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Movies like Past Lives

Key Features:
Reconnection, Childhood friends, Fate, Love, Longing, Cultural identity, Immigration, Nostalgia, Missed connections, Life choices, Romance, Character-driven, Cross-cultural, Relationships
Tone:
restrained, poetic, earnest
Target Audience:
Romance fans, Introspective viewers, Art house cinema lovers, Those interested in cultural identity
Emotional Arc:
Longing → Reflection → Acceptance

Past Lives

2023-06-02
Past Lives Poster - Find Similar Movies

After decades apart, childhood friends Nora and Hae Sung are reunited in New York for one fateful weekend as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life.

Genres
Drama, Romance
Cast
Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, John Magaro, Moon Seung-ah, Yim Seung-min, Yoon Ji-hye, Choi Won-young, An Min-young, Seo Yeon-woo, Chang Ki-ha
Crew
Celine Song, Celine Song
Rating
7.718(2092 votes)
Past LivesPast Lives
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Woman Is the Future of Man

As the first snow falls in Seoul, two old friends reunite; one is a successful college professor, and the other, a struggling filmmaker recently returned from the United States. After their reminiscences, they finally decide to go in search of the young woman each had romanced years earlier.



Soulmate
Soulmate(2023)
7.9

Mi-so and Ha-eun meet in elementary school and quickly become best friends. In high school, Ha-eun meets Jin-woo and starts to have feelings for him, but he starts to have feelings for Mi-so. When they all meet again as adults, they are very different people, but they try to remember what friendship is really about.



Sunny
Sunny(2011)
7.9

Seven girls become good friends in high school, then events pull them apart for 25 years. When one of the friends lies dying in a hospital, she wishes to see each of them one last time.



Sad Movie
Sad Movie(2005)
6.5

These intertwining stories about romance and separation follow a firefighter who can't find the right time to propose, a shy theme park worker who falls for an artist, an estranged mother and son, and a man seeking to regain his lost love.



The Classic
7.6

Ji-hae's friend is having problems expressing her feelings to the boy she loves, so she asks Ji-hae to write e-mails to him in her name. As the boy falls in love with her letters, Ji-hae discovers the story of her mother's romance which is remarkably similar to her own circumstances.



Comrades, Almost a Love Story

Jun arrives in Hong Kong from mainland China, hoping to be able to earn enough money to marry his girlfriend back home. He meets the streetwise Qiao and they become friends. As friendship turns into love, problems develop, and although they seem meant for each other they somehow keep missing out.



SoulMate
SoulMate(2016)
7.149

The films spans two decades as the story unfolds in a series of flashbacks that begin when Qiyue and Ansheng were just thirteen. The two became inseparable until they met a boy who ended up tearing their lives apart.



A Man and a Woman
6.71

Two strangers have dropped their kids off at a pickup area for a children's camp in Helsinki, Finland. A spark of mutual interest is ignited between the man and woman.



Career Girls
6.553

A young college student in London moves into a flat and becomes best friends with a flatmate; the former moves into her own flat 4 years later but 6 years after their parting, the former returns to London to pay the latter a visit.



Nana
Nana(2005)
6.725

Two girls named Nana meet on a train to Tokyo. Nana K. aims to reunite with her boyfriend and Nana O. hopes to make it big in the music business. Despite their differences, the pair hit it off and become roommates.



Friend
Friend(2001)
6.9

Despite their different family backgrounds, four friends grew up together in the wearisome years of the 70s. But as time goes by, each of them takes a different life path.



Ha Ha Ha
Ha Ha Ha(2010)
6.3

Over drinks, two friends agree to swap fond memories of their recent trips to the same seaside town. As the stories unfold in flashback, it becomes evident their accounts take place at the same time and with the same people.



A Distant Neighborhood

Thomas, a father in his fifties, returns by chance to the town where he grew up. He collapses and wakes up forty years earlier in the body of his teenage self. Thrown back into his past, Thomas will not only have to re-live his first love, but also try to understand the reasons for his father’s mysterious departure. Can you change the past by living it again?



