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10 Asian Romance Movies That Will Remind You of First Love
Written by YumCha! Editorial Team
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Spring Playlist feature, we've now selected ten romance films that hit you right in the feels with warm memories of pure love.

A Crazy Little Thing Called Love
First love is a process of growth in this effervescent coming-of-age romcom that introduced many fans across Asia to the joys of Thai cinema. Starring Baifern Pimchanok and Mario Maurer, the hit film follows an everyday teenage girl through the rites of her middle and high school years. Her seemingly hopeless crush on a popular upperclassman drives her to improve herself day by day, bit by bit, over time. The relatable heroine's gradual glow-up from an insecure girl into a confident young woman gets you right in the heart, as does her ambiguous relationship with her crush. Nearly ten years after the original film's release, A Crazy Little Thing Called Love was even remade as a Chinese TV drama in 2019.

Architecture 101
Re-encountering your first love may sound like a dream, but it could also be a dilemma if you're about to tie the knot with someone else. An engaged architect (Uhm Tae Woong) receives a house renovation project from his first crush (Han Ga In), whom he met in architecture class in college almost 20 years ago. Working on the project together in Jeju brings back memories of their unforgettable yet unrealized love in the past, with Lee Je Hoon and Bae Suzy playing the young versions of the protagonists in the flashbacks. Korea's 2012 romantic hit not only made Suzy the "nation's first love," but also gave new meaning to the film's music – Kim Dong Ryul's "Etude of Memories" – as a symbol of the couple's love.

The Beauty Inside
Is it possible to fall in love with someone who turns into a different person every single day? Adapted from an award-winning American social film, Baek Jong Yeol's debut feature is about the romance between an ordinary woman and a man who wakes up with a different appearance each day. Han Hyo Ju ventures into a magical love journey with protagonist Woo Jin, who is played by more than 70 actors of different age, gender and nationality, including stars like Yoo Yeon Seok, Lee Bum Soo, Park Seo Joon, Chun Woo Hee, Seo Kang Joon, Lee Dong Wook and Lee Jin Wook. As fantastical and dramatic as it may sound, the film simply reminds us that love is about recognizing The Beauty Inside a person, and being true to the heart. The Beauty Inside was later remade into a romantic comedy series starring Seo Hyun Jin and Lee Min Ki.

Hear Me
Hear Me makes you feel warm and fuzzy in more ways than one. Produced to align with the 2009 Summer Deaflympics in Taipei, Cheng Fen Fen's sports romance drama stars Ivy Chen and Michelle Chen as sisters who only have each other. The former dedicates herself to supporting her older sister's dream of competing in swimming at the Deaflympics. Eddie Peng enters the picture as a happy-go-lucky delivery boy who holds a torch for Ivy Chen. With all three stars still in the fresh-faced idol-drama eras of their careers, Hear Me is fluffy cute as a romance, while also being serious and stirring in its depiction of the sisters' relationship and the challenges faced by those with hearing impairment. The protagonists communicate in sign language for the entire film.

My Little Monster
Pretty much any romantic film starring Tsuchiya Tao is a surefire bet for pure love to the sweetest degree. Add Suda Masaki in peak eccentric mode, and you have a cute and quirky story about two socially inept high school weirdos forming an unlikely bond. One an anti-social studying stickler and the other an impulsive and uncontrollable oddball, the two loners navigate love and friendship for the first time in the typical yet unpredictable Japanese youth romance My Little Monster based on Robico's best-selling manga. Feel free to scroll through director Tsukikawa Sho's filmography for more photogenic romances of both the bubbly and tear-jerking variety.

On Your Wedding Day
My lover is getting married, but I'm not the one saying the vows… The 2018 Korean romance On Your Wedding Day tells the clichéd but charming story of two high school sweethearts over a span of a decade. Park Bo Young and Kim Young Kwang bring out the theme of "right person, wrong time" while crossing paths again and again from high school, to university, to the work force, to finally her wedding. Though the audience knows the results of their relationship from the beginning, it doesn't make the process of how they get there any less poignant. China's remake of the movie, My Love, was released in late April 2021.

One Week Friends
First love is to be experienced over and over again in Murakami Shosuke's live-action adaptation of Hazuki Matcha's One Week Friends. Yamazaki Kento plays high schooler Yuki who falls for loner classmate Kaoru, played by Kawaguchi Haruna. Afflicted with anterograde amnesia, she deliberately keeps her distance from people since she won't remember them after a week. Yuki determinedly decides to keep befriending her every week, 50 First Dates style with diary exchange thrown in. There are plenty of shojo manga adaptations (starring Yamazaki Kento) to choose from, but this 2017 teen romance stands out with its sweet earnestness.

