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Reviews
Past Lives (2023)
"Show, don't tell" done to perfection
Past Lives has everything I look for in a movie.
The movie tells you nothing, yet you leave the cinema understanding the characters better than most movies could ever hope its audiences could. This is the magic behind Celine Song's storytelling - from the subtle posturing of the characters, the glances that lasted maybe a quarter of a second too long, or the slight inflexion in Hae Sung's voice, you are able to understand what these characters are feeling perfectly. This is the reason why the movie felt very real, why the relationships felt very intimate, and why the pain and loss that the characters felt resonated very well to the audiences. You are left holding your breath every second of the two minutes of silence on screen, as Hae Sung and Nora make their final walk towards Hae Sung's uber ride. Absolutely nothing was said on screen, but at the same time, everything is being said, provided that you look closely enough.
This is complemented by the beautifully shot scenes, focusing on characters' facial expressions or their mannerisms as opposed to actually showing us what they are looking at. One scene that stood out to me was when they showed Hae Sung standing in front of a pond, then zoomed in to his face as he approached the pond to look at his own reflection. Not once in the shot did they show us Hae Sung's reflection in the pond, but instead, they opted to focus on Hae Sung's uncertain, perhaps slightly worried, face as he tries to tidy up his hair before meeting Nora. The film is composed nearly entirely of shots like these, each individual frame so wonderfully shot that they could each make amazing wallpapers. It is refreshing to see the crew not underestimating the audiences' ability to infer a lot of what is obvious, and instead, really focus on what they believe is important.
The dialogue was immaculately written to follow the same principle. It's very realistic in the sense that the things the characters are saying are truly meant for the other characters to hear, not for the audiences to learn more about the story. Celine Song's ingenuity allows for these types of dialogues that may mean little to the audiences in a vacuum, but within the right context, the audiences are able to infer what the characters are really trying to achieve. Why did Hae Sung bring up the topic of his relationship with Nora in front of Nora's husband, Arthur? A lot is left to the audiences' interpretation, but one could argue that it is precisely because Arthur was there, was Hae Sung able to bring up this topic without Nora mistakenly thinking that he had ulterior motives. Little details like this are left all over the film, leaving a lot of the audience to analyse, and perhaps even rewatch it multiple times as I did.
Of course, none of this could have been achieved without the impeccable acting. The main actors are extremely talented, and masterfully breathed life into the characters on screen. I don't think the casting choices could have been any better. You can see this especially in the scenes with little dialogue, and all the acting is done through their facial expression, posturing, and movement. Their acting, along with the beautifully composed soundtrack - emotional, but subtle enough to not steal the audiences' attention from the acting - made the film possible.
The story is quite simple, but I don't believe it could have been told in a better way. Past Lives is one of my favourite films of this decade, and I eagerly look forward to Celine Song's next work.
Suzume no Tojimari (2022)
Beautiful visuals and music ruined by the story and characters
I would consider myself a fan of Makoto Shinkai's work, my favourite being 5cm per second, but I also loved Your Name a lot. This movie felt like an attempt to recreate Your Name's magic, but falls very short of that due to the subpar writing.
I have big issues with the main character, Suzume. Her motivation for doing everything in the movie is purely nonsensical, risking the lives of millions and millions of people just to save one stranger she met a few days ago. I would have loved to see scenes where she questions her own journey, if any of this was worth it at all (especially after the guy turned into a key and everything was alright again). This same issue applies to some other characters as well, immediately driving 8 hours straight without demanding for any kind of explanation for a stranger they just met.
The cats were also completely disregarded. It seemed like they were trying to make them into proper characters, but ended up only being used as a plot device. And they were also treated extremely poorly by Suzume, who just completely disregards their feelings of wanting to be with Suzume.
Another thing to note is that the movie was very formulaic, following the same structure as Your Name and Weathering With You, but I don't see this as a flaw, because often times it does work out well. In this case, it did not.
Overall, I thought it would have been a fantastic experience, but I could not enjoy it because the issues mentioned above stood out too much for me. The romance should not have been there, and detracts from the beautiful moments in the story.