Longing
Longing(2024)
5.493

A business mogul runs into his old small town girlfriend while she is visiting the big city only to find out that they had a child together that he was unaware of.



On Your Wedding Day
7.539

Through the course of their lives, a man and his first love are repeatedly separated from each other because of circumstances out of their control.



Bittersweet
7.494

An Egyptian-American returns to his homeland after twenty years abroad, filled with nostalgia and high hopes. But as he reconnects with his roots, he finds himself caught between two worlds—and begins to experience the reality of a country he thought he knew.



Esteros
Esteros(2016)
6.512

Childhood friends Matías and Jerónimo reach adolescence and experience sexual attraction to each other, before being separated by circumstances. Later, as young adults, they meet again, and the film follows themes of complicated relationships and sexual tensions, as well as issues of homophobia.



Josée
Josée(2020)
7.1

Young-seok, who feels overwhelmed and lonely in what should be his glorious youth, meets a woman who introduces herself as Josée, and they share a once-in-a-lifetime romance.



When Margaux Meets Margaux

20-year-old Margaux makes the acquaintance of 45-year-old Margaux: they have a lot in common – so much so that it turns out they are one and the same person, at two different ages and stages of their life…



Us and Them
7.559

Ten years ago, on a train home during the busy Spring Festival travel period, fate brings Xiaoxiao and Jianqing together. Like many young couples, they meet, fall in love, and strive to make it work, but eventually, the harsh realities of life make them drift apart. Ten years later, they run into each other again. Will they make the most of this second chance and rekindle what they once lost?



Love Songs
7

Ismael and Julie, in the hope of sparking their stalled relationship, enter a playful yet emotionally laced threesome with Alice. When tragedy strikes, these young Parisians are forced to deal with the fragility of life and love. For Ismael, this means negotiating through the advances of Julie's sister and a young college student – one of which may offer him redemption.



Uprising
Uprising(2024)
7.013

In the Joseon Dynasty, two friends who grew up together — one the master and one the servant — reunite post-war as enemies on opposing sides.



Right Now, Wrong Then

By mistake, film director Ham Chun-su arrives in Suwon a day early. With time to kill before his lecture the next day, Chun-su stops by a restored, old palace and meets an artist named Yoon Hee-jung. Together, they go to Hee-jung's workshop to look at her paintings, have Sushi with Soju for dinner, and get close. Later, they go to another café and have more drinks with Hee-jung's acquaintances. When asked if he is married, Chun-su is forced to reveal the fact that he is, and Hee-jung gets deeply disappointed...



Unforgettable
7.938

On a live music radio show, a letter arrives from the 23 years in the past. Through the letter, the first love and friendships of five friends are revealed.



The Sun Is Also a Star

Two young New Yorkers begin to fall in love over the course of a single day, as a series of potentially life-altering meetings loom over their heads - hers concerning her family’s deportation to Jamaica, and his concerning an education at Dartmouth.



The Greatest Hits
6.581

Harriet finds art imitating life when she discovers certain songs can transport her back in time – literally. While she relives the past through romantic memories of her former boyfriend, her time travelling collides with a burgeoning new love interest in the present. As she takes her journey through the hypnotic connection between music and memory, she wonders – even if she could change the past, should she?



(re)kindle
7.4

Ana and Helen, two divorced women, were close friends as teenagers. Today, amidst the corona virus pandemic and in quarantine, they get in touch after 20 years via internet. Through video conference calls, memories, sensations and emotions reflourishes.



Lovesong
Lovesong(2017)
5.7

Neglected by her husband, Sarah embarks on an impromptu road trip with her young daughter and her best friend, Mindy. Along the way, the dynamic between the two friends intensifies before circumstances force them apart. Years later, Sarah attempts to rebuild their intimate connection in the days before Mindy’s wedding.



Memory
Memory(2023)
7.068

Sylvia is a social worker who leads a simple and structured life: her daughter, her job, her AA meetings. This is blown open when Saul follows her home from their high school reunion. Their surprise encounter will profoundly impact both of them as they open the door to the past.



