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BlueCat (9)
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What sickens you the most about modern cinema?
Which celebrity death shocked you the most?
Why do horror actors rarely go mainstream?
Oldest film you've ever seen that made an impact on you?
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Have you watched William Richert's documentary released last year on why Phoenix may have died? If not, here it is: https://youtu.be/_0plGkZTKaM
I obviously don't know why he started doing them. He may have struggled with his demons from the very beginning, but if I had to guess why he started doing drugs, it might be because it felt good at first and a stress-relief and everyone else around him used to do them too, but while others eventually stopped or could keep it under control, he let it overtake him and it eventually made him succumb to it.
His decades of drug use may be the reason why? He looked 60 at age 54 and that might tell you why.
People who do years of substance abuse, even if they stop and become sober, will still suffer the consequences of it.
<blockquote>Welcome to MC!</blockquote> Thank you. I fully agree with your first statement. Men can be more romantic in some cases, and a movie like Past Lives highlighted that for its audience. I do believe their chemistry was amazing too, but only in the context of two actors doing a great job making the audience believe they are a great duo working together. In terms of the actual story within the movie, I actually got the impression that they were heavily shy, awkward and uncomfortable around each other in the same way you would be uncomfortable with any stranger you haven't talked to for 12 years.
Yet I didn't feel like the Jewish man was miserable or even unhappy in the relationship, I feel like he was projecting his own insecurity into the relationship on his wife. The "marriage of convenience" as I saw it was mostly from the husband's side of things, while I imagined Nora truly had her feelings for him, though after 9 of marriage were not as pronounced as they could have been.
In any case, thank you for your perspective for making me realize another side to this "puzzle" of a great film. It's a film that not only doesn't have one interpretation, but depending on someone's experience can resonate to someone's side of things in, not only a different way, but also in quite a revelatory way. Take care.
I don't think she was miserable. She was in a very realistic relationship where she felt comfortable with her husband of nine years. She didn't need or seek excitement in the marriage.
Also, I do not think she had a livelier connection with Hae Sung as you think. The point of the film, as I saw it, is that Hae Sung was still in love with a person who no longer existed - Na Young. Once Na Young became Nora (that is, a Korean-American), her personality and mentality was shaped by her American environment rather than her Korean one.
In a way, this killed the Korean girl she once was and created a new girl in her place. But to Hae Sung, she was still the same girl. Nora knew a relationship with Hae Sung would have never worked due to their cultural differences. Nora was no longer the Na Young that Hae Sung knew even if he wanted to think 'she' was still in her. It's common in Korea to marry one's childhood sweetheart, but for Nora, it might as well have been one of many exes.
In all likelihood, if she left her husband for him, she would casually date him for a few months while he would want a marriage. She would continue to want to pursue her career as a writer, but he would want her to be a housewife instead as he was a traditional Korean that clashed with her American upbringing. While this is not explicitly stated, we get this impression out of the scene where Hae Sung lightly rebukes Nora for getting married where Nora then reminds him that he too got a girlfriend.
Hae Sung realizes his (culturally normalized) hypocrisy, then apologizes to Nora for his relationship as if likening it to cheating or giving up on her. She felt that he was so foreign from the world she felt at home in.
In the end, I think Hae Sung realized that Na Young didn't exist anymore, hence why he told her "But the truth I learned here is, you had to leave because you're you. And the reason I liked you is because you're you. And who you are is someone who leaves."
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