Past life
Drama written by Celine songMade in the USA and South Korea (2023). A beautiful and touching romantic story in three chapters. In the first story, 12-year-old Na Young tells her secret admirer Hye Sung that she is leaving South Korea and moving to Canada with her parents. In the middle section, the two are serendipitously reconnected over the Internet after twelve years. In the beautiful and heartbreaking ending, the two – now in their 30s – will finally meet each other after all these years. In New York, where Na Young, who now calls herself Nora, lives with her (white) husband. A very strong directorial debut from Song, who also wrote the smart, subtle screenplay and based it on his own experiences.
The film’s music was composed by Christopher Bear And Daniel Rossen. Christopher Bear is the drummer for the New York rock band Grizzly Bear, and Daniel Rossen is a singer and songwriter. Together they searched for a musical expression of the passage of time. Instruments are always closely linked to different scenes: cellos and keyboards when the main characters are in contact from different parts of the world, for example. By working with color coding associated with different emotions, the filmmakers were able to connect recognizable musical elements to the story elements of the film.