Miss Baek
Miss Baek(2018)
7.5

A woman's past as a convict follows her everywhere and because of this she doesn't open up to others. But then she strikes up a friendship with a broken child who has suffered from domestic violence and decides to save the girl from the cruel world. A man who holds feelings for the woman, tries to protect her in his own way.



Canola
Canola(2016)
7.946

A girl who went missing after an accident returns 10 years later and reunites with her grandmother.



One True Loves
6.3

Emma and Jesse are living the perfect life together, until Jesse disappears in a tragic helicopter crash on their first wedding anniversary. Four years later, Emma has found happiness again and is about to marry her best friend when Jesse resurfaces, turning her world upside down and leaving her torn between two great loves.



Il Mare
Il Mare(2000)
7.3

In the year 1999, a young woman leaves her quaint seaside house and returns to the city, leaving in the mailbox a card for the next owner, with instructions to forward any mail of hers to the new address. In the year 1997, a jaded young architect moves into the same house and finds the letter. His reply, which he slips into the mailbox, finds its way to her, beginning a parallel-time love story separated by a span of two years.



20th Century Girl
8.1

In 1999, a teen girl keeps close tabs on a boy in school on behalf of her deeply smitten best friend – then she gets swept up in a love story of her own.



Failan
Failan(2001)
7.2

After losing both her parents, Failan emmigrates to Korea to seek her only remaining relatives. Once she reaches Korea, she finds out that her relatives have moved to Canada well over a year ago. Desperate to stay and make a living in Korea, Failan is forced to have an arranged marriage through a match-making agency.



The Past
The Past(2013)
7.2

After four years apart, Ahmad returns to his wife Marie in Paris in order to progress their divorce. During his brief stay, he cannot help noticing the strained relationship between Marie and her daughter Lucie. As he attempts to improve matters between mother and daughter Ahmad unwittingly lifts the lid on a long buried secret...



Return to Seoul
6.255

After an impulsive travel decision to visit friends, Freddie, 25, returns to South Korea for the first time, where she was born before being adopted and raised in France. Freddie suddenly finds herself embarking on an unexpected journey in a country she knows so little about, taking her life in new and unexpected directions.



Two Friends
5.86

Mona, a prisoner on work release, meets Clément, a shy actor. Desperate to impress Mona, Clément recruits his extroverted friend, Abel, to help. When Mona becomes more interested in Abel, it sets off a conflict between the two friends. Meanwhile, Mona attempts to keep her past hidden.



Ex
Ex(2009)
5.721

Six people struggling with their relationship, or lack thereof, cross paths with their respective exes — and discover they might still harbor feelings for each other.



One Day
One Day(2011)
7.418

A romantic comedy centered on Dexter and Emma, who first meet during their graduation in 1988 and proceed to keep in touch regularly. The film follows what they do on July 15 annually, usually doing something together.



#Iamhere
#Iamhere(2020)
5.562

Stéphane lives a quiet life as an eminent French Chef but when he decides to visit Soo, a mysterious Korean lady he fell in love with on Instagram, he'll embark on an adventurous journey full of discoveries.



Be with You
8.2

Along with his young son, Ji-ho, Woo-jin misses his wife Soo-a, who died after promising to return a year later with the rainy season. Miraculously, they reunite with Soo-a when the rainy season comes around, but she has no memory of her husband and son whom she dearly loved.



A Year-End Medley
7.2

A romantic comedy of a young man and woman that is told in the background of hotel 'Emross'. It has stories of people who met each other at Hotel Emross during the New Year holidays. Each one has his own memory to relate and create relationships or just going nostalgic.



Always Be My Maybe
6.645

Reunited after 15 years, famous chef Sasha and hometown musician Marcus feel the old sparks of attraction, but struggle to adapt to each other's worlds.



