Are you in the mood for love? Check out our list of favourite romantic movies for a cozy date night at home.
As social distancing lockdown measures are still in place for the foreseeable future, and the best cinemas in Hong Kong are temporarily closed, it’s a good time to take some time to spend the night in, indulge in some pillowtalk, and Netflix and chill. Looking for something to set the mood? Check out some of our favourite love stories and romantic movies.
Netflix and chill with these romantic movies
1. Theory of Everything
This biographical drama explores the life of the late Stephen Hawking and how he met and eventually fell for his wife, Jane Hawking. Based on true events, it shows how Hawking eventually became one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists in history and how his motor neurone disease affected his relationships all around him, especially his marriage.
Currently available on Netflix
2. The Holiday
When two different women from LA and London encounter obstacles in their love lives, they decide to engage in a home exchange with each other over the Christmas holidays. The story follows both women and how they end up meeting, and falling in love, with two local men in their exchanged towns.
Currently available on Netflix
3. Your Name Engraved Herein
This coming-of-age love story between Jia-han and Birdy is set in 1987 at the end of martial law in Taiwan. This romantic movie is the highest-grossing LGBT film in Taiwan’s history, nominated for five Golden Horse Awards in 2020—winning Best Cinematography and Best Original Film Song. The touching telephone call scene where Jia-han plays a love song he wrote for Birdy is sure to turn on the waterworks, so make sure you have your hanky handy.
Currently available on Netflix
4. Cold Mountain
Wounded Confederate soldier WP Inman overcomes obstacles to return home and be reunited with his love, Ada Monroe, who promised to wait for him when he left to fight in the American Civil War. A star-studded period drama—Nicole Kidman played Ada Monroe and Renée Zellweger won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Ada’s friend Ruby Thewes—the movie was based on the 1997 novel of the same name by Charles Frazier.
Currently available on Netflix
5. About Last Night
The movie follows a couple, Bernie and Joan, who introduce their respective friends Danny and Debbie on a double date. Danny and Debbie continue to form a conventional, traditional relationship while Bernie and Joan are antagonistic towards each other. As the film progresses, the couples’ attitudes eventually swap with one another.
Currently available on Netflix
6. Brokeback Mountain
Adapted from a short story by Annie Proulx, two sheepherders in 1963 Wyoming become involved in an increasingly passionate affair, but hiding the relationship from their wives over the years proves agonising. Taiwanese director Ang Lee won an Oscar for Best Director for the film in 2005, which broke boundaries with its portrayal of a heartfelt same-sex relationship.
Currently available on Netflix
7. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Another award-winning film from director Ang Lee, the movie is most famous for its wuxia martial arts fight scenes. But the plot hangs on the unfulfilled love between Li Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien, as well as the forbidden romance between Yu Jialong and the desert bandit Lo.
Currently available on Netflix
8. 10 Things I Hate About You
A modernisation of William Shakespeare’s late-16th-century comedy, The Taming of the Shrew, this 1999 romantic comedy is a classic. Newly transferred student Cameron develops a crush on Bianca. But Bianca is only allowed to date if her ill-tempered, social outcast sister, Kat, also dates. So, Cameron enlists the help of bad boy Patrick, to date Kat. In one scene of the film, Kat explains all the reasons she ‘hates’ Patrick, which warranted the name of the film.
Currently available on Disney+
9. Memoirs of a Geisha
The movie follows the adventures of Chiyo, who is sold to a geisha house as a child, and then grows up to have a successful geisha career as Sayuri before the outbreak of World War II. Sayuri’s love for the Chairman, one of her patrons, is thwarted again and again. But, despite the obstacles, she never gives up on her feelings.
Currently available on Netflix
10. The Bridges of Madison County
Set in 1965, Italian war bride Francesca Johnson has a passionate four-day affair with a visiting photojournalist, Robert Kincaid, while her husband and teenage children are away for the weekend at the Iowa state fair. Francesca keeps the affair a secret for the rest of her life, only to be discovered by her children after her death as she has requested that her ashes be scattered from Roseman Covered Bridge where she originally met and fell in love with the photographer.
Currently available on Netflix
11. Secret
This tale of time-travelling lovers won Outstanding Taiwanese Film of the Year at the 2007 Golden House Awards, and was directed by the popular Taiwanese musician Jay Chou. Initially, this romantic movie seems like a conventional boy-meets-girl romance, but there is more to the haunting piano melody than you might expect.
Currently available on Netflix
12. Pride & Prejudice
What list of romantic movies would be complete without Jane Austen’s classic? The gold standard will always be the BBC television series from 1995 with Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy (swoon). But if you can’t make the time commitment to watching the six 55-minute episodes, the 2005 movie is an acceptable substitute. Not to mention that we’re big fans of Keira Knightley’s tomboy-ish portrayal of Elizabeth Bennet.
Currently available on Netflix
13. The Half of It
Loosely based on Cyrano de Bergerac, Ellie Chu, Paul Munsky, and Aster Flores are in a high-school love triangle. Paul has a crush on Aster, but doesn’t have the words to tell her, so he hires Ellie to write Aster love letters on his behalf. In the process, Paul and Ellie strike up a friendship, but Ellie also becomes infatuated with Aster. Predictable, but endearing, hijinks ensue.
Currently available on Netflix
14. The Dance of the Forty One
This historical drama is based on real events from a society scandal in 1901 in Mexico, which was a pivotal moment in Mexican LGBTQ+ history. The movie follows the queer romance between Ignacio de la Torre—the son-in-law of the Mexican president Mexican president Porfirio Díaz—and Evaristo Rivas, who are caught up in an illegal police raid at a secret drag ball.
Currently available on Netflix
15. The Notebook
The romantic movie that launched a thousand Ryan Gosling memes will still make you sob, even if you’ve already seen it many times before. From forbidden young love, to the heartbreak of loving a spouse with dementia, the love story of Noah Calhoun and Allie Hamilton is one for the ages.
Currently available on Now Player
