Romantic Thai movies that go the distance for love
If you’ve been looking to explore Thai cinema and your favourite film genre happens to be romance, you’re in luck.
Here is a list of romantic Thai movies available on Netflix that’ll get you all caught up on essentials of the genre through recent years.
P.S. Use this extension to watch these movies in-sync on Netflix, no matter how far apart you and your partner are.
Read our other top picks for romance movies here:
https://thesmartlocal.com/thailand/thai-romantic-movies/
1. Back to the ‘90s (2538 Alter Ma Jib), 2015
Personal score: 4/5
Themes: Unrequited love, platonic love, familial love
Genre: Comedy, Romance
What’s it about?
Image credit: Major Cineplex
A teenager accidentally travels back to the ‘90s and tries to fix his parents’ future. He runs into the source of his parents’ unhappy marriage: a woman who had a crush on his father.
Why should you see this film?
Aside from the bonus of nostalgia-tripping the older audience with 1990s memorabilia, the message of living in the moment and not looking back in sadness can apply to both the young and the old.
While this technically is a teen romance film, it is more about the adults who grew up and stopped daydreaming. It’s a reminder that everyone used to be young and dreamed big, but now we dream for others.
Watch it on Netflix here.
2. Dew (Dew Pai Duay Kan Na),2019
Personal score: 4.5/5
Themes: LGBT, Social norms, forbidden love
Genre: Drama, Romance
What’s it about?
Image credit: The Movie Database
A teacher goes back to work at his old school and starts remembering a past love through a student he takes under his wing.
Why should you see this film?
This film shares its plot with Kim Dae-seung’s Bungee Jumping of Their Own (2001), but that doesn’t make it any less of a great movie.
The film hits all the notes of an LGBT romance film and its hardships and gives us a glimpse of a time before same-sex love became more widely accepted in Thai society.
You can watch it on Netflix here.
3. Sunset at Chaophraya (Khu Kam), 2013
Personal score: 3/5
Themes: National conflict, social norms
Genre: Drama, Romance, War
What’s it about?
Image credit: Sanook
Set during the Second World War, Khu Kam is about a love triangle between an Imperial Japanese Navy officer named Kobori and a Thai woman named Angsumalin, whose father is part of the resistance, and her lover who returns from abroad.
Why should you see this film?
Based on a novel by Thommayanti, the film is a sort of Thai equivalent to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and similarly, there’s been remake after remake. It’s considered a classic novel about doomed love in the midst of war.
The 1988 version is arguably the best adaptation, being the book author’s favorite version. You can find the latter on Amazon.
Note: Thommayanti is the pen name of prolific Thai author Khun Ying (Lady) Wimon Chiamcharoen. Two of her works, Thawiphop and Khu Kam, have been adapted numerous times on film and television.
Watch it on Netflix here.
4. Best of Times (Khwam Cham San Tae Rak Chan Yao), 2019
Personal score: 3.5/5
Themes: Long-distance, elderly love, unrequited love
Genre: Romance, Drama
What’s it about?
Image credit: The Movie Database
Veterinarian Keng has had a crush on his best friend Ohm’s girlfriend, Fai, ever since they were in high school. Now that Ohm is divorced from her, he feels that he may finally have his chance.
Meanwhile, elderly couple Jamras and Somphit try to keep their love strong despite travel distance. Jamras does not know Somphit’s family plans to move to the U.S. and that she will have to leave him soon.
Why should you watch this film?
This film was included in one of our previous articles but is worth a second mention here. Think of all the times we had a crush on someone but never had dared to tell them. It’s easier said than done to forget about unrequited love especially when the other never knew. So many romance movies focus on young love and changes that come with coming of age.
This film talks about rediscovered relationships that never went away and how we cope with them. No matter how long time passes, love never fades away.
Watch it on Netflix here.
Check out Best of Times and other great Thai movies here:
https://thesmartlocal.com/thailand/netflix-thai-movies/
5. Happy Old Year (How to Ting), 2019
Personal score: 4.5/5
Themes: Past love, reconciliation, moving on
Genre: Drama, Romance
What’s it about?
Image credit: My Drama List
Jean returns from studying abroad as an architect and decides her house needs to be decluttered, throwing out anything that doesn’t “spark” with her. That is, until she comes across her ex-boyfriend’s belongings and starts reminiscing, deciding to return his belongings to him.
