In Another Lifetime

The ending scene of La La Land directed by Damien Chazelle has become ingrained in the minds of many hopeless romantics and film lovers alike. Mia and Sebastian lock eyes in Sebastian’s jazz club years after their relationship ended, while Sebastian plays the widely beloved “Mia and Sebastian’s Theme.” The audience tearfully realizes that Mia and Sebastian were brought into each other’s lives to help each other achieve what they wanted to in their careers, but as a consequence, they could not and were not meant to be together forever. Instead of being a classic romantic musical with a happy ending, La La Land portrays the story of a relationship that is all too relatable for the “fools” who are striving to achieve their wildest dreams.

La La Land, though undeniably the most popular movie with this theme, was not the first to touch on the trope of “soulmates who weren’t meant to be.” A film that I feel walked so La La Land could run is Once, directed by John Carney, which was later turned into a Broadway musical. Once follows an unnamed character, referred to in the credits as “Guy,” who meets a girl while playing his guitar on Grafton Street, Dublin. They begin to talk about his songs, and later, Girl reveals that she is also a musician. The two start playing the piano together at a music store after Guy starts playing a song that he had composed called “Falling Slowly.” This song is Once’s equivalent of “Mia and Sebastian’s Theme,” as it is an extremely bittersweet-sounding song that lingers in the audience’s mind as a nostalgic reminder of their short-lived relationship and what could have been. The plot of Once is short and simple, yet still powerful, as Guy and Girl clearly begin to develop a connection and romantic feelings for each other during their time spent writing and playing music, but eventually go back to their original partners. The last scene of the film is of Girl playing the piano that Guy gave her in her and her husband’s apartment while briefly looking out the window as if to show that she still thinks about Guy. Like La La Land, Once is a more realistic love story, as the characters were never actually together, there was just a sense that they would have liked to be if things were different, or in this case if Girll wasn’t married and Guy wasn’t still thinking about his ex.

The latest film that showcases a similar trope is Past Lives, released in the summer of 2023 and directed by Celine Song. The main theme of the film is related to the concept of “in yun,” or how the connections of people in their past lives causes them to be brought together by fate in their current one. Unlike La La Land and Once, the relationship between the two main characters,Na Young and Hae Sung, starts when they go on a “date” set up by their parents as kids. This budding romance is put on hold, however, when Na Young’s family immigrates to Toronto, and she changes her name to Nora Moon. The two lose contact until twelve years later when they find each other on Facebook. Still, they are once again separated due to Nora’s inability to visit Hae Sung and because they both enter relationships. Nora meets a writer, Arthur, at a retreat, whom she eventually ends up marrying, and the two live a happy life together until, one day, Hae Sung decides to visit Nora in New York. So begins the part in the story of Nora and Hae Sung where they ponder what could have been between them if the paths that they had taken in life had been different. Before Hae Sung leaves, he brings up to Nora the idea of their current life being a past one and wonders how their relationship will turn out in the next. He says that he will “see [her] then,” and is off back to his life in Korea. Similar to the girl in Once, there is a part of Nora that is still in love with him, but she knows that she can not leave her husband. All she can do now is hope that she and Hae Sung will be reunited in another lifetime.