Film Review – Past Lives

“Past Lives” is a delicate picture that’s all about the lure of longing. It’s a small-scale feature that’s primarily focused on conversations, giving it a “Before Sunrise” kind of vibe, but writer/director Celine Song (making her debut) tries to drill a little deeper with her writing. It’s a semi-autobiographical tale of two childhood friends spending the next 24 years of their lives trying to process their time apart from each other, with Song going for the slow drip of emotion in this understanding of South Korean culture and secret desire. She never goes big with the movie, and never tries to squeeze viewers with melodrama, electing to stay as human as possible with the material, which lives for moments when these talkative characters pause and reflect on everything that’s in front of them. “Past Lives” plays to the aching hearts crowd, with Song serving up a romance novel premise with an art-house film approach, capturing a specific pitch of yearning. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com