PAST LIVES
The plot of this exquisite film is so spare that even Wikipedia struggles to pad it out to five paragraphs. Yet somehow it builds to as emotionally powerful an ending as I can remember. Two childhood friends (and nascent sweethearts) Na Young and Hae Sung lose touch with one another when Na's family leave South Korea for Toronto. Twelve years later, they reconnect via Facebook, until Na (who has changed her name to Nora) brings their conversations to an end. She then meets Arthur who she marries. Another twelve years pass, and then Hae visits Nora and Arthur in New York. Then he leaves. That's it. Except that although Nora loves Arthur, all three know that in a different life Nora and Hae could have been soul mates and found happiness together. This makes for an underlying tension and sadness which becomes unbearable by the time Nora and Hae have to part. Apparently the film's title refers to a Buddhist- derived concept of...