Teo Yoo and Greta Lee in Past Lives (A24)

Celine Song, making a remarkable directorial debut, draws viewers in with a steady and sure hand, gingerly guiding them along a setup that hints at something like An Affair to Remember, though with a modern sensibility that relies on subtly, as opposed to sentimentality. Meanwhile, she leaves her cast alone seemingly to improvise or fumble their way around. Even at their most awkward, her trio of entangled characters have the freedom to change their minds, put a relationship on the backburner, or tacitly accept the state of a relationship.  

In some ways, the story line has a historical sweep, though set mostly in the first decades of the 21st century. It traces the relationship between Nora (Greta Lee, The Morning Show), who, as an adolescent, immigrated with her family to North America from South Korea, leaving behind a classmate, Hae Sung (Teo Yoo, Decision to Leave), in Seoul. (Although they go only on one playdate, 10-year-old Nora already imagines a future together.)  

Simply put, their childhood crush of the late 1990s blossoms into an online friendship, and possibly more, 12 years later when they reconnect in their early twenties. He’s now an engineering student after fulfilling his compulsory military stint, and she has landed a playwrighting fellowship in Manhattan. Aside from her mother, he’s the only person to whom she speaks Korean (which has become a little rusty, according to Hae Sung). She hasn’t completely divorced herself from her homeland, however: She confides she still dreams in Korean.

Song’s screenplay layers as much depth to the long-distance companionship-turned-courtship as to the will-they-or-won’t-they-get-together tension, international date lines be damned. That is, until one of them, focusing on a long-term career, puts the kibosh on the growing intensity of their Skype chats, and the two go their separate ways, on Facebook and offline.

After their personal lives have taken twists and turns, they reunite years later, for the first time in person in more than two decades. In some ways, the movie offers an outsider view to both South Korea (especially in the opening chapter) and New York City (though it’s been filmed to death) as Nora becomes a tour guide for Hae Sung during his first time in the United States, and they are finally face-to-face again after 24 years. Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Ellis Island are seen through a fresh pair of eyes, providing views this New Yorker hasn’t seen. 

The state of Nora and Hae Sung’s relationship has always been up for grabs. In the opening sequence set in present-day Manhattan, two off-screen observers try to decipher who Nora and Hae Sung are to each other—friends? lovers? married?—as the two and Nora’s husband, Arthur (Showing Up’s John Magaro)—yes, there are speed bumps—have drinks at an East Village bar late at night. The answer to that query evolves.

Though the relationships develop largely through the dialogue—ranging from the banal to the breezy and the blunt—body language and what is left unsaid may be the most telling signs of what Nora and Hae Sung, and Arthur as well, are thinking. That conversation forms the spry springboard for what ensues isn’t too surprising given that Song comes from a playwrighting background. Yet as a whole, her film has flair, from the contrasting cuts of the Seoul/New York City cityscapes by editor Keith Fraase to the eclectic, ethereal soundtrack, including a score by Christopher Bear and Daniel Rossen.
Although most of the story is told from Nora’s point of view, the emotional well spring sprouts from Hae Sung. His vulnerability belies his physical stiffness as he walks with his arms glued straight down to his sides. For the most part, Song and her first-rate cast take the “still waters run deep” understated approach. The result is at once straightforward and old-fashioned, yet contemporary. In doing so, Song has single-handedly reenergized a genre. The film’s deceptively light touch builds to a climax that quenches the thirst for an unabashedly romantic drama that viewers may not have realized they had.

But to the most important question at hand: Should audiences bring Kleenex? Yes, and probably more than one tissue.