Our Times
Four years after You Are The Apple of My Eye, another nostalgic Taiwan schoolyard romance swept across Asia in 2015. Our Times rewinds back to Vivian Sung's teenage days when she was just an ordinary girl carrying a torch for her high school's Mr. Perfect. But that Mr. Perfect isn't the male lead. Instead, Darren Wang is the notorious delinquent who likes the school's most popular girl. When they learn each other's secret, the two go from a quarrelling pair to true friends, and something a bit more. Set in the mid-90s, Our Times resonates with a fun love story filled with throwback fashion and music, not to mention Hebe Tien's resoundingly successful theme song "A Little Happiness"!

Whisper of the Heart
Nothing stirs the heart like a Ghibli film. Realistically subtle yet magically enthralling, the Japanese animated classic Whisper of the Heart is a coming-of-age romance about an adolescent girl's budding emotions and imagination. Even back in 1995 when it was released, the gentle drama appealed to our inner romantic with not just its story of puppy love but also the protagonists' love for reading, creative writing and violin-making. Now, the film feels especially pure and nostalgic, recalling a simpler time and place when hidden antique shops unveiled fanciful adventures and library borrowing cards listed the names of previous borrowers who just might be your soulmate-to-be.

You Are the Apple of My Eye
Even after a decade, our hearts still skip a beat whenever Hu Xia's "Those Bygone Years" is played. Though Giddens Ko's sensational hit is officially titled You Are The Apple of My Eye in English, the Chinese title "The Girl We Chased After Together in Those Years" more accurately captures the youthful and sentimental story. Michelle Chen and Kai Ko (in his debut) portray a well-loved top student and a mischievous boy with bad grades who grow fond of each other, but naturally part ways due to misunderstandings. With a relationship that makes hearts flutter and ache to the max, You Are The Apple of My Eye breaks down love, regrets and growing up in a genuinely moving way. You Are The Apple of My Eye is the ultimate movie about first love… and the one that got away.
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Published May 20, 2021
Spring is the season of love, and there's no love more memorable than first love. Following last month's 
A Crazy Little Thing Called Love
First love is a process of growth in this effervescent coming-of-age romcom that introduced many fans across Asia to the joys of Thai cinema. Starring Baifern Pimchanok and Mario Maurer, the hit film follows an everyday teenage girl through the rites of her middle and high school years. Her seemingly hopeless crush on a popular upperclassman drives her to improve herself day by day, bit by bit, over time. The relatable heroine's gradual glow-up from an insecure girl into a confident young woman gets you right in the heart, as does her ambiguous relationship with her crush. Nearly ten years after the original film's release, A Crazy Little Thing Called Love was even remade as a Chinese TV drama in 2019.

Architecture 101
Re-encountering your first love may sound like a dream, but it could also be a dilemma if you're about to tie the knot with someone else. An engaged architect (Uhm Tae Woong) receives a house renovation project from his first crush (Han Ga In), whom he met in architecture class in college almost 20 years ago. Working on the project together in Jeju brings back memories of their unforgettable yet unrealized love in the past, with Lee Je Hoon and Bae Suzy playing the young versions of the protagonists in the flashbacks. Korea's 2012 romantic hit not only made Suzy the "nation's first love," but also gave new meaning to the film's music – Kim Dong Ryul's "Etude of Memories" – as a symbol of the couple's love.

The Beauty Inside
Is it possible to fall in love with someone who turns into a different person every single day? Adapted from an award-winning American social film, Baek Jong Yeol's debut feature is about the romance between an ordinary woman and a man who wakes up with a different appearance each day. Han Hyo Ju ventures into a magical love journey with protagonist Woo Jin, who is played by more than 70 actors of different age, gender and nationality, including stars like Yoo Yeon Seok, Lee Bum Soo, Park Seo Joon, Chun Woo Hee, Seo Kang Joon, Lee Dong Wook and Lee Jin Wook. As fantastical and dramatic as it may sound, the film simply reminds us that love is about recognizing The Beauty Inside a person, and being true to the heart. The Beauty Inside was later remade into a romantic comedy series starring Seo Hyun Jin and Lee Min Ki.

