It is a thoroughly modern film that heals broken hearts, gives a chance for love, reconciles the past with the future, teaches us to part without anger and with hope for a new beginning. It achieves the impossible: it makes you fall in love with each of the three characters. In-Yun is a Korean belief that people become closer to each other because their souls met in previous incarnations. Nora (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) grew up together in South Korea. Separated by fate as children, they find each other years later thanks to social media. Finally, their love and migration odyssey will take them both to New York. Nora is already married and Hae Sung is newly single. “What if?” – this question keeps pounding in their heads. And also in the head of Nora’s husband (John Magaro), surprised by the sudden visit of the Korean. “Past lives” evokes the spirit of Richard Linklater’s trilogy and the best New York film stories. The story stretched between New York and Seoul, modern technology and the longed-for touch, memories and the present, accompanied by echoes of Buddhist reflection on destiny and the spiritual dimension of relationships.

This reference is not accidental: the director of “Past lives” comes from South Korea. Celine Song based her magical debut, another hit from the A24 studio, hailed by American critics as “the best film of the year” around her own memories. The result is an extraordinary story about love, lost hopes and new opportunities. And that elusive longing for the previous life that each of us carries within us.