They strike up an affair that at first seems off-handed, a thing they’re just doing for kicks. ![]() Soon after, at a writing retreat, she meets Arthur (John Magaro), a scruffy young novelist. Eager to make the most of her life in New York, Nora tells Hae Sung she thinks it’s best if they don’t talk for a while. But circumstances prevent them from reconnecting in real life. They spend more and more time on Skype, and a possible romance takes shape. In their adult guises, they’re new to each other, and yet not. Their faces are lovely, luminous with curiosity and mutual discovery. Nora and Hae Sung (now played by Teo Yoo) peer at one another through their respective computer screens, at times just blinking, not talking, as if trying to map the contours of the lost years. They manage to connect on social media she types a short message to him in her rusty, hunt-and-peck Korean. Googling old friends from home to see what they’re up to, she’s reminded of the boy she used to be so close to, though she at first struggles to remember his name. She’s just moved to New York, hoping to launch a career as a playwright. Song then moves the story 12 years forward: Na Young now calls herself Nora-as a grownup, she’s played by Greta Lee-having left her old name behind long ago. An unseen observer, surveying this scene from across the bar, wonders aloud what their story is: Are the intensely connected man and woman siblings? Is the left-out dude the woman’s boyfriend? These are the types of things we ask ourselves when we play the game of piecing together strangers’ stories, making up lives for them like amateur dramatists. She seems more engaged in talking with one of them, while the other sits a bit awkwardly, aware he’s being left out but trying to be cool about it. The movie’s opening shot shows us a woman sitting at a bar, flanked by two men. Uncertainty is a kind of shadow character in this film, floating through it like a ghost. Those are questions writer-director Celine Song’s extraordinary debut film Past Lives doesn’t so much answer as brush against, like the flutter of moth wings. But is it possible that there are different kinds of right for any one human being? Is it normal to wonder what might have been-to ponder what your life might be like if you’d chosen another partner-or is it a betrayal of the person who sleeps beside you every night? There are always those people who advertise loudly that they’ve found their soul mate, holding their good fortune high like a victory flag. (Netflix, for example, is a great spot for a good love movie.) Fire one of these up when you want big feelings, swelling music, broken hearts or kisses in the rain, and get ready to fall in love again.People pair off for so many reasons: convenience or habit, great sexual chemistry, the desire to have children, or simply what they see as true love. While these types of romances are getting harder and harder to find at the theater - and even streaming services are geared more towards the romantic comedies - they are still out there if you know where to look. When you're in the mood, these are the best romantic movies of all time (that aren't rom-coms, though sometimes the line is blurry), listed in reverse chronological order. Although rom-coms certainly give audiences the feels, they're not the swooning, yearning emotions you get from a straight-ahead romance. When you think about cinema's greatest moments - those time-tested, all-time best that remind us why movies are great - how many of them are heart-stopping, romantic kisses? All-enveloping embraces? A scene where one person triumphantly runs towards another? So while action movies, comedy films and blockbuster superhero flicks all have their places, when you really want something that hits deep into the soul, it's time to reach for those romantic movies.Īnd I'm not talking about romantic comedies, either.
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