A scene depicting high school student Han Seo-yun reviewing her notes in an attempt to reconstruct the previous day underscores the core of Even If This Love Disappears Tonight
. The protagonist suffers from anterograde amnesia, erasing new memories each time she sleeps, and that routine of remembering what’s lost sets the tone for the entire film. Director Kim Hye-young transforms this medical circumstance into the center of a romantic drama that examines how memory sustains personal bonds and how affection confronts its daily disappearance. Based on the 2020 Japanese novel by Misaki Ichijo, the Korean adaptation proposes a story where the everyday and repetition become the terrain where sentimental resilience is measured.
The story unfolds between two teenagers: Han Seo-yun, played by Shin Si-ah, and Kim Jae-won, played by Choo Young-woo. She lives limited by a disease that prevents her from retaining recent memories, while he, a reserved and solitary boy, finds in this relationship an opportunity to give meaning to his life. The film avoids excessive melodrama and maintains an orderly narration showing how both adapt to a reality marked by forgetting. The most significant scenes are built around the protagonist’s daily difficulties: studying, maintaining coherent conversations, remembering the faces of loved ones, and, above all, sustaining an affective relationship that must be restarted each day.
Kim Hye-young’s direction is characterized by a measured pace that avoids easy sentimentality. The camera observes the characters’ routine with attention, allowing the story to unfold without artifice. The director structures the narrative linearly, prioritizing observation over visual impact. This choice gives coherence to a story that combines the tenderness of first love with the weight of a real illness. Each sequence reinforces the idea of effort and constancy: the protagonists move forward through the repetition of simple acts that acquire value over time. Instead of seeking big twists, the film focuses on how the illness conditions each decision and how commitment becomes the basis of the relationship.
The portrayal of Han Seo-yun is sustained by her discipline and serenity. The young woman assumes her situation with determination and faces the constant loss of memories with a mixture of method and hope. Kim Jae-won, symbolizes the patience needed to accompany someone trapped in that daily cycle. The bond between them shows that memory and affection can function independently, and that caring requires work and willingness more than permanence. The film clearly poses that love, understood as a repeated act and not a fixed state, depends on shared effort and acceptance of the limits imposed by the illness.
The film, which premiered in Seoul on Monday, December 22, 2025, is based on Ichijo Misaki’s novel, first adapted into a Japanese film in 2022, which also proved popular in Korea, garnering 1.21 million admissions. A musical adaptation also graced Korean stages earlier this year. The film’s runtime is 106 minutes.
Secondary characters – Han’s friend and her parents – complete the portrait of a coexistence marked by medical routine and the need for support. Through them, the film shows the emotional weight that amnesia generates in those around the protagonist and how the family environment adapts to that reality. Kim Hye-young gives these figures a functional role: to sustain the balance of the story and contextualize Han’s behavior. None of them act as mere companions, but as part of a network trying to maintain stability in the face of loss of continuity.
The cinematography and editing reinforce the idea of repetition. Light tones, domestic spaces, and natural light dominate the scenes, conveying a sense of time moving in a circular fashion. The images linger on daily habits and small details of the school environment. This visual choice accentuates the observational character of the story without resorting to technical artifices. The director opts for a sober style, supported by the continuity of the shot and the absence of narrative jolts.
The social component is present in the background, but is essential to understanding the general sense of the film. The South Korean educational context appears as a setting of pressure, discipline, and demand, where difference is perceived as weakness. Han Seo-yun’s amnesia becomes a reflection of that struggle to fit into an environment that rewards productivity. Jae-won, for his part, embodies the desire to protect and sustain, even when reality imposes limits.
The film’s ending maintains the coherence of the overall tone. Without resorting to drastic twists, the director concludes the story with a sequence that reinforces the idea of continuity. The affection between the protagonists remains an act of will, an effort that is repeated every day without losing meaning. Even If This Love Disappears Tonight
is defined by its sober gaze and its interest in exploring how time and memory condition the way people relate to each other. The film avoids exaggeration and observes clearly the work involved in sustaining a bond when memory dissolves with dawn.
Currently ranking among the most-watched titles worldwide, the film is now streaming on Netflix. As of today, , it is a South Korean romantic drama that is quietly devastating audiences around the world, climbing the Global Top 10 in just days. Actor Choo Young-woo marks his big-screen debut with this movie.
