. Seeing my parents light up at the photos and hearing them go on and on about what life was like when they were in their home country. The community they once had, the lives they lived, the happiness they experienced. I could see the longing for those memories in their eyes, full of glee and sadness at the same time. 

My parents, especially my mother, speaks in the future tense. “Once I go back home...,” “I’m going to walk on the beach...” “I can’t wait to see my sisters again...” “I hope I can see my mom one more time...” It pains me to think that the life that my mother lives is not one that she longed for. It’s not a life she wanted. She longs for something I can not give her. And so I’m left with the thought of what would life look life if my parents never won a green card in the green card lottery? Would my mother be happy? 

Past Lives is a beautiful yet painful reminder that the life of an immigrant can be upended in seconds, whether for better or worse. It is more than just a love story, in fact, the romance between the two main characters acts as a vehicle to show us the real meaning behind the movie. Who were we? Who are we? And who will we become? It is sometimes too painful to think about what could’ve been, but something I learned from Past Lives is that it is also beautiful to reminisce on the past, embrace the present, and look forward to the future. I hope someday my mother can go back to her home country and live out the rest of her days, and I hope once she does that I never have to ask, “Would my mother be happy?”

#past lives a24 #past lives #past lives movie #past lives nora #past lives review #movie review #past lives movie review #a24 #pastlives #hae sung #greta lee #teo yoo #celine song #Celine song a24

[daisymondays]

I watched, adored and wrote about Past Lives

#past lives #past lives review

[kacic1]

A todos, boa noite! E hoje a noite é de gala!

Hoje convido vocês a visitarem Os Filmes do Kacic, para conferir minha nova crítica sobre este belíssimo drama da A24, em minha humilde opinião o melhor filme do ano até agora. Texto imperdível e sem spoilers!

Crítica: VIDAS PASSADAS (PAST LIVES) | 2023

🎬🎞🎥📽📺

#movies #cinema #filmes #geek #popculture #nerd #osfilmesdokacic #drama #romance #love #vidas passadas #past lives #a24 #crítica #review #movie review #crítica vidas passadas #vidas passadas review #past lives review #past lives movie review

[bagofbonesmp3]

on a loop

#i thought past lives was okay but this review killed me #yo.txt

[eastasiansonwesternscreen]

2023 - A YEAR IN REVIEW

#everything everywhere all at once #beef netflix #past lives #charles melton #ming na wen #michelle yeoh #ke huy quan #joy ride #quiz lady #shortcomings #american born chinese #year in review #*** #media representation #representation in media #photos

[earlcortez]

Mourning the loss of what could have been hurts just as much as mourning the loss of what was.

Past Lives (2023)

dir. Celine Song

#past lives #celine song #greta lee #past lives 2023 #teo yoo #movie quote gif #movie review #randon thoughts #movie

[yeahiwasintheshit]

Watched ‘past lives’ and it was a really good movie. I guess for some it could come off as slow or maybe boring, but I thought the pacing was perfect. It had a good flow to the story and the performances were great. And hoo boy the main guy is super sexy. It was very sweet, and I thought the dialogue was pretty honest and fresh and it looked beautiful. Overall very good.

#past lives #yiwits reviews

[cigarrw-s]

"You make my world so much bigger and I'm wondering if I do the same for you"

Past Lives (2023) dir. Celine Song

#past lives #vidas passadas #celine song #greta lee #teo yoo #john magaro #past lives movie #movie scenes #movie stills #movies #movie quotes #movie screenshot #screencaps #screenshot #movie screencaps #cinema #cinematography #cinematografia #movie recommendation #movie review #screencap #movie frames #film frames #cinefilos #cinestill #cinephile #oscars #oscars 2024 #best films #2023 in films

[inflammatory]

#From last year Juneish I think If you ask me not good but I cant say shit about my past self CAUSE #I HAVENT WRITTEN ANYTHINGGGG IN MONTHS AND MONTHS AND MONTHS #Certainly like nothing of note in 2024 #in general something in my brain has shifted since the last time I wrote #every word feels perfectly ordinary and combinations only feel clever and not like a living thing so I can’t write anything I like #I feel journalistic #I feel like I’m way more comfortable in my personal prose/article style from spamming letterboxd reviews #and blogging LOLLLLL #plus songwriting which requires a lot of compromise for meter and rhyme and rhythm for me to like it #but the poetry muscle isn’t there anymore #where before there were pictures the veil has torn and I see them for what they are #which is #words and words only

