At The Movies: Achingly bittersweet romance in Past Lives, Gran Turismo a cliched underdog tale

Past Lives (PG13)

106 minutes, opens on Thursday
4 stars

The story: Childhood crushes Nora (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) are separated when Nora’s family immigrate to Canada from South Korea. Two decades later, they reunite in New York for one fateful week.

This was the romance drama that moved even stone-hearted critics to tears at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.

Past Lives

introduces Na Young (Moon Seung-ah) and Hae Sung (Yim Seung-min) as 12-year-olds in 1999 Seoul who walk home together after school each day.

Twelve years later, circa 2012, Na Young with the Westernised name Nora is studying writing in Manhattan when she chances upon Hae Sung’s Facebook post. They excitedly reconnect online until she decides to move on with her life.

Another dozen years pass. Nora is a playwright happily married to an American novelist (John Magaro) – and then Hae Sung visits.

Nora takes him sightseeing, but Korean-Canadian playwright Celine Song’s intimate writing-directing debut, an autobiography, is less about what the lovers manque do or say than the looks exchanged and the silences where reawakened feelings amass.

They are electric. He with his sad yearning eyes; she, cautious yet curious in a star-making turn by American actress Lee from the Netflix comedy series Russian Doll (2019 to present).

Kudos to Magaro too for his sensitive handling of the third-wheel spouse.

The Korean Buddhist concept of In-yun, Nora explains to him, is providence conjoining two souls across eternity. The achingly bittersweet story spanning three acts, 36 years and infinite lifetimes is ultimately a long backward glance at the person one might have been, the loves one might have had, the paths one might have taken, and the consequences one must learn to accept.

Hot take: This delicate and eloquent meditation on destiny and choice is an emotional experience, beautifully played.

Gran Turismo: Based On A True Story (PG13)

135 minutes, opens on Thursday
2 stars

The story: Twenty-year-old British gamer Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe) parlays his joystick skills from virtuality to reality by becoming a celebrated racing driver.

Step aside, Super Mario Brothers. PlayStation is bringing its inventory to the multiplex.

Gran Turismo: Based On A True Story is not, however, another of the company’s video game adaptations like Uncharted (2022) or the HBO series The Last Of Us (2023). It is a sports biopic centred on the popular racing simulation franchise Gran Turismo.

Jann is an enthusiast, and his countless hours at the console earn him a spot at a GT Academy founded by a slick Nissan Motorsports executive (Orlando Bloom), where the best players worldwide are selected to be Nissan-sponsored pro racers.

The racing establishment is scornful. Jann’s working-class dad (Djimon Hounsou) is badgering him to get a job, and his mum is played by Geri Halliwell – hello, Spice Girl.

Needless to say, he will silence naysayers by winning every championship across Europe and Asia.

What is worth noting instead are David Harbour, whose washed-up trainer is a ragged presence in this bland underdog fairy tale, as well as the innovative visuals.

South African director Neill Blomkamp filmed on site, using cameras installed behind cockpits. The audience is effectively strapped to the point of view of the drivers blazing around the tracks at 322kmh: Jann’s infamous 2015 wreckage at Nurburgring Nordschleife in Germany is a heart-stopper.

At other times, the real world is reimagined as a game layered with interstitial graphics.

Blomkamp of District 9 (2009) and Elysium (2013) is an auteur. But his adventurous spirit comes up against the hackneyed story, which is a corporate endorsement of a game evidently so hyper-realistic, it will make elite racers of its dedicated consumers.

Hot take: All this carbon emission for a brand campaign.