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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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In the Heights

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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.

West Side Story

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Crime · 1961

In Manhattan’s Upper West Side, rival gangs of Polish-Americans and newly arrived Puerto Ricans clash for control of the neighborhood, even as two young members from opposite sides fall dangerously in love.

Remember Me

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Drama · 2010

Still reeling from a heartbreaking family event and his parents' subsequent divorce, Tyler Hawkins discovers a fresh lease on life when he meets Ally Craig, a gregarious beauty who witnessed her mother's death. But as the couple draws closer, the fallout from their separate tragedies jeopardizes their love.

Here

Here

Drama · 2024

An odyssey through time and memory, centered on a place in New Jersey where—from wilderness, and then, later, from a home—love, loss, struggle, hope and legacy play out between couples and families over generations.

Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Drama · 2015

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

Blue Heron

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Drama · 2026

In the late 1990s, a family of six settles into their new home on Vancouver Island, as internal dynamics are slowly revealed through the experiences of the youngest child, Sasha. Their fresh start is interrupted by the increasingly dangerous behavior of Jeremy, the family's oldest child.

August Rush

August Rush

Family · 2007

Evan, a musically gifted orphan, runs away from his orphanage and searches New York City for his birth parents. On his journey, he's taken under the wing of the Wizard, a homeless man who lives in an abandoned theater. After discovering his talent, the Wizard gives Evan the name "August Rush" and devises a plan to profit from his talent. Little does Evan know that his parents, Lyla and Louis, are searching for him too.

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.