Paul and Corey Cross the Streams: S7E12 [PAST LIVES (2023)]

Welcome to Season 7! As we are now a quarter of the way through the 21st century, like Bill Murray in Tootsie, Paul and Corey are asking, “What happened?” This season we are looking at the trends, genres, styles, and more that make up cinema of the past 25 years.

This week, Corey chose perhaps the most cleanly divisive film in all of PACCTS, Past Lives (2023).

Written and directed by Korean-American playwright Celine Song, the film follows 24 years in the lives of childhood sweethearts Na Young/Nora and Hae Sung as they weave in and out of each others' lives. During that time Nora marries an American writer, Arthur. The film examines the nature of human connection and love, and whether fate or another transcendent force, inyeon, explains why there are certain people whom we just...can't shake.

As is sometimes the case, a film resonates with one of our hosts and leaves the other cold. See where you land.