American melancholy: The real loss in “Past Lives” isn’t love

In the Academy Award-nominated film “Past Lives,” the Korean concept of inyeon is used to lead viewers into believing that Nora (Greta Lee) and Hae-sung (Teo Yoo) are destined to be together – if not in this lifetime, then in the future. Or perhaps they were together in a distant past that neither can recall. The introduction of the word leaves moviegoers hoping that these two can have a happily-ever-after ending, despite his living in Seoul, 7,000 miles from her apartment in New York City.