Exploring The Heartfelt Journey Of Celine Song's "Past Lives"

Two men, who are neither friends nor strangers, and a woman sit together at a bar on one "extraordinary" night in New York City. So goes the real-life story of Celine Song that inspired Past Lives, her breakout directorial debut film about two childhood sweethearts who reconnect decades later. The film's enigmatic finale leaves much unsaid between Nora (played by Greta Lee), her childhood sweetheart Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), and her husband Arthur (John Magaro). But as heartbreaking as their tale may be, in the end, they each get what they had been longing for, Song told Newsweek ahead of the film's upcoming international releases.

Past Lives tells the story of Nora and Hae Sung's epic reunion in New York City 24 years after they were torn apart as children when she moved from South Korea to Canada. Song, who moved to Canada as a child before heading to the Big Apple as an adult, reflects on how her own life experiences shaped the narrative of the film. The inspiration for the movie came from a moment when she found herself sitting at a bar "between my childhood sweetheart, who came to visit me from Korea and only really speaks Korean, and my husband, who I live with in New York City and only speaks English."

The film's intriguing opening scene reflects a pivotal night in Song's life. It later returns to the bar, where Nora, Hae Sung, and Arthur come to terms with their inyeon, a Korean word signifying a deep connection between those destined to meet, possibly across several lifetimes. While Song was translating between her childhood sweetheart and husband, she realized that she was translating beyond language and culture, bridging two parts of herself. "It was such an extraordinary feeling to feel like you're two things at once but also a different thing to a different person," she expressed, illustrating how the film explores themes of identity and connection.