And what is love anyway? Why do so many chase it, fear it, detest it, cherish it? Here’s what your trusted rainbow dealer thinks: no one knows. But we can always explore how others have tried to understand it.
So, in honour of celebrating love, here’s a list of films that explore it in all its messy, tender, chaotic forms.
Kajillionaire (2020)
Is love conditional? Transactional? What happens when the only version of affection you’ve ever known is wrapped in scams and survival? This wonderfully odd little queer film follows a girl raised by grifters who suddenly realizes that love doesn’t have to be rationed like canned beans — it can be soft, abundant, and terrifyingly real. A nuanced exploration of unlearning the preconceptions you grew up with and discovering that love doesn’t have to follow the script you were handed. Perfect if you’ve ever felt like you were learning love in a language no one taught you.
P.S. I Love You (2007)
Be ready to cry. Honestly. How can a movie be this romantic when the main couple has been torn apart by life itself? Here, grief becomes a love letter — literally — as a widow receives messages from her late husband guiding her back to herself with the gentleness he carried in life. It’s messy, cathartic, and proof that love doesn’t disappear; it just changes shape.
While this is a movie about grief, it’s also about love — and how, despite its sometimes ephemeral nature, it still makes every moment worth it.
Kimi no na wa (Your Name.) (2016)
Who doesn’t want a rom-com sprinkled with cosmic weirdness? Relationships rarely happen overnight, and this one certainly doesn’t. Two strangers begin swapping bodies, building a connection through borrowed mornings and mismatched routines until the universe itself starts conspiring to keep them apart (curse you, universe). It’s tender, whimsical, and perfect for anyone who believes love can be both ordinary and mystical at the same time.
Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
Bless her, but my mother would actually kill me if I didn’t include this Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks classic. Is it a tiny bit creepy that a woman hears a man talk about his dead wife on the radio and goes “Yes, he’s the one”? Maybe. But this film is really about longing — the fated, irrational, slightly magical kind — as two strangers orbit each other across the country until the universe finally nudges them together. It’s nostalgia in movie form, and sometimes that’s exactly what love feels like.
WALL·E (2008)
What do you mean WALL·E isn’t a rom-com?! He literally goes to space to rescue the love of his life. In a lonely, trash-covered future, a tiny robot with a big heart falls for a luminous high-tech wanderer who instantly steals his whole circuitry, delivering one of cinema’s most earnest “I would cross galaxies for you” arcs. This 98-minute masterpiece turns love-at-first-sight and opposites-attract into a cosmic little waltz, blending philosophical dystopia with a romance that unfolds in a gorgeously silent film-esque way. Hands down, one of the sweetest romances ever animated — a love story told through beeps and devotion that will absolutely steal your heart.
100 Nights of Hero (2025)
Have you ever heard of The Thousand and One Nights? You know, the story where survival depends on storytelling? Now imagine that, but sapphic and filled with loyalty sharp enough to cut through a patriarchal world. Set in a myth-touched landscape, this live-action adaptation follows two women who use storytelling and devotion to protect each other against a world determined to silence them, turning love and narrative into their greatest weapons.
Love and Monsters (2020)
What’s more romantic than a man in shining armour travelling miles to save his girlfriend? A completely hopeless boy throwing himself to the wolves (and giant amphibians) to attempt to find her — that is, if he doesn’t get eaten first. In a monster-ridden apocalypse, our anxious hero embarks on a perilous trek that becomes less about the girl and more about discovering courage he didn’t know he had. It’s goofy, heartfelt, and proof that love can be the spark that gets you moving, even if the journey changes you.
