It’s Oscar season!
I was so thrilled to see ‘Past Lives’, the astounding slow-moving-yet-somehow-fast-paced debut film from Celine Song nominated for Best Picture. Best Picture! On her very first film. Oh, and no biggie, Best Screenplay, too. This following a slew of other noms like 5 Golden Globes, 3 Critics Choice Awards, 3 BAFTAs, and a recent Director’s Guild of America win for Outstanding Directorial Achievement for a First-Time Feature Film.
Leslie and I loved ‘Past Lives’ so much we went back to theaters to see it again. The film had such unique energy as it told the story of Nora and Hae Sung, two childhood friends in South Korea, who lose touch when Nora’s family emigrates, and then seem to be forever-chasing the goodbye they never had.
The film opens with a late-night bar scene of Hae Sung visiting Nora and her husband in New York before scrolling back to tell the unpredictable, jumping-around-the-decades story of how they got there. Every shot was such a sumptuous visual feast — from silhouetted lineups for the Staten Island Ferry to broken-transmission Skype calls to a final waiting-for-an-Uber scene that deserves its own prize. And the writing! Crisp. Punctuating. So much said ... with so little. ‘Past Lives’ is a truly magical film that I can’t recommend enough. 96% on Rotten Tomatoes also means there’s a great chance your movie-going pal will love it, too.
I was thrilled ‘Past Lives’ director, writer, and filmmaker wunderkind Celine Song joined me on 3 Books from her New York apartment to talk about the Korean concept of in-yun, why we’re drawn to stories, what unique role millennials play as the last pre-Internet-immersive generation, how a cannibalistic orgy makes for great literature, a surprising cure for loneliness, why sensory deprivation increases chemistry, the other job of a director, Celine’s 3 most formative books, and much, much more...
Let’s flip the page into Chapter 133 now...
Chapter 133: Celine Song stitches sumptuous stories from Seoul to soul
CONNECT with Celine Song
Celine’s 3 Books
First book (7:50)
Second book (21:45)
Third book (30:40)
Word Of The Chapter
Quotes
“I look to the book ‘Perfume’ as guidance for how I look at my own endings. I want the ending to feel like the meal you’ve been waiting for arrives.” — Celine Song | 3 Books Podcast
“Part of the reason we’re so drawn to stories is because we want to find out what part of ourselves we’re missing.” — Celine Song | 3 Books Podcast
“In-yun is the idea that everybody you encounter is somebody you’re tied to - not just in this life - but hundreds of lives before and hundreds of lives after.” — Celine Song | 3 Books Podcast
“Part of being a millennial, is that we are in a funny limbo. I can speak the language of both generations as a result of being born at this particular time. I take that as a very serious responsibility in a way.” — Celine Song | 3 Books Podcast
“I kept Teo and Greta from touching each other. The amazing thing about not doing something is that it makes you really want to do it.” — Celine Song | 3 Books Podcast
“Millennials are in a funny liminal space between the older generation who don’t have as close a relationship to the internet and the younger generation who have a closer relationship with the internet. I take that as a serious responsibility. I feel concern for it.” — Celine Song | 3 Books Podcast
“On social media it’s not the most decent or meaningful that gets looked at. And what you say becomes true. If you say something and you’re omnipresent … maybe it’s true.” — Celine Song | 3 Books Podcast
I think that the way immigrants are depicted is that sometimes they are depicted as reluctant to immigrate, especially children. I really wanted Nora to be a natural-born immigrant, someone who wanted to leave and had her own ambitions even as a kid. New York is a symbol of immigration. It is something that is a lovely and unbridled part of immigrants and I wanted Nora to be somebody who was an immigrant from the beginning. — Celine Song | 3 Books Podcast
As long as the food arrives and it’s delicious, you’re going to be happy. — Celine Song | 3 Books Podcast
Longing ends the moment that you’re able to have. That’s part of why I really wanted to deprave the actors of touch. If they were allowed to touch each other it would not have meant so much. But because they were not allowed to, and not doing it, it makes you really want to do it. Then the hug becomes really powerful. I don’t think you’d feel that way otherwise. — Celine Song | 3 Books Podcast
The job of a director is much more social. And part of the reason why I love dramatic work is because there is a way where you can be a writer that has demands that are social. When you’re making a movie you have to talk to 200 people every day. You need to be able to know how to speak to every single one of them and you aren’t going to be left alone. Being left alone is not possible when being a film director. But when it comes to feeling like I want to be left alone is that its just a desire that all artists have. I’m happy to answer these questions now because I do want to be able to feel connected to people who are watching the movie. There is also always the pain of that where I could think it would be so wonderful if I was just left alone in it. I already made it. The movie is already done and there’s nothing I can do to help it except talk to people about it. So I think that’s the funny relationship to it because the movie is up and walking around on its own, it’s going to college. — Celine Song | 3 Books Podcast
I think every great book should be something that you can walk into if you’re 15 and want to try something. — Celine Song | 3 Books Podcast
I think voids in our lives are hard to identify. I find that it is usually literature, movies, or a TV show that will fill that void. — Celine Song | 3 Books Podcast
I’m really drawn to the stories about people who are under the pressure of something, or under the weight of their times. Under the weight of power and are crushed under it, and are able to somehow hold onto who they are or try to do something for it. — Celine Song | 3 Books Podcast
Technological progress is going to march on relentlessly but humanity and the way our morality and the way we progress as people outside of technological progress is going to need to catch-up. We feel this need every day. We are really falling behind the technology that is getting away from us. There are moral questions that we don’t feel equipped for. — Celine Song | 3 Books Podcast
Fascism looks very different now. The way information is moving is always going to get faster than the way that we can form our moral stance as individuals and as a collective. It’s all hype. — Celine Song | 3 Books Podcast
What you say becomes true. If you say something and you’re omnipresent and omnipotent, then maybe it's true. And that’s scary. — Celine Song | 3 Books Podcast