Cold War
Cold War(2018)
7.4

A man and a woman meet in the ruins of post-war Poland. With vastly different backgrounds and temperaments, they are fatally mismatched and yet drawn to each other.



Hindsight
Hindsight(2011)
6.478

A young assassin is sent to kill a retired mob boss. But things get complicated when she begins to like him.



Taipei Story
7.457

A young woman urgently seeks to navigate the maze of contemporary Taipei and find a future. She hopes that her boyfriend Lung is the key to the future, but Lung is stuck in a past that combines baseball and traditional loyalty that leads him to squander his nest egg bailing her father out of financial trouble.



Beaches
Beaches(1988)
6.684

A privileged rich debutante and a cynical struggling entertainer share a turbulent, but strong childhood friendship over the years.



Blue Jay
Blue Jay(2016)
7

Meeting by chance when they return to their tiny California hometown, two former high-school sweethearts reflect on their shared past.



Yourself and Yours
6.2

While a South Korean man wanders the city in search of the woman he just broke up with, she successively meets and flirts with two men who claim to have met her before.



The Best Years of a Life

They knew each other long ago: a man and a woman whose dazzling and unexpected romance captured in the now-iconic film revolutionized our understanding of love. Today, the former race car driver seems lost in the pathways of his memory. In order to help him, his son seeks out the woman his father wasn’t able to cherish but whom he constantly revisits in his thoughts and dreams. Anne reunites with Jean-Louis and their story picks up where they left it…



Those People
6.9

On Manhattan's gilded Upper East Side, a young gay painter is torn between an obsession with his infamous best friend and a promising new romance with an older foreign pianist.



One Week Friends
6.726

High school student Yuki Hase wants to become close with classmate Kaori Fujimiya who is alway by herself. Kaori Fujimiya refuses to become close with Yuki Hase, because she forgets her friends every new Monday. Even though Kaori tells Yuki why she doesn't want to become friends, Yuki still wants to become close to her.



The Woman Who Ran
6.6

While her husband is on a business trip, Gam-hee meets three of her friends on the outskirts of Seoul.



Two Lovers
6.9

A depressed man moves back in with his parents following a recent heartbreak and finds himself with two women.



The Call
The Call(2020)
7.505

Connected by phone in the same home but 20 years apart, a caller puts a woman’s past — and life — on the line to change her own fate.



A Man and a Woman
7.3

A man and a woman meet by accident on a Sunday evening at their childrens' boarding school. Slowly, they reveal themselves to each other, finding that they have something deeply in common.



(Girl)Friend
5.4

Vincent and Nefeli just moved in together. They're best friends and swore to never fall in love again. That is until Vincent meets Julie.



Poetry
Poetry(2010)
7.555

A South Korean woman in her sixties enrolls in a poetry class as she grapples with her faltering memory and her grandson's appalling wrongdoing.



A Werewolf Boy
7.647

An unexpected phone call brings an elderly woman to her childhood country cottage, and memories of an orphan boy she knew 47 years ago come flooding back to her.



Eungyo
Eungyo(2012)
6.8

A reclusive elderly poet feels the fire of his youth when gamine schoolgirl Eun-gyo enters his life, to the chagrin of the old man's assistant.



Before Sunset
7.807

Nine years later, Jesse travels across Europe giving readings from a book he wrote about the night he spent in Vienna with Celine. After his reading in Paris, Celine finds him, and they spend part of the day together before Jesse has to again leave for a flight. They are both in relationships now, and Jesse has a son, but as their strong feelings for each other start to return, both confess a longing for more.



This Time Next Year
6.04

Minnie and Quinn were both born in London on New Year’s Day, in the same hospital, one minute apart. Thirty years later — and very different people — they find themselves thrown together again in the same city on New Year’s Eve.



Hill of Freedom
6.601

Kwon returns to Seoul from a restorative stay in the mountains. She is given a packet of letters left by Mori, who has come back from Japan to propose to her. Kwon drops and scatters the letters, all of which are undated. When she reads them, she has to make sense of the chronology.