[youssefguedira]

eight mountains is no 11/50 on the guardian's list of the best of 2023 <3 <3 for context some of the films it has been placed above:

napoleon (36/50)

wonka (34/50)

oppenheimer (32/50)

the fabelmans (23/50)

maestro (12/50)

#not that i particularly place much stock in movie reviews. but A Certain Film being much much lower on this list is a win for me personally #also i like being a hater #i think past lives / flower moon will be higher up #they release em day by day so it's a fun little waiting game. my mom and i like to follow it as it goes #tv list is also fun but i pay less attention #anyway <3 even if it doesnt qualify for awards season shes the winner of everything in my heart <3 #le otto montagne #there are other films that i was gonna mention but these are like the ones people have heard of? lost my ability to tell which movies are #well known anymore

[nicknelsonblog]

omg just watched this movie called past lives by celine song. it has been in my watchlist for a long time and my exams are coming up so yeah to reduce my exam anxiety i watched it. and god i have more trauma now thank you. i love my life fr. but on the serious note this movie is so tragically beautiful. and the references are so amazing here like that part when they were younger, yellow was na-young's colour and blue was hae-sung's colour and when they met after all those (20) years, hae-sung was still wearing blue but na-young wasn't. no like that so beautifully portrays that tho na-young has changed. tho she is nora now hae-sung hasn't. and neither will he ever change. and thank you omg for not making the husband villian i literally love his character and his dialogues ‘you dream in a language i can't understand’ i am CRYING. also i love how the concept of 'in-yun' is portrayed here!! literally deserved to get the oscar!! (got a nomination)

‘what if this is a past life as well, and we're already something to each other in our next?’

– hae-sung

i am CRYING, again.

#past lives #celine song #this is my movie review y'all this is exactly what i am gonna copy paste to letterbox #:(

[unsavorycandy]

posting one of my letterboxd reviews every day until i run out

Day 1: Past Lives (2023) dir. Celine Song

Watched: June 24, 2023

#letterboxd #film review #past lives #celine song #greta lee #teo yoo #daily challenge #film #movies #movie review #film nerd #film twitter #cinema #cinephile

[thebowerypresents]

Hurray for the Riff Riff Bring New Album to Sold-Out Music Hall of Williamsburg

Hurray for the Riff Raff – Music Hall of Williamsburg – March 5, 2024

“It’s so good to be home.” That was Alynda Segarra beaming in front of a sold-out Music Hall of Williamsburg on Tuesday night, the Bronx native and band Hurray for the Riff Raff feeling right at home in Brooklyn wearing matching black vests and big smiles. With a brand-new album — The Past Is Still Alive — out for barely a week and already gaining critical acclaim, the set leaned heavily on the new material, opening, as the record does, with “Alibi,” Segarra with one foot in personal folk, the other planted in fuzzy rock — one in a sandal, one in a black boot. “Buffalo” showed off deft songwriting skills, the rhythmic singing and catchy chorus underpinned by the evocative, dreamlike lyrics.

The songs were beefed up by the backing band: slide guitar on that “Buffalo” adding atmospherics, a propulsive beat from drummer Yan Westerlund on “Hawkmoon” driving a straight rocker, and Nnamdï (who opened the show) coaxing a groove with his urgent bass playing on “Rhododendron,” off the 2022 LP Life on Earth. Segarra’s voice was the centerpiece, delivering one captivating lyric after another: lines like “I know that it’s dangerous, but I wanna see you undress / Wrap you up in the bomb shelter of my feather bed” in “Colossus of Roads.”

Saxophonist Lynn Ligammari joined the band midway through, turning “Snake Plant (The Past Is Still Alive)” Springsteen-esque as Segarra belted out the refrain, “Nothing will stop me now,” the crowd believing every word. Hurray for the Riff Raff also played selections from older releases, including the rawer bluesy energy of “Good Time Blues (An Outlaw’s Lament)” and Ligammari adding mournful soul to the weighty “The Body Electric,” which Segarra said “started it all” for the musician. The set ended with “Ogallala,” the band building to a triumphant swell, Segarra singing, “To watch the world burn / With a tear in my eye,” everyone in the room feeling right at home. —A. Stein | @Neddyo

(Hurray for the Riff Raff play The Sinclair in Cambridge, Mass., tonight.)

