My honest review of “Even if this love disappears tonight.”

Even If This Love Disappears Tonight

Even if this Love Disappears Tonight is a Korean movie directed by Kim Hye-young, originally written by Japanese novelist Misaki Ichijō. The film is adapted from her best-selling novel Even If This Love Disappears From the World Tonight. The story follows a high school girl suffering from anterograde amnesia, whose memories reset every morning, and a shy classmate who chooses to date her despite the heartbreaking challenges. Together, they navigate fragile love, fleeting memories, and the bittersweet beauty of first romance.

The director Kim Hye-young emphasizes fragility through soft lighting, diary entries, and repetition, creating a tender atmosphere. The pacing mirrors Seo-yoon’s memory resets, unfolding slowly and cyclically to reflect the delicate rhythm of her life. Together, these choices remind viewers that love, though fragile, can endure through vulnerability and repetition. 

Cast

Choo Young-woo - Kim Jae-won 

Sin Si-ah - Han Seo-yoon

Choi Ji-min - Jo Yoo-jung (Best friend) 

Jo Han-Chul - Kim Seong-hyeon (jae-won's father)

Jin Ho Eun - Jung Tae Hun 

Lim II Gyu - Seo Yun's father 

Lee Kyung Hwa - Seo Yun's mother

Lee Chae Kyung - Seo Yun's doctor 

Ren Holly Liu - Han Seo-yoon's voice actor 

Theme: Fragile Love

Love in this story is fragile because Seo-yoon’s memory loss forces her to begin each day anew, erasing the events of the day before and requiring her life to be constantly rebuilt. Jae-won, who also suffers from a heart condition revealed at the end of the movie, is unsure whether he will live to see tomorrow; he leads his life in uncertainty but finds purpose after meeting Seo-yoon. The theme deepens as his choice to love someone who cannot remember him highlights the delicate balance between hope and despair. At the same time, their relationship thrives on ephemeral connections that show even fleeting moments of love carry meaning and beauty, even if they vanish. Jae-won’s illness makes every moment with her more precious, underscoring the urgency to love fully in the present, and this parallel fragility between memory and health intensifies the emotional resonance, showing that love can be both fleeting and enduring despite human limitations. 

Theme: Fleeting Memory

Seo-yoon’s daily life struggles with anterograde amnesia forces her to rebuild her life each morning, turning memory into something fragile and impermanent. Jae-won’s hidden heart condition mirrors this fragility, reminding viewers that both memory and life itself are fleeting. His death becomes the ultimate fleeting memory, yet Seo-yoon preserves him in her journal and through drawings of his face, even when her mind cannot recall him. In one cafe scene, she asks her friend, “Do you happen to know who this is? For some reason, I keep drawing him,” showcasing that every bit of her cell remembers him except her brain. For some reason, it gives the audience hope that she remembers him and at the same time wishes she should not because of the heartbreak she had to go through. This scene captures the haunting tension between forgetting and remembering. 

Jae-won’s word “Because no memory ever truly disappears” adds hope to Seo-yoon’s life, suggesting that love leaves traces even when memory fades. In the final act, her effort to hold onto him through words, sketches, and faint recognition shows that love can endure beyond memory, transforming impermanence into a lasting emotional truth. 

Theme: Altruistic Love 

This moment, where Jae-won erases his traces from Seo-yoon’s journal and life with the help of her friend, belongs to the theme of altruistic love, and deepens the motif of fleeting memory. It shows how love can manifest as sacrifice, where Jae-won chooses to disappear from Seo-yoon’s life to protect her from pain, even though it means erasing himself from her memories. This act highlights the fragility of love and memory, proving that even when traces are removed, the emotional imprint of love lingers invisibly. It transforms the story into a meditation on sacrifice, impermanence, and the quiet strength of choosing another’s happiness over one’s own.