Hear Me
Hear Me makes you feel warm and fuzzy in more ways than one. Produced to align with the 2009 Summer Deaflympics in Taipei, Cheng Fen Fen's sports romance drama stars Ivy Chen and Michelle Chen as sisters who only have each other. The former dedicates herself to supporting her older sister's dream of competing in swimming at the Deaflympics. Eddie Peng enters the picture as a happy-go-lucky delivery boy who holds a torch for Ivy Chen. With all three stars still in the fresh-faced idol-drama eras of their careers, Hear Me is fluffy cute as a romance, while also being serious and stirring in its depiction of the sisters' relationship and the challenges faced by those with hearing impairment. The protagonists communicate in sign language for the entire film.

My Little Monster
Pretty much any romantic film starring Tsuchiya Tao is a surefire bet for pure love to the sweetest degree. Add Suda Masaki in peak eccentric mode, and you have a cute and quirky story about two socially inept high school weirdos forming an unlikely bond. One an anti-social studying stickler and the other an impulsive and uncontrollable oddball, the two loners navigate love and friendship for the first time in the typical yet unpredictable Japanese youth romance My Little Monster based on Robico's best-selling manga. Feel free to scroll through director Tsukikawa Sho's filmography for more photogenic romances of both the bubbly and tear-jerking variety.

On Your Wedding Day
My lover is getting married, but I'm not the one saying the vows… The 2018 Korean romance On Your Wedding Day tells the clichéd but charming story of two high school sweethearts over a span of a decade. Park Bo Young and Kim Young Kwang bring out the theme of "right person, wrong time" while crossing paths again and again from high school, to university, to the work force, to finally her wedding. Though the audience knows the results of their relationship from the beginning, it doesn't make the process of how they get there any less poignant. China's remake of the movie, My Love, was released in late April 2021.

One Week Friends
First love is to be experienced over and over again in Murakami Shosuke's live-action adaptation of Hazuki Matcha's One Week Friends. Yamazaki Kento plays high schooler Yuki who falls for loner classmate Kaoru, played by Kawaguchi Haruna. Afflicted with anterograde amnesia, she deliberately keeps her distance from people since she won't remember them after a week. Yuki determinedly decides to keep befriending her every week, 50 First Dates style with diary exchange thrown in. There are plenty of shojo manga adaptations (starring Yamazaki Kento) to choose from, but this 2017 teen romance stands out with its sweet earnestness.

Our Times
Four years after You Are The Apple of My Eye, another nostalgic Taiwan schoolyard romance swept across Asia in 2015. Our Times rewinds back to Vivian Sung's teenage days when she was just an ordinary girl carrying a torch for her high school's Mr. Perfect. But that Mr. Perfect isn't the male lead. Instead, Darren Wang is the notorious delinquent who likes the school's most popular girl. When they learn each other's secret, the two go from a quarrelling pair to true friends, and something a bit more. Set in the mid-90s, Our Times resonates with a fun love story filled with throwback fashion and music, not to mention Hebe Tien's resoundingly successful theme song "A Little Happiness"!

Whisper of the Heart
Nothing stirs the heart like a Ghibli film. Realistically subtle yet magically enthralling, the Japanese animated classic Whisper of the Heart is a coming-of-age romance about an adolescent girl's budding emotions and imagination. Even back in 1995 when it was released, the gentle drama appealed to our inner romantic with not just its story of puppy love but also the protagonists' love for reading, creative writing and violin-making. Now, the film feels especially pure and nostalgic, recalling a simpler time and place when hidden antique shops unveiled fanciful adventures and library borrowing cards listed the names of previous borrowers who just might be your soulmate-to-be.

You Are the Apple of My Eye
Even after a decade, our hearts still skip a beat whenever Hu Xia's "Those Bygone Years" is played. Though Giddens Ko's sensational hit is officially titled You Are The Apple of My Eye in English, the Chinese title "The Girl We Chased After Together in Those Years" more accurately captures the youthful and sentimental story. Michelle Chen and Kai Ko (in his debut) portray a well-loved top student and a mischievous boy with bad grades who grow fond of each other, but naturally part ways due to misunderstandings. With a relationship that makes hearts flutter and ache to the max, You Are The Apple of My Eye breaks down love, regrets and growing up in a genuinely moving way. You Are The Apple of My Eye is the ultimate movie about first love… and the one that got away.
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Published May 20, 2021
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