Photos courtesy of Jenna Murray | @jennamurray

#Aaron Stein #Alynda Segarra #Bowery Presents #Brooklyn #Bruce Springsteen #Hurray for the Riff Raff #Jenna Murray #Life on Earth #Live Music #Lynn Ligammari #Music #Music Hall of Williamsburg #New York City #Nnamdï #Photos #Review #The Past Is Still Alive #Williamsburg #Yan Westerlund

[kacic1]

A todos, boa noite! E hoje a noite é de gala!

O excepcional drama VIDAS PASSADAS será exibido no Festival do Rio a partir do próximo dia 09 de outubro. Então, convido vocês a visitarem Os Filmes do Kacic, para conferir (ou reconferir) minha crítica publicada no dia 11 de maio sobre este belíssimo drama da A24, em minha humilde opinião o melhor filme do ano até agora. Texto imperdível e sem spoilers!

Crítica: VIDAS PASSADAS (PAST LIVES) | 2023

🎬🎞🎥📽📺

#movies #cinema #filmes #geek #popculture #nerd #osfilmesdokacic #review #drama #films #cine #critica #movie review #a24 #vidas passadas #past lives #greta lee #teo yoo #critica vidas passadas #past lives review #past lives movie review

[yasmijn]

A cold take on Past Lives (2023)

Aku nggak terlalu tahu sih apa yang aku harapkan dari film ini, tapi kayaknya setelah baca review orang-orang yang sangat positif aku mengharapkan lebih banyak perasaan dari Past Lives. Filmnya bukan yang biasa juga sih... bagus lah, tapi nggak sebagus itu. No tears, no pang in my heart, no strong aftertaste. Kayaknya w mencerna plot dengan terlalu rasional aja jadi buatku kisah Nora dan Haesung itu terlalu romanticized.

Sorry for those who think that film is a masterpiece, we just have to agree to disagree. If you still plan on watching the movie on your own and you hate spoilers, here's your cue to scroll past this post.

*

Ok here goes. Jadi cerita ini bermula di tahun 2000-an dimana Nora (waktu itu masih di Korea Selatan jadi masih pake nama Korea-nya: Nayoung), dan Haesung, sepasang anak berumur 12 tahun yang saling suka, harus terpisah benua karena keluarga Nora emigrasi ke Kanada. Mereka hilang kontak sampai akhirnya 12 tahun kemudian ketika umur mereka pertengahan 20, Nora mengirimkan pesan Facebook ke Haesung, dan mereka mulai rajin chat, ganti-gantian begadang demi bisa Skype di awal dan akhir hari. Sampai akhirnya Nora bilang ke Haesung bahwa kayaknya mereka berdua harus stop berhubungan dulu karena dia merasa nggak fokus mengejar apa yang dia kejar sebagai seorang penulis di New York. Di saat yang sama, Haesung juga lagi sibuk kuliah dan cari kerja.

Ada sih pengorbanan-pengorbanan kecil yang sama-sama mereka lakukan: Nora bangun sebelum jam 7 pagi supaya bisa Skype sama Haesung. Dan sebaliknya. Tapi yang aku gak suka adalah adegan dimana Nora tanya: "Jadi kapan kamu bisa ke New York?", Haesung jawab: "Paling satu setengah tahun lagi, abis aku exchange". Dan sebaliknya, pas Haesung tanya kapan Nora bisa ke Korea, dia jawab: "Ngapain aku ke Korea? Paling aku bisa kesana setahun lagi." Ok aku paham mungkin dia ngomong gitu karena bete sama jawaban Haesung, but what kind of relationship would it be? I will give you A but only if you give me A in return? Again: what kind of relationship would it be?

Gimana toh? Saling suka tapi ya sudah jelas bagi saya sebagai penonton bahwa mereka tuh nggak sesuka itu untuk memberikan lebih dari waktu tidur mereka. To me, the right thing would be for either of them, at that very time, to fly to the other person and really talk about how they're gonna proceed with whatever they were. Masalahnya, pas Nora bilang mereka harus berhenti berhubungan, sebenernya mereka tuh gak pacaran. Guys, you didn't even make is past the talking stage.

