Life's CAROUSEL

Separated for two dozen years, childhood sweethearts are reunited as adults in Celine Song’s devastating debut Past Lives. With the film drawing raves and looking like a potential awards-season favourite, Total Film meets Song and her cast to talk about romance and realism

- JAMES MOTTRAM

Years ago, playwrightturned-director Celine Song was sitting in a bar with her husband and also her childhood sweetheart from Korea, where she was born before emigrating to Toronto. She was translating between these two significant men in her life, when she made eye contact with an inquisitive observer across the bar, who was watching this unusual trio. ‘The first thought I had was, “Oh, you have no fucking clue! You have no fucking clue! You are never gonna figure it out. This is too crazy. This is too mysterious, right?”’

Instead of pandering to others’ preconceptions, Song had been busy thinking about ‘In-Yun’, the ancient Korean concept concerning reincarnation. A way of explaining how people can be bonded through connections in former lives, lovers, in particular, are those who have met over and over again in previous existences. ‘[I was] feeling, “There’s something amazing happening about the fact that both of these guys only know each other… their In-Yun’s just because of me.” That thought really is the original thing that sparked the whole movie.’

That movie is Past Lives, Song’s elegantly simple, utterly mesmerising feature debut. Spread over 24 years, the film sees schoolgirl Na Young bid goodbye to her classmate Hae Sung, with her family moving to Toronto. Twelve years later, Na Young – now known as Nora (played by Greta Lee) – is a budding playwright living in New York when she idly looks up Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) on Facebook. Sparks fly when they reconnect, but fate and timing work against them. Then, a dozen years later, Hae Sung finally makes it to New York. But he’s in a relationship and Nora is married to Arthur (John Magaro).