Film

Be With You

A Korean fantasy romance about a widower and his son who are impossibly reunited with his wife during the rainy season—except she has no memory of them. Gorgeously shot and emotionally direct, it walks the line between magical realism and domestic grief with genuine tenderness. For anyone who's ever wondered if love could survive the total erasure of the person who felt it.

TMDb rating4.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a slow, tear-soaked romance where the emotion is earned through small domestic details and a father and son holding onto a memory.

Skip it if you find sentimental melodrama hard to sit through, since at 132 minutes it leans hard on tears and lingers on its gentle, sometimes repetitive, pacing.

What it asks of you: Over two hours of unhurried, mostly quiet scenes, with the fantasy premise played sincerely rather than as a puzzle, and it asks for patience more than close attention.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Lake House2006

Two people fall in love across time through letters left in a mailbox. It shares that same bittersweet logic where the heart wants something the universe won't quite allow, and both films trust emotion over explanation.

But The romantic fantasy can feel thin if you're not in the mood for gentle melancholy, and the conceit requires patience with its own rules.

The Lake House poster

About Time2013

A man with the ability to time-travel learns that some damage—death, loss, regret—can't be undone, only accepted. Like *Be With You*, it's about grief wearing a fantasy costume and love persisting anyway.

But It's long and meandering in ways that feel deliberately anti-climactic if you want dramatic catharsis rather than quiet acceptance.

About Time poster

Arrival2016

A woman learns an alien language that changes how she perceives time itself, then must choose what that knowledge means for her future. Both films are about the weight of memory and whether knowing what's coming makes love harder or deeper.

But It's cerebral sci-fi, not romance. Long stretches move slowly, and the payoff is philosophical rather than emotional reassurance.

Arrival poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Be With You

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Your Name.2016

Both use magical impossibility (impossible reunion, impossible body-swap) to ask whether love persists when the beloved doesn't remember or recognize you.

Two teenagers mysteriously swap bodies across time and fall in love with each other before they meet, then must find each other in reality. Japanese anime that achieves *Be With You*'s romantic magic through a completely different visual language and explores memory as proof of love.

But Anime still carries stigma for some viewers, and the tonal shifts from comedy to melancholy might feel whiplash without context.

Your Name. poster
More like this (7)

A Moment to Remember2004

A Korean romance where a woman develops early-onset Alzheimer's and slowly forgets her husband. Emotionally similar terrain—love tested by the erasure of shared history—but told with devastating specificity.

But It's relentlessly sad and offers no magical reprieve. If *Be With You*'s fantasy element is what lets you breathe, this one won't give you that mercy.

A Moment to Remember poster

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind2004

Two exes have each other erased from their memories, then somehow still find each other anyway. It asks the same question *Be With You* does: is love real if the person doesn't remember loving you back?

But It's formally experimental and deliberately disorienting. If you want narrative clarity and emotional straightforwardness, this will frustrate you.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind poster

Before Sunrise1995

Two strangers spend one night falling in love, then part ways forever. Like *Be With You*, it's about how completely love can consume us even when logic says it shouldn't last.

But Almost entirely dialogue. If you need plot momentum or aren't charmed by two people just talking, it will feel like nothing happens.

Before Sunrise poster

The Shape of Water2017

A mute woman falls in love with a supernatural creature during the Cold War. Shares *Be With You*'s dreamlike visual language and belief that love transcends the rational world's rules.

But It's surreal and formally strange in ways that can read as precious. The genre fantasy is more overt and less grounded in human reality.

The Shape of Water poster

Wish Upon2017

A girl finds a magical box that grants wishes, but each one exacts a price. Both films use fantasy mechanics to explore whether desire and love are worth the cost.

But The execution is clunkier and less emotionally sophisticated. It plays more like a fable than a lived experience.

Wish Upon poster

The Time Traveler's Wife2009

A man involuntarily time-travels and meets his future wife across different moments in time, then must live with her in the present where he keeps disappearing. Similar structure of love tested by temporal separation and incomplete knowledge.

But The adaptation softens the book's darker edges. It can feel sentimentally neat in ways that undercut the actual tragedy of the premise.

The Time Traveler's Wife poster

Severance2022

Both imagine a world where memory and identity are severed, and explore whether love survives that rupture. *Severance* is the dystopian version of *Be With You*'s heartbreaking fantasy.

Workers have their memories surgically divided—their work life and home life completely separated. It's workplace science fiction, but philosophically it asks *Be With You*'s core question: what remains of love and family if the person can't access the memories that make them real?

But It's dark, slow-burn corporate horror. Tone-wise it couldn't be further from *Be With You*'s tenderness, and the payoff is existential dread rather than reconciliation.

Severance poster

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