In this section of our Colossus Movie Guide for Past Lives, we look at important motifs that help us understand the film.
Cast
- Nora – Greta Lee
- young Nora – Seung Ah Moon
- Hae Sung – Teo Yoo
- young Hae Sung – Seung Min Yim
- Arthur – John Magaro
- Nora’s mom – Ji Hye Yoon
- Written by – Celine Song
- Directed by – Celine Song
Important motifs in Past Lives
Light on the curtain
Near the end of the college chapter of Past Lives, Nora tells Hae Sung they need to stop talking for a time. She finds herself torn between what she’s doing in NYC and her thoughts of Hae Sung and getting to him in Korea. The decision she makes is to pursue where she is—New York. After this call and the painful sense of breaking up that permeates the air around Nora, there’s a shot of her room’s window and curtain. Just outside the window, it’s dusk. Oncoming darkness that marks the end of the day. This waning light embodies the shadow that’s suddenly fallen on Nora and Hae Sung. The end of whatever this period was for them.
Then the very next shot is of the window and curtain, but hours later, at dawn. The blossoming light of a new day. This begins the scenes that lead to Nora meeting Arthur and the start of this next part of her life.
Visual choices like this aren’t necessary to the story but are a means of capturing tone and emotion through the mise-en-scene.
Walking right to left then left to right
When Nora walks Hae Sung to his Uber, they walk from the right side of the screen to the left. This wasn’t an accident. Celine Song explained: “When you draw a timeline, it always works left to right. By walking from right to left, you are walking quite literally into the past. You walk them there, the wind sort of blows her to- wards the past, and then he gets in the car, and then the Uber of course has to drive into the past. She will stand there for a moment, and then she’s gonna go back home, and every step is going to be a walk towards the future from the past.”
Share your thoughts
Are there more motifs you think should be part of the Colossus Movie Guide for Past Lives? Leave your thoughts below and we’ll consider them for the guide.
