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Past Lives

Past Lives

Drama · Romance · 2023

After decades apart, childhood friends Nora and Hae Sung are reunited in New York for one fateful weekend as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life.

Movie details

Past Lives

2023 Drama · Romance 1h 46m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

7.7 / 10

Community rating

After decades apart, childhood friends Nora and Hae Sung are reunited in New York for one fateful weekend as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Past Lives?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Forever First Love

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Drama · 2020

Paul travels the world to capture the perfect photographic moment. Amid the colour and chaos of a crowded Filipino market, destiny intervenes when Paul’s first love, Anna appears in his lens. The travellers spend the day exploring the beauty of a 16th century town and whilst passions reignite, their principles on relationships, religion and morality clash. The night they spend together will change everything.

The Sun Is Also a Star

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Two young New Yorkers begin to fall in love over the course of a single day, as a series of potentially life-altering meetings loom over their heads - hers concerning her family’s deportation to Jamaica, and his concerning an education at Dartmouth.

Remember Me

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Here

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Magnificent Obsession

Magnificent Obsession

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Reckless playboy Bob Merrick crashes his speedboat, requiring emergency attention from the town’s only resuscitator while a local hero, Dr. Phillips, dies waiting for the life-saving device. Merrick then tries to right his wrongs with the doctor’s widow, Helen, falling in love with her in the process.

Brooklyn

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Drama · 2015

In 1950s Ireland and New York, young Eilis Lacey has to choose between two men and two countries.

Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Celine Song

Written by

Celine Song

Greta Lee

Greta Lee

Nora

Teo Yoo

Teo Yoo

Hae Sung

John Magaro

John Magaro

Arthur

Moon Seung-ah

Moon Seung-ah

Young Nora

Leem Seung-min

Leem Seung-min

Young Hae Sung

Yoon Ji-hye

Yoon Ji-hye

Nora's Mom

Choi Won-young

Choi Won-young

Nora's Dad

Court is in session

Put Past Lives on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.