Past Lives

i interpreted this as a commentary on the idolized love story of soulmates. this movie tells the watcher that things happen for a reason , and an ideal pitch perfect love story isn’t destined. the first 2 acts lead us to believe that, and then the scene with arthur and nora in bed flips it on its head. arthur laughs at the thought of how good of a story he’s living in, and how he’d be portrayed as the white guy in the middle of a true romance. i’ll admit, for the first hour or so, that’s EXACTLY how i viewed it. He also says how the reality they’re living in is mundane, and doubts that nora is happy with the life they’re living, that this isn’t what she dreamt of when she immigrated across the pacific. yet, she reassures that this is what she wants, and her youthful dreams she made 20+ years ago were a past version of her. the topic of her past self and her new self is strong in this film. "It’s true that if you leave you lose things, but you also gain things, too." this quote at the beginning of the movie sets so much of the themes up for the movie, and it has weight to it. Nora left her home country, her first love, and her high personal goals behind in trade for a happy life with a man she loved. when she is confronted by the manifestation of her past life, hae sung, she truly realizes how much she’s changed. around him, she feels less of her old self in comparison. he misses the version of her that he fell in love with long ago, and upon visiting, they both realize they aren’t their 12 year old selves anymore, and it comes bittersweet to them. I really liked arthurs dynamic as a character. he first came off to me as a stupid white guy, almost a culture vulture. but once the facade of the ideal romance story is dropped, we see that he wants to learn nora’s language to understand her deeper. in their relationship, he feels that there’s a barrier that prevents him from fully connecting her, and it leads him to feel small compared to her, and growing insecure. "you dream in a language that i can’t understand. it’s like there’s tho whole place inside of you where i can’t go." this movies dialogue is written insanely well, it leaves things unsaid and lets our brain fill in the blanks, which is helped a lot by the amazing silent acting. it really emphasized that there’s beauty in the unspoken. there’s so much beautiful quotes that i resonate with deeply. this is my favorite one: *(explaining why she and her husband sometimes fight) *"it’s like planting two trees in one pot. our roots need to find their place." the great cinematography speaks to this too with long standing shots following the characters. the absence of sound is great in setting the tone for the more silent scenes, but when there is music, it’s beautiful. also, i think that the music being mostly in the beginning, and later on being mostly no music, only atmosphere in present day, shows the transition from ambition to settling for happiness. i could speak of this movie forever but i need time to process it tbh, i lovelovelove this movie so much