Review: Love, fate collide in 'Past Lives,' one of 2023's best movies

The romantic drama "Past Lives" has a moment so tense, so thrilling, so heart racing that it stands head and shoulders above any other moment on screen this year.

And it's not during a car chase. There are no multiverses involved. There's not a hint of CGI anywhere to be seen. It occurs as two characters simply stand next to one another on a New York City sidewalk, and it's a credit to the richness of the story that writer-director Celine Song weaves around them that she's able to make this moment so operatic and edge-of-your-seat nerve-racking.

"Past Lives" is a deeply romantic tale of love, fate (or "in-yun," as it's explained in the film), and the ways the paths we choose, or those that are chosen for us, determine our outcomes. Hmm, maybe it is slightly multi-versal in that regard.

It opens with another small kind of moment, also recognizable in its mundanity. Three people sit at a bar, and from across the room, a pair of unseen characters tries to guess their story, what brings this trio together on this evening. It's a version of a game we've all played, but no amount of guesswork could do justice to the particular set of circumstances these three characters find themselves in and what brought them together.

The film suddenly jumps back 24 years. Nora (Seung Ah Moon) and Hae Sung (Seung Min Yim) are 12-year-old classmates and good friends in South Korea. They're inseparable in ways kids that age can be, but everything between them is abruptly upended when Nora's family immigrates to Canada. New lives begin, old ones come to a close.

Twelve years later, Hae Sung (now played by Teo Yoo) and Nora (Greta Lee) look each other up online. It's the early days of social media, that time when the people you both remember and had forgotten from your past all became real — and accessible — once again. Hae Sung and Nora initiate a series of Skype calls, and old flames are partially reignited. Has nothing changed over the years? Is the intimacy of their past key to their futures?

Hae Sung is living in Korea, Nora is in New York. The connection between them is palpable. They recommend movies to one another, including "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," a film about connection and heartbreak and the devastation of memory. Perhaps feeling their bond is growing a little too strong, Nora decides they should take a break from talking, and Hae Sung reluctantly agrees. And life moves forward, just as life has a way of doing.

Twelve additional years later — Song's story is poetic in its structuring — Nora is married and is living in New York with her writer husband, Arthur (John Magaro). Hae Sung, meanwhile, still wonders about Nora, about what might have been and what could have been, and he books a trip to New York to see her. Which brings us back to the bar from the beginning of the story, and the unseen couple trying to figure out what Nora, Hae Sung and Arthur are doing sitting together. And with all due respect to whatever scenario they envisioned in their head, reality trumps their imaginations.

Song, a playwright making her feature film debut, has a firm grasp on her characters, setting and storytelling — the film is partially based on her own life — and Lee ("Russian Doll," "The Morning Show") anchors the story with a sumptuous performance that takes us through the immigrant experience, the ups and downs of the promise of coming to America, and what must be left behind in order to start a new life. It also asks whether the doors we close can later be reopened.

It's a deep, resonant, intimate story which unfolds naturalistically and at a soulful pace. And it slowly envelops you so thoroughly that by the end, two people standing on a New York City sidewalk is more moving than anything a $200 million or $300 million budget could buy you. Any blockbuster would be lucky to be this involving, or this rewarding. "Past Lives" is a beauty.

agraham@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @grahamorama

'Past Lives'

GRADE: A

Rated PG-13: for some strong language

Running time: 106 minutes

In theaters