Growing up in Seoul, in South Korea, Hae Sung (Leem Seung-min) and Na Young (Moon Seung-ah) are friends and for a short time have the early suggestion of childhood sweethearts, all due to their natural connection at school, and ease in each other’s company, and so their parents set them up on a date and both are clearly enamoured – even at 12 years old.

But Na Young’s parents, a filmmaker, and an artist, are planning to emigrate to Canada and so it’s not long before the brief young Korean love-story is split before it’s even fully attached at the seams. While in many films, this has played out with reams of heavy drama, Writer and Director Celine Song plays Past Lives with a dignity and a welcome restrain throughout, as if an invisible string is thread not only from start to finish, but also from before their story and beyond it.

During the move, Na takes on a new name and becomes Nora instead, as many immigrants do when moving into western society – possibly in an act of respect and with an additional desire to settle more easily (while I don’t have direct personal experience of this, I’ve worked in industries and with people who’ve done this). And some 12 years later, we meet the more adult Nora, now played by Greta Lee, who gives an equally exquisite and captivating performance throughout.

At this point, Nora is becoming the writer she wanted to be, and Hae Sung (now played by Teo Yoo, with an notably controlled portrayal, full of compassion and calmness) takes on mandatory military service but also engineering work in his own life in Korea. After reaching out to each other, almost at the same time via the wonders of social media, they begin to reconnect over Skype calls where they discuss where they’ve been, what they want to do next and whether they should meet up in person, just because they continue to feel a connection.

But this plan to meet falls by the wayside because Nora is determined in her choices to be where she is in the world right now. I wouldn’t call it an obsession to be career-driven, she’s just who she is and to want to become the writer she does, she has to be in New York – which is where she’s now emigrated to – and the truth is, their video call relationship could take years to become something that merges into reality. For me, it’s an honest ‘move on’ from both, whatever they believe they feel.

After attending a writer’s retreat, and a lovely nod to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Nora meets Arthur, played by John Magaro – who gives one of my favourite co-starring performances as the ‘other half’ because it feels adult and relatable, and steers away from the drama we often see on screen in a situation like this. They bond during Nora’s time away, and end up moving in together back in New York and then some 12 years later… we push forward in time again.

Now married, and happy living their writers’ lives, and still in New York, Hae reaches out to Nora again – because he just wants to see her, and the truth is? Well, that’s to come. But whatever their connection, it’s now been twenty years since they last saw each other, and they were young kids back in Korea. Nora obliges, Arthur can understand, and Hae and Nora meet up in New York for tourist trips, old chats, memories, and the innocently lingering stares of ‘what if’ alongside stories of what, or even who, they are now.

This setup is where much of the deeper work of Celine Song’s film lies, Past Lives sets up an reachable narrative of character depth and memories, and let’s us inside to not only comprehend their relationship, and whatever that will become, but also to allow the audience to see themselves in the situation with stillness and pure, beautiful natural chemistry. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t find it slow at all, it’s measured, it’s undoubtedly philosophical but it’s also got a huge heart at the middle that’s based both in reality and the wisps of memories unfulfilled. And that’s okay.

It feels almost effortlessly honest and striking, with special lead performances from Greta Lee and Teo Yoo, Past Lives has a lot more secrets to reveal that I shan’t, but I will say that it touches on every part of life in a meditative sense, but without the weighty drama of younger years, when life feels more unhinged and time uncontrollable.

Like time itself, Past Lives offers us the warmth and bittersweet sadness of any relationship that grows or changes, as all people do, yet also embraces that journey with beautiful imagery (DOP Shabier Kirchner), a fine score (Christopher Bear, Daniel Rossen) and more than enough deep and fulfilling thoughts to ponder upon as the credits roll.

Past Lives is in Cinemas now, from Studiocanal and A24