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Films I love — Past lives

Published in
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2 min read
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Aug 29

The fantasies we had when we were kids, somehow we are always reaching for them. We want them to be truth, even as we grow older and realise nothing is ever as easy. But somewhere there is always that kid who still believes that anything is possible and that the dream of living in a world made of nothing but chocolate is still possible.

When Na-young was a child living in Korea, she told her mother that she was going to marry Hae Sung, with him she cried, because for the first time she came second in her class to Hae Sung himself.

This was Na-young, the ambitious little girl in love.

When Hae Sung saw her cry he just stood beside her, and said
“You always come first in the class and I never cry, and this one time I came first and you are crying. How do you think it makes me feel?”

This was Hae Sung, a guy who loved the ambitious little girl in love.

They were these childhood sweethearts who were meant for each other, made for each other.

But what happens when we have to make a choice between ambition and love. Does it mean we want something more than the other, or just simply we can’t have everything?

Na-young was now Nora as she immigrated to Canada. Her whole childhood was in Korea was behind her. Yet somehow for Hae Sung, he had made her his life. Later, she refers to him as an idealist, which is such an apt description of a character as any. He was just someone who believed in things.

Our life requires constant compromise, for our sanity, our happiness. She was repaying the debts by living up to his loss.

Hae sung perfectly describes Nora. She was the girl he loved, she would also always be the one who left. Because this is just who she is to him.