The fantasy is enticing, and has a tendency to emerge at times of discomfort. In stories about immigration, longing and loss, the idea of returning to the motherland can appear like an alluring siren call. It begins to feel like a place that will smooth away all your discomforts and restore you to your full self. When you reach it, the fantasy teases, you will be complete, and you will have found home.
For the protagonists of Past Lives, the hotly tipped romance film by South Korean-Canadian playwright Celine Song, the idea of a prodigal return is found less in a physical place, but in each other. Nora Moon and Hae Sung are 12-year-old friends and classmates in Seoul. Nora is an overachiever and quick to cry, which she does when Hae Sung pips her to first place in an exam. What’s the big deal, he asks her; you usually beat me.
