Crossing Paths, Crossing Cultures

ock, Hae Song turns to Nora and says, "What if that, too, was one of our past lives, and we are something else to each other in the next life?" And when Nora comes back with "I don't know," he adds, "I'll see you later" (I had to ask my Korean students what he meant since the movie didn't even have subtitles), and then leaps into a cab to go. Arthur is anxiously expecting Nora's homecoming since at the back of his mind, he is still apprehensive she might still leave him for her Korean lover. Nora falls into tears and rushes into his arms.

Predictably enough, this highly personal yet globally human narrative struck powerfully with me. It is in its own right a great gem, with its convoluted crossing of culture and geography, its boy-meeting-girl, girl-leaving, boy-finding-girl-twice, girl-refusing-to-go-with-boy story.

Affective dimension: What sensations did the film elicit in me?

I could relate to the three main protagonists-Arthur, Hae Sung, and Na Young/Nora-and observed how their perpetual relationship affected them in so many ways. This time around, like in the first, I had sobbed through the separations-on an airplane, of course, seated next to my child who slept through much of the flight and woke up to ask, "Why are you crying mama? Watching Past Lives? It's a great movie that absolutely makes sense.".

But the most interesting was the haptics or the behavior and PDA in terms of touching, and the low-context American vs the high-context Korean elements of how individuals from different cultures responded. I know that does sound a bit too academic, but in short, how the people would use appropriate American culture, proper touching manners, and non-verbal directness in terms of elongated eye contact, implication, subtlety of no-touch behavior, as well as Korean culture to freely express their feelings honestly and directly.

I finally felt sorry for Nora, a bi-cultural individual who had to make sense out of the differences between two cultures including explaining the differences to her husband, through language use, "He is really Korean" an implying meaning that he, Hae Sung, was different. "It's different," Nora answers as Arthur acknowledges, yes, she, too, is Korean. Unlike my other Korean friends that I have here, he is different. It almost slipped from my mind that he is really Korean. Arthur gets some consolation from it.

Aesthetic dimension: How did the movie please or not please my eyes?

It's a beautiful movie with some great close-ups and discretion about people's character behavior in public - where the director had to instruct both lead actors to constantly keep their hands off one other. Yet in one instant, their hands are touching another's while navigating the New York subway clinging onto a steel bar. There is almost a palpable electromagnetic charge to New York, as reflected in the nasty hello and the lingering goodbye hugs that bookend the visit. The setting has a large effect on the film's urban feel. Set both in Seoul and New York City, the movie is on most counts a visual feast.

Moral dimension: What moral and ethical lessons does the film hold for us?

In the end, this movie is about marriage, love, and commitment. Nora was forced to make that hard decision to abstain from, at great personal psychological expense. Yet, still I cannot help but imagine how it would have all turned out had she taken the opposite course of action.

On the whole, I highly recommend this clip as a good representation of contemporary, thoughtful global exchange. I played the video below for my students in class: