Past Lives (2023) on Netflix
In Seoul, Na Young and Hae Sung, both twelve, grow close as classmates. Her family's move to Canada ends their contact and she becomes Nora. Years later, Hae Sung looks for her.
- Netflix4.3/5
- IMDb7.8/10178,059 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes95%
Trailer
Plot summary
In 1999 the two children are classmates in Seoul who take a liking to each other, and their parents arrange a playdate. Na Young's family then immigrates to Canada, the pair lose contact, and she takes the name Nora. By 2011 Nora is in New York and Hae Sung has completed his military service. He posts online that he is searching for Na Young, not knowing she changed her name, and the two reconnect over video calls. Neither can visit: Nora is headed to a writers' retreat in Montauk, Hae Sung to a Mandarin language exchange in China. Nora asks him to pause their talks so she can concentrate on her writing. At the retreat she meets Arthur Zaturansky, and the two fall in love.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Past Lives (2023)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Greta Lee's audition for Nora Moon came from an email with the subject line "Korean: Do you speak it?", but she was first rejected for being too old, which she called a "bad breakup"; Celine Song had pictured a woman in her late 20s and only contacted Lee about a year later.
- Celine Song asked cinematographer Shabier Kirchner to shoot Past Lives on 35mm so that a film about the passage of time would feel timeless, though producers were hesitant about a first-time director shooting on film; she rehearsed with the actors to keep the takes few.
- The apartment sets used for Hae Sung's and Nora's Skype conversations were built next to each other at Greenpoint Studios in Brooklyn, so the two sides of the calls could be filmed at the same time.
