Movies about love are the best way to get in touch with your romantic side. Even if you watch a lot of romance movies and have seen every love story cliché on screen, there will always be rom-coms and romantic dramas that give you butterflies, no matter how cheesy they are.
This is something that, from our perspective, rings especially true in Korean romance movies. Romantic Korean dramas and romantic comedies have an allure that defies description and one we simply cannot resist. The stories themselves are responsible for some of this, but the natural beauty of South Korea is almost always what gets to us.
And let’s not overlook all of the eligible bachelors, shall we? If you’re looking for a cute feel-good movie or a heavy drama that will make you cry your eyes out, you should watch some of the best Korean romantic movies ever made. Even the most cynical person will fall in love with true love again after watching these romantic Korean movies, trust.
10. Cheese in the Trap (2018)
Based on the Korean webtoon with the same name, the romantic drama film Cheese in the Trap (Korean: ) was released in South Korea in 2018 and stars Park Hae-jin, Oh Yeon-Seo, and Park Ki-Woong. The film was dubbed in Korean. It was made available to the public on March 14th, 2018.
The character Hong Seol, played by Oh Yeon-Seo, is a typical college student. She is keeping herself busy by working part-time jobs to save money for her tuition and other costs. Yoo Jung is a senior at the same university as she is and is played by Park Hae-Jin.
He seems perfect. Hong Seol does not feel at ease around Yoo Jung even though he hails from an affluent family, and he is kind, and that he is gorgeous. Yoo Jung suddenly appears and begins to speak to her. He expresses interest in going on a date, which leads to the beginning of an uneasy relationship between them.
9. The Beauty Inside (2015)
The Beauty Inside is a 2015 South Korean romantic comedy film based on the 2012 American social film of the same name. It stars Han Hyo Joo and is about a man who wakes up every day in a different body. After years of directing commercials, Baik is making his first feature film.
On his 18th birthday, Woo-jin wakes up with a face and body that don’t belong to him. He is very confused and shocked. He tells his mother about how he looks now, and she is also shocked but accepts him as he is with tears in her eyes.
Woo-jin can deal with his strange condition with the help of his mother (Mun Suk) and his best friend (Song-beck). Since that day, Woo-jin, who is now a furniture designer, wakes up in a different body every day, no matter what age, gender, or country it is. He can be a man, a woman, an old person, a young person, or even a foreigner.
Depending on who he is that day, he can even speak different languages. On the inside, he’s the same person, but on the outside, he’s always a different person. Every morning, he has to get used to seeing a different face in the mirror.
8. On Your Wedding Day (2018)
On Your Wedding Day[3] Neoui Gyeolhonsik (Korean: RR: Neoui Gyeolhonsik; lit. Your Wedding) is a 2018 South Korean romantic comedy film that shows the love and friendship between two people over ten years, from when they were teenagers to when they were adults.
Lee Seok-Geun wrote and directed it, and Park Bo-young and Kim Young-Kwang are in it. On August 22, 2018, the movie came out. A man gets an invitation to her wedding from his high school sweetheart. He remembers all the trouble he went through to get together with her over the years, starting when he was young, and how their life together was full of ups and downs.
He finally goes to her wedding, where he thanks her for being the bright spot in his life, and she thanks him for being there for her when she needed help. He leaves her wedding party after that.
7. The Handmaiden (2016)
The Handmaiden (Korean: RR: Agassi; lit. “Lady”) is a South Korean erotic psychological thriller movie from 2016 that stars Kim Min-hee, Kim Tae-Ri, Ha Jung-woo, and Cho Jin-Woong. It was directed by Park Chan-wook. It is based on Sarah Waters’s novel Fingersmith from 2002, but instead of being set in Victorian-era Britain, it is set in Korea when it was a Japanese colony.
The film was chosen to compete for the Palme d’Or at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. It came out in South Korea on June 1, 2016, to great reviews. It made more than $38 million all over the world. The film won the award for Best Film Not in the English Language at the 71st British Academy Film Awards.
In Japanese-controlled Korea, a con man who calls himself “Count Fujiwara” wants to get close to a Japanese heiress named Lady Hideko, marry her, and put her in an asylum so he can steal her inheritance. He hires Sook-hee, a pickpocket, to be Hideko’s maid and tries to get her to marry him.
6. Be With You (2018)
Be with You (Korean: RR: Jigeum Mannareo Gamnida) is a romance movie from South Korea that came out in 2018. It stars So Ji-sub and Son Ye-jin, and it was directed by Lee Jang-hoon. The movie is a remake of a Japanese movie with the same name that came out in 2004. That movie was based on a book by Takuji Ichikawa.
Before she died, Soo-ah (Son Ye-jin) made a crazy promise to her husband Woo-jin (So Ji-sub) that she would come back a year later at the start of the rainy season. She somehow keeps her promise and comes back to her husband and son, but she doesn’t remember anything.