On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate

After being rejected for a film role, a stage actor leaves Seoul to visit a friend and, in his travels, winds up getting involved with two women.



Sentimental Value
7.6

Sisters Nora and Agnes reunite with their estranged father, the charismatic Gustav, a once-renowned director who offers stage actress Nora a role in what he hopes will be his comeback film. When Nora turns it down, she soon discovers he has given her part to an eager young Hollywood star.



Chinese Puzzle
6.571

Xavier is a 40-year-old father of two who still finds life very complicated. When the mother of his children moves to New York, he can't bear them growing up far away from him and so he decides to move there as well.



Disobedience
6.882

New York photographer Ronit flies to London after learning about the death of her estranged father. Ronit is returning to the same Orthodox Jewish community that shunned her decades earlier for her childhood attraction to Esti, a female friend. Their fortuitous and happy reunion soon reignites their burning passion as the two women explore the boundaries of faith and sexuality.



Oki's Movie
6.667

Oki, a film student, gets involved in two relationships as she navigates the advances of a fellow student and grapples with her feelings for her much older professor.



Love at First Sight
7.199

Hadley and Oliver begin falling in love on a flight from New York to London, but when they lose each other at customs, can they defy all odds to reunite?



Love Affair
5.4

Ex-football star Mike Gambril meets Terry McKay on a flight to Sydney, which is forced to land on a small atoll. They become romantic on board a ship sent to take them to a larger island. They agree to meet in New York three months later to see if the attraction is real. One shows up but the other doesn't. However, a chance meeting brings them together again.



Life Itself
7.198

As a young New York couple goes from college romance to marriage and the birth of their first child, the unexpected twists of their journey create reverberations that echo over continents and through lifetimes.



Chinese Take-Away
7.2

A comedy that chronicles a chance encounter between Robert and a Chinese named Jun who wanders lost through the city of Buenos Aires in search of his uncle after being assaulted by a taxi driver and his henchmen.



Cruise
Cruise(2018)
5.8

Set in the 1980s, a young Italian-American from the wrong side of the tracks falls for a Jewish girl from Long Island.



Café Lumière
6.7

In a distinctly contemporary Tokyo that looks backwards to the city’s disappearing past, Yoko is a writer investigating the life of a modernist composer of the 1930s. She is pregnant by a man she does not want to marry and has found a kindred spirit in a used bookstore owner who aids her research.



JJ+E
JJ+E(2021)
5.799

Elisabeth and John John are raised in the same city, yet they live light years apart, separated economically, socially and culturally. That is until the day they start in the same high school class.



Sister
Sister(2018)
7.3

A man remembers his childhood memory of growing up with an annoying little sister in 1990s China. How would his life have been if things had gone differently?



Our Futures
6.207

Yann who is trying, albeit unsuccessfully, to cope with his life generally and especially bereavement decides to look up Thomas, his best friend from high school. Thomas is thee same crazy character as he ever was and between them they cook up a plan to rearrange Yann's birthday party from their high school days and get all their old friends to come along. This means locating their friends and a journey to visit and convince some of them to join in their plan. How their friends have changed, their lives and the revelations provide plenty of humour. But why is his friend Thomas just the same as he ever was ?



Tune in for Love
7.777

During the 1990s, hardworking Mi-soo and optimistic Hyun-woo meet at a bakery and fall in love while exchanging stories on a radio station, but while their paths keep crossing, the timing never seems to work out.



New York
New York(2009)
6.2

New York is a contemporary story of friendship set against the larger than life backdrop of a city often described as the centre of the world. Omar has gone abroad for the first time in his life and soon enough he begins to see and love America through the eyes of his American friends - Sam and Maya. It is the story of these three friends discovering a new world together.



If Only
If Only(2004)
7.013

After his impetuous musician girlfriend, Samantha, dies in an accident shortly after they had a fight (and nearly broke up), Ian Wyndham, a grief-stricken British businessman living in London gets a chance to relive the day all over again, in the hope of changing the events that led up to her getting killed.