Why should you see this film?
Heartbreaks are the worst feelings in any relationship that most of us have to go through. It’s never easy to look back and try to fix the past with the snap of a finger.
We have to decide if we should move on with guilt or make amends with the past whatever the consequences. If you love someone, you have to learn to let go.
Watch it on Netflix here.
6. Inhuman Kiss (Sang Krasue), 2019
Personal score: 2/5
Themes: Supernatural, unconditional love
Genre: Horror, Romance
What’s it about?
Image credit: Internet Movie Database
Childhood friends Noi and Jerd are in love with Sai, who is possessed by a krasue* spirit. Meanwhile, a group of krasue hunters makes their way into the village for their next hunting grounds.
*A krasue is a type of spirit said to possess women through saliva. At night, the possessed woman disembodies her head and internal organs to go out and prey on local livestock for flesh.
Why should you see this film?
No one said a horror film couldn’t be a romance film. In the same vein as the classic Mae Nak Phra Khanong, this tale of a krasue caught in a love triangle is one full of sorrow. But just like Mae Nak, we learn that the supernatural can never separate love between two people.
You can watch it on Netflix here.
7. Hello Stranger (Kuan Meun Ho), 2010
Personal score: 4/5
Themes: Emotional distancing, platonic love
Genre: Romance, Comedy
What’s it about?
Image credit: Sanook
Two strangers spend time in Seoul together on the condition that neither of them knows the other’s name to avoid feelings.
Why should you see this film?
This film is an unabashed travel catalogue of Seoul, but at the heart of it, asks viewers if it’s really possible to not care for another person if you don’t know the first thing about them. Sometimes, the ones who understand us the most are total strangers.
Watch it on Netflix here and on iTunes here.
8. Me…Myself (Khaw Hai Rak Jong Jaroen), 2007
Personal score: 3.5/5
Themes: LGBT, social norms, identity crisis
Genre: Drama
What’s it about?
Image credit: AsianWiki
Months have passed, and Oom is still not over her breakup. One night, she accidentally hits a man with her car and finds out he has amnesia. The man, Tan, decides to stay with her while he tries to recover his memories, only to start developing feelings for her.
Why should you watch this film?
This film asks us if two people from very different backgrounds can love each other at the risk of being judged by others.
If we can shed our identities today and start anew, sometimes the memories we make in the present matter more than the ones we think back on.
You can watch it on YouTube here.
*Honorary mention*
9. Tears of the Black Tiger (Fah Thalai Chon), 2000
Personal score: 4/5
Themes: Social differences
Genre: Action, Romance, Melodrama
What’s it about?
Image credit: Thairath
A farmer’s son, Dum, is in love with the provincial governor’s daughter, Rampoey, since childhood, but fate seems to have other plans for both of them.
Dum joins a bandit posse while Rampoey’s father arranges for her to be married to a police captain, Kumjorn, who is fighting against the bandits.
Why should you watch this film?
While not technically a full-on romance film, the plot revolves around forbidden love between two people from different social classes whose circumstances always pit against their love for each other.
This love letter to the days of Mitr Chaibancha and Petchara Chaowarat crisscrosses between over-the-top action and melodramatic romance.
Chaibancha and Chaowarat were the Thai equivalent of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor or Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (Brangelina), appearing in countless, possibly hundreds of films together.
You can watch it on Amazon (Prime) here.
Romantic Thai movies to catch
Love doesn’t limit to just romantic relationships but also includes caring for those we grew to love, including family and friends.
The key to staying together is keeping in touch and spending time together whenever and however you can – which could be through movie-watching sessions!
For more Netflix goodies, also read:
- 8 New Thai Movies You Can Watch On Netflix To Kill Time During Self-Isolation
- 8 Legendary Romantic Thai Films That Will Make You Cry For 10 Years
- 8 Best Thai Movies On Netflix To Binge Watch Over The Weekend As Rated By Locals
- ‘Netflix Party’ Chrome Extension Lets Friends Watch Movies In Sync While Everyone’s Stuck At Home
- Netflix Will Be Streaming 21 Studio Ghibli Movies For Us To Prep Our Tissues For
- The Stranded Is Netflix’s First Thai Original Series For Thriller Fans To Binge On
Cover image adapted from: AsianWiki, Internet Movie Database, and My Drama List