MOVIEPIQ CURATED LIST
Romance Movies With the Family With a Shocking Twist Ending
ROMANCE · WITH THE FAMILYFilms that work for everyone in the room are the hardest kind to find. The right film can shift everything. This list was put together for that specific occasion.
Romance films that actually work are rarer than the genre's reputation suggests. Every film here was chosen with that standard in mind.
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A Brighter Summer Day
A boy experiences first love, friendships and injustices growing up in 1960s Taiwan.
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City Lights
A tramp falls in love with a beautiful blind flower girl. His on-and-off friendship with a wealthy man allows him to be the girl's benefactor and suitor.
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Clouds
Young musician Zach Sobiech discovers his cancer has spread, leaving him just a few months to live. With limited time, he follows his dream and makes an album, unaware that it will soon be a viral mus...
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Given
Haruki secretly had feelings for Akihiko for years, but Akihiko was still in a relationship with his roommate, the violinist Ugetsu Murata. Haruki, Akihiko, and Ugetsu's love clashes and starts to mov...
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Life in a Year
A 17 year old finds out that his girlfriend is dying, so he sets out to give her an entire life, in the last year she has left.
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I Want to Eat Your Pancreas
After his classmate and crush is diagnosed with a pancreatic disease, an average high schooler sets out to make the most of her final days.
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Five Feet Apart
Seventeen-year-old Stella spends most of her time in the hospital as a cystic fibrosis patient. Her life is full of routines, boundaries and self-control — all of which get put to the test when she me...
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The Apartment
Bud Baxter is a minor clerk in a huge New York insurance company, until he discovers a quick way to climb the corporate ladder. He lends out his apartment to the executives as a place to take their mi...
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The Handmaiden
1930s Korea, in the period of Japanese occupation, a new girl, Sook-hee, is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress, Hideko, who lives a secluded life on a large countryside estate with her domine...
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The Art of Racing in the Rain
A family dog – with a near-human soul and a philosopher's mind – evaluates his life through the lessons learned by his human owner, a race-car driver.
A great twist doesn't just surprise. It recontextualises everything that came before it.
The best of these are films worth watching twice: once for the story, once to catch everything you missed. The romance films that last are the ones with something underneath the love story. These have it.