Terus loncat lagi ke 12 tahun setelahnya, di umur masing-masing udah pertengahan 30. Nora udah nikah sama Jew-American bernama Arthur selama 7 tahun. Arthur adalah sesama penulis yang ketemu dia di program residensi penulis. Haesung masih kerja di Korea, dia baru aja putus dari pacarnya, dan dia ngontak Nora untuk bilang bahwa dia akan pergi ke New York. Tiga malem doang di New York, after 13 hours of flight. Haha.

Jadilah selama dua hari Haesung di New York, dia dan Nora keliling-keliling New York sambil ngobrol yang isinya 'What ifs', mengingat-ingat masa lalu, mempertanyakan ini dan itu. Menurut w gak appropriate sih karena kasian aja gitu sama si Arthur. Udah mana menurut w si Arthur ini cowok spineless yang bilang: "That guy flew thirteen hours to be here. I'm not going to tell you that you can't see him or something. He's your childhood sweetheart." Terus pas si Nora pulang malem-malem abis ketemu Haesung, dia gak berenti ngomongin Haesung. Di tempat tidur, si Arthur ngomong lagi bahwa ini bisa jadi cerita yang hebat banget, "..in this story I am the white American husband who stands in the way of destiny."

Man if you're so insecure about your wife why even bother staying in that relationship lah. Menurut w dinamika hubungan Nora-Arthur tuh aneh banget, seakan merasa bahwa Nora tuh nikah sama dia ya emang karena butuh greencard aja (Dimana nggak mungkin juga sih? Orang mereka emang pacaran lama banget sebelum nikah?). I don't know. I just don't like it. Apalagi di adegan dimana Nora bawa Haesung pulang ke rumah terus si Arthur menyambut dengan posturnya yang slouchy dan mukanya yang udah siap nangis - seakan udah siap melepas Nora untuk pergi ke Korea di dalam pelukan Haesung.

Terus kasian banget sama Arthur pas ada adegan mereka bertiga duduk di bar tapi sepanjang malam Nora cuma ngobrol sama Haesung dalam bahasa Korea jadi Arthur dikacangin sepanjang malam 😭😭😭😭😭 Guy's so pathetic.

Beberapa pertanyaan whatifs yang keluar dari mulut Haesung pun buatku nggak cukup believable. Dia tanya, apa ya yang akan terjadi kalau dulu kita nggak berenti ngobrol? Apa kita bakal nikah? Apa kita bakal putus? Apa kita bakal punya anak? Banyak juga dari scene Nora-Haesung itu isinya cuma mereka berdua saling tatap-tatapan sambil senyum-senyum. Terus jujur emosi banget pas mereka bahas jangan-jangan di masa lalu kita tuh dalam doomed relationship ya? Atau waktu Haesung nanya apakah nanti mereka bisa ketemu lagi di next live?

Me watching them both: That's what you should've asked twelve years ago. I mean, why talk about the past and the future when you can talk about the PRESENT?? If you really love her then take her hands, ask her to come back with you to South Korea. Shoot your shot!!

W paham sih kayanya inti dari pertemuan mereka berdua adalah sebuah closure? Tapi terus apa? Kesimpulannya adalah mereka berdua itu sebenernya saling suka tapi momentum itu udah lewat jadi sekarang yang bisa mereka berdua lakukan adalah terus meromantisasi masa lalu? Closure is overrated, people.

I personally don't believe that they will work out, anyway. Nora adalah seorang imigran Korea yang emigrasi dua kali (ke Kanada lalu ke Amerika Serikat), mengejar karir sebagai penulis di New York. She's Americanized, she's no longer the 12 year old Nora Haesung fell in love with. Haesung adalah orang Korea yang konservatif secara pikiran dan juga tindakan. I don't think any of them are willing to give up their life and move halfway across the world for the other person.

And so they settled for the whatifs, at the romanticization of what nice little memories they had from back when they were both twelve years old.

Menurutku pun, sebenernya setelah kedatangan Haesung ke New York, hubungan Nora dan Arthur gak akan bisa kembali lagi seperti biasa. Arthur udah tahu dengan lebih jelas bahwa Nora tuh masih ada rasa sama Haesung, dan mungkin akan seumur hidup penasaran sama semua whatifs yang mungkin terjadi antara mereka berdua. Udah mana di scene akhir itu Nora nangis di pelukan Arthur setelah dia nganter Haesung ke Uber untuk pulang lagi ke Korea. Tega banget Nora, asli deh.

Tldr; I don't think Nora and Haesung have enough feelings for each other to go beyond the staring at each other while smiling stage, or the staying awake til 2 in the morning to Skype with you stage. That is not love. That is mere curiosity of a road none of them are willing to take.

#film review #past lives #thoughts

[synthmusic91]

quick thoughts on past lives (2023) dir. celine song

the movie is very. sparse. what was there was okay, not poorly executed, but nothing was really new. it felt like the movie wanted to send a certain message and pushed the characters through that rather than 1. letting the characters breathe and finding the message that way or 2. finding the characterization that would land them at the intended (and well-thought-out, right? right???) conclusion. sadly this didn't happen. the themes were quite muddled. past lives is a movie that seeks to be more than what it is and thus only succeeds in being dogmatic.

i know hae sung and na young were each other's childhood friends and first loves, but there's an entire life beyond childhood. why didn't they get over each other*? admittedly there might be a bit of a culture difference here, because I've never really understood the thing with childhood best friends that pops up so much in Korean and Japanese media, but. people grow up. hae sung's first love stopped existing when na young emigrated. for a movie that prides itself on pragmatism, it ignores that simple fact that should've been evident a quarter of the way in: na young is gone.

that's pretty sad, but then why was there twenty-four years of grief on hae sung's part, when he's never had to feel the ache of leaving his homeland? was his childhood really the crowning moment in his life, for na young to be the source of so many of his ideals? in that case, this should be a different kind of movie because this poor man's life must be bleak as hell.

also, this is in contrast to nora, who has every reason to mourn her past life IN KOREA. that's what this is really about, isn't it? she only looks him up as a joke (*so my bad, I guess she really did get over him). throughout the movie, the reason for her grief has little to do with hae sung specifically and everything to do with the pull she feels between the US and Korea.

then arthur. we don't see much of him but he poses a lot of interesting questions during that bedtime conversation that nora doesn't give any satisfactory answers to. like, how DOES he make her world bigger? nora's responses either 1. dodge the question or 2. sound like she's lying (because it's out of character given her behavior so far).

those last two paragraphs really solidify it for me: adult nora is a callous person. i don't know if this has anything to do with emigrating, but it really doesn't matter---what matters is that we know 1. she has grief and 2. she clearly hasn't processed it ("[re: being a crybaby] I realized no one really cared, so I stopped."). she's hiding from it!! she's been hiding from it for the entire fucking movie!!!

this is what irks me about a lot of relationships between white men and asian women in general (and in case someone crawls up my ass for this, i don't mean all of them, love is love, or so i'm told)---there's a lot of hiding on both sides. working to bridge the culture gap can function as a distraction from one's own issues. and there's an escapist and cowardly comfort in knowing that the other party doesn't understand how mundane and mortifying they really feel like they are. that's what I feel like happened between arthur and nora. to nora, arthur is evidence that she belongs in the US, and to arthur, nora is someone exotic and unreachable, and as long as they remain like that they can avoid thinking about how mundane their lives really are. arthur challenges this avoidance during the bedtime talk, but nora doesn't let it get anywhere. she is HIDING FROM HERSELF!!

unfortunately, since nora is a self insert, the writer/director doesn't notice ANY OF THIS!! and that's the thing about real life, and one's own experiences. these things don't fit into narratives!!! it's not as easy as recreating a single experience (in this case, her childhood sweetheart and her husband together at a bar)!!! that happenstance was the shell of an effect of a million different factors, not just a boy's tepid and half-formed feelings for a callous little girl. this entire movie is grounded in the ghost of an effect of something that might've touched me but didn't actually.

lastly, making her self insert always get the best grades in her class and also having that guy (who is kind and normal and NOT the deranged stalker that realistically would be the only kind of person hung up on her for 24 fucking years) be hung up on her for 24 fucking years all while she barely acknowledges his existence...is extremely fucking cringe

#unedited. how do people even write movie reviews #i feel like thinking deeply about how my culture affects my relationships would make this easier to put into words #but hey celine song clearly didn't and she got a movie deal so i'm allowed to talk shit on tumblr #past lives #past lives 2023 #celine song #movies #s