Past Lives (2023)

I always remember the words of Steve Jobs, "you can't connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards." As a gamer, I understand this philosophy very well, because in some video games, there are moments where you have to pick a choice between options that lead to vastly different outcomes and endings, and you can't know what each choice will lead to unless you read a walkthrough (but then again, the people who played it first and made the guides for you also don't know where each option will go).

This movie discusses the principle of In-Yun, which can mean "providence" or "fate" but specifically in terms of past lives and reincarnations. If you connected with someone in this life, whether it is a friendship, a romantic relationship or just two strangers accidentally brushing each other on the street, it means there must have been something in the past life between you two. The connection grows stronger and stronger between lives, and it is said that if you married someone, there must have been 8,000 layers of In-Yun between the two of you.

As we go through this movie, we will go through different times in Nora and Hae Sung's lives, arrive at several juncture points where you just know that their actions and choices at those points will affect the future of their lives deeply, and wonder whether they have enough In-Yun to get to where they each wanted to be. This actually reminded me of another philosphy that I held dearly, ichi-go ichi-e, where every encounter and every meeting have the possibility to change your life in a substantial way so you have to give them your utmost care and attention.

Celine Song's masterful storytelling combined with the powerful cinematography and cinema work pulled us deeper to grow more and more invested with these characters as the movie progressed, curious as to how these relationships will develop and where each character will end up. It's not preachy, but it asks us to reflect on what things we consider important in our lives, what things we might sacrifice and what things might cost us dearly once we leave them behind in our rear view mirrors. It certainly made me think of what my life would be like if I had chosen different choices in the many juncture points in my own life.

Whether you believe in past lives and reincarnations or not, I invite you to give this movie a chance and look back upon your own present life. It helped me to reflect on my own past, on the things I left behind, on the things I wish I had done differently or could change for the better, and more importantly, it helped me find acceptance in everything that had transpired. This is a very masterful work that I would gladly recommend to everyone. Don't let the genre put you off as it goes way deeper than what people might perceive when they think about "romance" or "Korean drama".

And to my friend that have seen this 11 times in the theater, the only words that I have for you now is... "I understand" 🙏