Past Lives is a Korean-English romantic drama that has made waves across the world. It is just 106 minutes long and moves at a nice, breezy pace. Writer-director Celine Song keeps the narrative uncomplicated. The chemistry between the characters is wonderfully depicted. New York has never been captured in this manner before in any film. You’ll feel like packing your bags and heading to the Big Apple while watching this film! In the middle, the film gets a bit hurried and that’s a minus point. The subtitles disappear in two scenes. It thankfully doesn’t happen in the significant moments but was avoidable nevertheless. Greta Lee is terrific and it won’t be surprising if she bags an Oscar nomination. Teo Yoo, too, gives his best and as the shy and awkward Hae Sung, he’s too good. John Magaro gets to play a challenging part but he pulls it off effortlessly. All in all, Past Lives, which is also expected to fetch several Oscar nominations, is worth a watch. It was released in cinemas in India on Friday, July 7.
My rating – *** ½ out of 5!