The Struggles of Asian Immigrants in Past Lives
Past Lives left me with a mix of strong emotions. The film's thoughtful three-act structure and well-paced arrangement made it impossible for me not to fall in love and be immersed in the story about a Korean migrant, Nora, reuniting with her past love. The aesthetic shots, with the touch of a cool-toned palette, along with the perfect blend of soothing music and dialogues, gave me ample time and the right mood to absorb both spoken and unspoken moments, and the chance to contemplate the “what ifs” in Nora's life.
However, the intimate, gut-wrenching bar conversation conducted in Korean between Nora and her childhood sweetheart, Hae-Sung, left me feeling uptight and concerned for Arthur, Nora’s English-speaking White American husband, who, despite being present, was completely left out of the chat. As they explored the potential of their relationship evolving into love and marriage had Nora not emigrated from South Korea at the age of 12, I could not help but think – how is it not morally concerning to categorise the film as a romance?
Only when I rewatched the film did I begin to realise that Past Lives is not about the rekindling romance of two people who were meant to be together, nor the surface-level love triangle most mainstream media and even the trailer portrayed. Instead, it is a story about the growth journey and identity shifts of an Asian immigrant who left her homeland in her childhood, reconnecting with her mother culture and the younger version of herself in her adulthood, through reuniting with her “Korean-Korean” childhood friend, Hae-Sung. The romantic relationship is merely a tool utilised by Celine Song, the writer-director, to tell the migration story.
The film realistically depicts some aspects of immigration, particularly the challenges of preserving cultural identity when adapting to a new country. This is particularly evident in Nora, who immigrated at the age of 12. Her experience allowed her to have formed a deep cultural connection with her Asian homeland while also undergoing significant changes during her adolescence in a westernised setting in Canada. Despite Nora's positive affinity for Korean culture, such as her belief in the traditional Korean concept of In-yun and her expressed longing for Korea, the film unveils the limitations of maintaining her cultural connection with her homeland. Having lived abroad for decades, Nora struggles with typing Korean, and lacks comprehensive knowledge about certain aspects of Korean life, such as not knowing about the lack of overtime pay and the reality of marriage. Her portrayal captures how her adopted environment gradually transformed her and led to the inevitable gaps in her understanding about her original culture.
Emigration as an inherently partial journey was also beautifully captured by the film, emphasising the emotional complexity of keeping a heartfelt connection to one's roots while acknowledging the unfamiliar. Nora's heartfelt words, "I think I missed Seoul," yearns for a hometown that has undergone considerable transformation the past decades. Perhaps, what Nora longs for is just an romanticised and idealised place crafted from her sweet childhood memories, rather than an accurate reflection of the current reality of the city.
However, the film simplified the complex motives of immigration through the character Nora, a 12-year-old who has a somewhat naïve desire to migrate for winning a Nobel Prize, and her mother's vague explanation of needing to lose something in order to gain other things through immigration. What exactly did the family want to achieve when they decided to migrate? In reality, migration is never an easy decision and is driven by an interplay of push and pull factors. Pull factors, such as economic opportunities and access to better education, motivate individuals to move to other countries. For instance, the voluntary migration of South Korean nurses to West Germany during the healthcare labour shortage from 1963 to 1980 demonstrates the pull of a better economic prospects abroad for young women who found it difficult to make a living in South Korea (Kim, 2021). Similarly, Chinese migrants are drawn to Africa due to economic opportunities arising from China's belt-and-road initiative as China overtook the US to become Africa’s largest trading partner in 2009 (Academy For Cultural Diplomacy, 2014). On the flip side, push factors, including political instability and a low standard of living, prompt individuals to leave their home countries, as seen in the emigration of Hong Kong residents following the social movements in 2019 due to the decline in prospects (Kan, Richards, & Walsh, 2021), with 93,000 residents leaving in 2020 and an additional of 23,000 in 2021(Pitrelli, 2022). The fall of Saigon in 1975 and the subsequent political oppression, poverty, and prolonged war prompted waves of migration out of South Vietnam(National Geographic, 2012). There is a disparity between the film's simplified portrayal and the intricate reality that leads to human movement across borders.
Even though Past Lives may not be the best representation of the varied motives for migration, it explores the identity struggles inherent in the immigration experience. The monologue read in the film from Song’s own 2020 play, Endlings, "I crossed the Pacific Ocean to be here. Some crossings cost more than others. Some crossings… you pay for with your whole life," shows how Song brings attention to the weighty decision of migration through the deeply moving narrative of Past Lives. Song, who created Nora based on her own stories, sacrificed the opportunity to become that alternate person she would develop into if raised in Korea. Yet, without the price that she paid, Song would never be able to become the South Korean-Canadian director who impresses the world with her debut, and allow the global audience to empathise with the challenges immigrants face with her powerful film.
Bibliography
Academy For Cultural Diplomacy. (2014). Chinese Diaspora Across the World: A General Overview. Retrieved from Academy For Cultural Diplomacy: https://www.culturaldiplomacy.org/academy/index.php?chinese-diaspora
Kan, M., Richards, L., & Walsh, P. W. (2021). The migration intentions of British National (Overseas) status holders in Hong Kong. Oxford: Migration Observatory briefing, COMPAS, University of Oxford. Retrieved from https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/the-migration-intentions-of-british-national-overseas-status-holders-in-hong-kong/
Kim, H. (2021). Journeying 'Elsewhere': Diaspora and Korean Guest Workers. In J. Lee, Asian Diaspora in the Era of Globalization (pp. 19-34). Osaka, Japan: Asia-Japan Research Institute, Ritsumeokan University.
National Geographic. (2012). Migration of the "Boat People". Retrieved from National Geographic: https://media.nationalgeographic.org/assets/file/vietnamese_MIG.pdf
Pitrelli, M. (2022, May 27). Thousands of people are leaving Hong Kong — and now it’s clear where they’re going. Retrieved from CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/27/people-are-leaving-hong-kong-and-here-is-where-they-are-going.html
Note that opinions expressed in the article above do not necessarily represent the overall stance of Asiatic Affairs, Students' Union UCL or University College London. If you have read something you would like to respond to, please get in touch with uclasiaticaffairs@gmail.com.
Want to write for us? Don’t worry about experience - we are always looking for writers interested in Asiatic affairs. Submit your ideas at https://forms.gle/koQbsExb6XsAy1Tk6 and we’ll get in touch.