Kelly & Cal
6.2

Punk-rocker turned suburban mom, Kelly, is nostalgic for a life she can no longer have and uncertain of a future she doesn’t yet fit in. Seventeen-year-old Cal is frustrated at his lack of control over the hand he's been dealt. When the two strike up an unlikely friendship, it's the perfect spark needed to thrust them both back to life.



Samaritan Girl
7

Jae-Young is an amateur prostitute who sleeps with men while her best friend Yeo-Jin "manages" her, fixing dates, taking care of the money, and making sure the coast is clear. When Jae-Young falls in love with one of those men, she suppresses her feelings towards him in respect of her friend who's jealous.



Serendipity
7

Although strangers Sara and Jonathan are both already in relationships, they realize they have genuine chemistry after a chance encounter – but part company soon after. Years later, they each yearn to reunite, despite being destined for the altar. But to give true love a chance, they have to find one another again.



Love Life
Love Life(2022)
7.2

Taeko and her husband, Jirō, are living a peaceful existence with her young son, Keita, when a tragic accident brings the boy's long-lost father, Park, back into her life. To cope with the pain and guilt, Taeko throws herself into helping this deaf and homeless man.



Ocean Waves
6.4

At Kichijōji Station, Tokyo, Taku Morisaki glimpses a familiar woman on the platform opposite boarding a train. Later, her photo falls from a shelf as he exits his apartment before flying to Kōchi Prefecture. Picking it up, he looks at it briefly before leaving. As the aeroplane takes off, he narrates the events that brought her into his life...



Father and Daughter

A father says goodbye to his young daughter. In time the daughter grows old, but within her there is always a deep longing for her father.



Love Reset
7.3

A married couple who received a divorce settlement lose their memories in an accident. With amnesia, they fall in love again, so their families try to restore their memories to finalize the divorce.



Amanda
Amanda(2022)
6.43

Amanda, 24, lives mostly isolated and has never had any friends, even if it's the thing she wants the most. Amanda chooses her new mission as to convince her childhood friend to believe that they are still best friends.



Elena
Elena(2013)
7.279

Petra heads to New York in search of her older sister after a long time of being separated. They are both movie actresses and heirs of the wounds of the Brazilian dictatorship. But Petra has only a few clues: home movies, newspaper clippings, a diary...



The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love

An adventurous love story between two young women of different social and economic backgrounds who find themselves going through all the typical struggles of a new romance.



Tales of an Immoral Couple

Lucio and Martina used to share an indescribable chemistry during their highschool years, however, they took separate ways. 25 years later they meet again, but this time they decide to invent an ideal life in order to hide themselves from an inevitable truth: they were really waiting for each other in all of these years.



GO
GO(2001)
7.4

Sugihara, a Japanese-born, third-generation Korean teenager struggles to find a place in a society that will not accept him.



Copenhagen
6.562

After weeks of traveling through Europe, the immature William finds himself in Copenhagen, the place of his father’s birth. He befriends the youthful Effy, who works in William’s hotel as part of an internship program, and they set off to find William’s last living relative. Effy’s mix of youthful exuberance and wisdom challenges William unlike any woman ever has. As the attraction builds, he must come to grips with destabilizing elements of his family’s sordid past.



Weekend
Weekend(2011)
7.275

After a drunken house party with his straight mates, Russell heads out to a gay club. Just before closing time he picks up Glen but what's expected to be just a one-night stand becomes something else, something special.



Shortcomings
6

When his girlfriend leaves for New York City on a 3-month-long internship, a strongly opinionated Berkeley arthouse movie theater manager begins exploring life as a bachelor.



Missing You
7.25

A girl who lost her father to a serial killer, a detective and a killer are intertwined in a chaotic relationship and are met with an unprecedented series of events.



Cinema Paradiso
8.4

A filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village's theater and formed a deep friendship with the theater's projectionist.



Between Us
6.3

A group of literature-loving friends bury letters to be opened 10 years later when they will confront the dreams of their youth with what the future has held in store for them.

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