UPDATED: I’ve updated this post since a trailer has just been released for the film.
EARLIER: Celine Song’s “Past Lives” was greeted with raves at Sundance last month. Now, it’s just premiered at the Berlin Film Festival to equally enthusiastic reviews. This movie is for real.
Back in January, there were unanimously positive reviews from Vanity Fair, IndieWire, Variety, Deadline, Screen and The Guardian, among others. It was by far the most critically-acclaimed movie of Sundance 2023. Its cumulative 96 Metacritic score is quite impressive.
As it stands, Song’s film is the odds-on favorite to win the Golden Bear. There hasn’t been anything else in competition that has stood out for critics, so far, as being Bear-worthy.
The film is a multi-decade romance in Korean language. It is an A24 production, so that will only accentuate buzz for this film. A friend who saw it in advance last summer at a test-screening was bugging me for weeks about how great the film was and I kinda brushed his reaction off. I shouldn’t have.
Official “Past Lives” Synopsis:
“Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrest apart after Nora's family emigrates from South Korea. Twenty years later, they are reunited for one fateful week as they confront notions of love and destiny.”