The relief they feel when they see each other again is short-lived, though, because Soo-ah has to leave her family at the end of the wet season.
Tune in for Love (Korean: RR: Yooyeolui Eumakaelbum; lit. Yoo Yeol’s Music Album) is a 2019 South Korean romance movie directed by Jung Ji-woo and starring Kim Go-Eun and Jung Hae-in.
The story takes place in the 1990s and is about the 1997 IMF Crisis. Mi-soo, who works part-time at a bakery and is very hardworking, tells Hyun-woo stories through a radio show. Both of them fall in love, and they keep running into each other, but the timing isn’t good for them.
In 1994, Hyun-woo goes to the bakery where Mi-soo works before it opens and asks if they sell anything with soy in it. Mi-soo suggests soy milk, but when she sees that they don’t have any, she tells him to go to the store down the street.
Hyun-woo is leaving, and Mi-soo and another employee, Eun-Ja, a close friend of Mi-soo’s, watch him go. They think he just got out of jail. Hyun-woo comes back later and wants to work part-time at the bakery. He gets the job and starts working with Mi-soo.
Hyun-woo, Mi-soo, and Eun-Ja hang out a lot and get to know each other well. Hyun-woo and Mi-soo put up a Christmas tree in front of the bakery during the winter. Mi-soo tells him that her mother always wanted everyone in the community to be happy, and the two of them have a touching moment outside.
4. Double Patty (2021)
Baek Seung-hwan is directing the South Korean drama film Double Patty, which will be released in 2021. Shin Seung-ho and Bae Joo-Hyun are two of the film’s stars.
Kang Woo Ram (Shin Seung-ho), is a gourmand and an aspiring athlete who is now occupied with getting ready to look for work. Lee Hyun Ji (Bae Ju-Hyun) wants to be a news anchor but instead works at a restaurant that serves handmade hamburgers.
When Woo Ram goes to the restaurant, he orders a double patty hamburger since there is a promotion going on where you can get one for free if you buy one. This is the beginning of their romance.
3. The Princess and the Matchmaker (2018)
Hong Chang-Pyo is the director of the South Korean historical romantic comedy-drama film The Princess and the Matchmaker (2018), which was released in 2018. The film stars Shim Eun-kyung, Lee Seung-gi, Kim Sang-kyung, Yeon Woo-jin, Kang Min-hyuk, Choi Woo-shik and Jo Bok-rae.
The movie relates the story of a saju[6] specialist named Seo Do-Yoon who was tasked by the King to assist him in selecting a suitable spouse for his daughter, Princess Song-Hwa, based on their financial standing.
It is the second part of a three-part film project about the Korean traditions of fortune-telling that is being produced by Jupiter Film. The first part, The Face Reader, was released in 2013, and the third part, Feng Shui, will be released later in 2018.
2. Sweet & Sour (2021)
Sweet & Sour (; RR: Saekom-Dalkom) is a South Korean romantic comedy movie coming out in 2021. It is based on Kurumi Inui’s novel Initiation Love. The movie, which stars Jang Ki-Yong, Chae Soo-bin, and Krystal Jung, is about a couple that grows apart. It was directed by Lee Gye-byeok. On June 4, 2021, it came out on Netflix.
Hepatitis B has put Hyuk in the hospital. Nurse Da-eun (Chae Soo-bin) takes care of him even though the other patients and even his parents try to stay away from him. Hyuk and Da-eun get closer as time goes on, and the tired Da-eun even eats and sleeps on Hyuk’s hospital bed.
A few days before Hyuk would get out of the hospital, Da-eun seems far away. Hyuk goes home, feeling sad. But he can’t get Da-eun out of his mind, so he finds her phone number and calls her. She finally invites him to stay the night at her house, and he does. When Da-eun wakes up in the morning, she finds that Hyuk has fixed the broken lamp in her hallway and made them breakfast.
Touched by the acts of kindness, they kiss briefly.
1. Love and Leashes (2022)
Love and Leashes is a romantic comedy film that will be released in South Korea in 2022. It is based on the webtoon Moral Sense, which was created by Gyeoul. The movie, which was directed by Park Hyun-jin and starred Lee Jun-young, Seohyun, and Seo Hyun-woo, depicts a romance between Ji-hoo, who has everything perfect but secretly desires BDSM, and Ji-woo, a competent public relations team member who finds out about his secret.
Lee Jun-young plays Ji-hoo, and Seohyun and Seo Hyun-woo play Ji-woo. On February 11, 2022, to coincide with Valentine’s Day, it was made available for streaming on Netflix.
Final Words
This is especially true, in our humble opinion, in Korean romantic movies. Romantic K-dramas and Korean rom-coms have an indescribable charm that we just can’t resist. Part of this comes from the stories, but the beauty of South Korea in the background always gets us. And let’s not forget all the good-looking oppas.