Past Lives: a luxurious and lingering portrayal of lost love and identity in the Korean diaspora

By Hyunseon Lee, Senior Teaching Fellow in Centre for Korean Studies, SOAS, University of London

Past Lives is Celine Song’s debut film about Nora and Hae Sung who were deeply connected in childhood. The film focuses on them reuniting as adults after a long separation.

The film introduces global audiences to the Korean Buddhist concept of In-Yun – the connection, fate or destiny of two people. Past Lives takes this millennia-old philosophical idea of human relationships and transposes it into the digital age through the young Korean diaspora.

Audiences meet Nora and Hae Sung when they are 12-year-olds in Korea. They are sweetly obsessed with each other in…

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