Wikipedia says that the dog days are usually those hot and humid days of the summer. Then they explain why using astronomy concepts that I didn’t care enough to read about. Due to these temperature changes, it’s common for people to feel off during the latter part of the summer. Some might get sick. Some might feel more exhausted. Others (myself included) just get sad.
Now you might be thinking, “Ryan, aren’t you sad the rest of the year too?” and while the answer is yes, it just feels different. It’s even different from the seasonal depression that likes to kick in around March. Maybe the stars have something to do with it after all. What I know for a fact though, is that I have spent plenty of time towards the end of my summers watching sad movies or listening to sad music. Not necessarily because it makes me feel better, but because in some ways it makes me feel like I have company.
There’s a YouTube video by ‘visual letters’ that puts Frank Ocean’s “White Ferrari” over various scenes from the 2013 film her. One of my favorite songs mixed with one of my favorite films. The fusion of two beautifully moving pieces of media never ceases to both hurt and amaze me. I think about it often. When I hear the song (which is also often), I can picture Catherine and Theodore dueling with cones on their heads and vice versa, only enhancing the emotion present in both pieces.
This summer, I watched Celine Song’s latest film Past Lives and have not stopped thinking about it since I left the theater. The film is gentle. It quietly and intimately introduces characters and plot points, never once forcing the viewer to feel a certain way about a given event. Song’s story perfectly captures those wistful questions of “what if?” that dwell in our minds at every moment alongside complex romantic and emotional connections that are shaped by them. In a lot of ways, the film is about what’s not said but communicated just the same. It’s perfect, and I don’t mean that as some kind of an exaggeration or a compliment, I mean it as a fact.
Past Lives is broken into three acts that are separated by 12 years. The first takes place in Seoul, South Korea and follows Na Young (Greta Lee) and Hae-Sung (Teo Yoo) in their grade school days while they’re both 12 years old. They’re close friends who both have crushes on each other and they have their “first date” at a park where they can be seen playing together on stone structures. However, their feelings can’t grow into anything at this time because Na Young and her family are immigrating to Toronto, where she will change her name to Nora. On their last walk home from school together, neither of them say a word. As their paths diverge, both physically and metaphorically, they stop to look at each other in silence for a while before Hae-Sung quickly says goodbye and walks away in an attempt to hide his pain and move on. The shot expertly captures Na Young and Hae-Sung walking in almost the same direction, yet in two different ways, mirroring their thoughts and emotions at this time.
Image credit: “Past Lives” Jon Pack/Twenty Years Rights/A24
After this, we jump ahead another 12 years in time. Nora has finished college and is now a playwright living in New York City. Hae-Sung has completed his military service and has begun taking classes to become an engineer. One day, by the power of the Facebook algorithm, Nora finds a comment on a post from Hae-Sung explaining that he was looking for someone named Na Young. He had not realized she changed her name. Nora then reaches out to Hae-Sung and they begin to reconnect, spending lots of time talking to one another through texts and daily Skype calls. As time goes on, viewers can feel their longing as they look at each other through computer screens. Eventually, this wears on Nora and she decides that while she is attending a writing retreat and Hae-Sung is studying in China, they should take a brief break from talking to one another in order to focus on their own goals. Hae-Sung is visibly upset, but supports Nora and her decision.
While at her writing retreat, Nora meets Arthur (John Magaro) and begins to fall for him. While sitting beneath the stars, she shares the Korean idea of In-Yun, which is a concept similar to fate. Meeting someone, even briefly, means that your spirits have connected in past lives time and time again. She says, “If two people walk by each other on the street and their clothes accidentally brush, that means there have been 8,000 layers of In-Yun between them.” So then, if there are 8,000 layers in just that tiny interaction, imagine how many layers of In-Yun exist in people who are in love… even if it’s unrequited.
We then jump forward another 12 years. Nora is an established playwright living in New York City with her author husband, Arthur. They’re deeply in love, and again this is shown delicately through facial expressions, body language, and spacing rather than written dialogue. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world and after a relationship of his own, Hae-Sung is still hung up on Nora. He decides that he is going on a “vacation” to New York City. After not speaking for years, Hae-Sung reaches out to Nora to try and meet up while he’s in town, causing Arthur to feel as though he’s a roadblock in their story of true love.
The final act follows closely as the characters navigate through an incredibly complex love triangle with grace and elegance. They all respect each other, and though they’re all hurting and experiencing different levels of emotions, the care they show for one another is beyond beautiful. It is in this final act that we see some of the most delicately crafted scenes that elicit such a powerful sentiment, unlike anything I’ve experienced before. I’m not going to even attempt to capture the final segment of the film in words, it’s truly impossible.
Image credit: “Past Lives” Jon Pack/Twenty Years Rights/A24
Every single detail in this film, from something large like the compelling performances of Lee, Yoo, and Magaro to something smaller like the use of a swinging camera Kore-ada filming trick in Nora and Hae-Sung’s reunion in central park, is thoughtful and contributes to the overall impact of the film. The way that the final scenes of the movie watch Nora and Hae-Sung walk down the street in silence yet again before they turn to look at each other, mirroring the scene from the first act (above), is nothing short of masterful. I sobbed, I mean full on sobbed, in the theater for a good 15 minutes after the credits began to roll. It was just beautiful. Not only one of the best movies of the year, but one of the best I’ve ever seen.
Now, how does this connect to the good old her x “White Ferrari” video? It doesn’t really. However, on my ride home from the theater I didn’t listen to anything. Nothing but the sound of my own thoughts for the 45 minute ride home. When I did get home however, I went to my room and started playing my vinyl copy of Frank Ocean’s Blonde (Yes, I have it. Yes, you can be jealous). So, I’m staring at my ceiling fan, and I hear the first line of “Self Control”: “Poolside convo about your summer last night.” Anyone that knows the song knows that this line is your warning for the pain you’re about to endure. However, I knew what was coming, and that’s exactly what stuck out to me.
As the song went on, I imagined many of the scenes from the final act of Past Lives while “Self Control” rang through my ears. Lines like “Wish I was there, wish we grew up on the same advice. And our time was right,” over Nora and Hae-Sung reminiscing about their time together in Seoul crushed me. But wait, it gets even better. “Keep a place for me, I’ll sleep between y’all it’s nothing,” played over Hae-Sung’s wishful glances while all three of them were at the bar together only twisted the knife further into my heart. And the big finale? “I know you gotta leave, take down some summertime, give up just tonight” fits perfectly with the final scene in the film, where they face each other and wait for the Uber that ends their reunion. Like many times before in the movie, no words are spoken yet so much is communicated. I imagine in some way, Ocean’s lyrics here could be exactly what both of them wish they could say, but that’s not what this story is about.
If you’re reading this piece, ‘visual letters,’ please make this video. It’s already in my head and it’s perfect and if you made it a reality I would be eternally grateful. As for everyone else, my key takeaways for you are as follows: watch Past Lives, listen to Blonde, then do both at the same time, and let yourself be sad. Just because it’s summer doesn’t mean you’re obligated to be happy. Use the dog day astronomy stuff as an excuse if you really need to.
Featured image credited to bady abbas via Unsplash.
