37 not-quite love stories in film

I don't know about you, but I'm sick of hugot. Those trite movie lines, song lyrics, and social media posts, supposedly capturing the many hues of love and despair, have devolved into saccharine ramblings, terrible attempts at wordplay, and superficial sales hooks catering to the Wattpad teen demographic. Instead of expressing profound emotions and deep reflections, hugot now trivializes them. Annoyingly.

So with Valentine's Day now rearing its bright red head, I'm bracing myself for the onslaught of pandering hugot flicks as well as the subsequent Facebook posts quoting lines from such flicks ad nauseam. Or, more likely, I'll be holed up at home with the boyfriend, watching a non-romantic film as our form of protest to the culture of mush.

You with me? Here's my list of films that look like romantic love stories but aren't really. At first glance, they may seem like the usual boy-meets-girl BS, but then they take you somewhere else. They pan out to be masterful works of art, beautiful explorations of the human condition, colored by the many hues of love and despair.

define kilig: Before Sunrise, Sunset, and Midnight

I was chatting with my lovely friend Joyce today, and as girlfriend chats usually go, we spent so much time discussing boys and relationships. Inevitably, we landed on the realm of kilig.

You may not encounter this term everyday (and maybe never in your entire life if you don’t speak Filipino), but kilig is one of the best, sweetest, most positive feelings that anyone on this earth can feel. Or maybe that’s just the closet romantic in me.

Let me try to define and illustrate it with the help of a notorious kilig-inducing weapon: romance flicks. But because I’m very cautious of anything saccharine, I’ll use the subtle kilig factor of Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight.

[Minor spoilers ahead!]

From Before Sunrise. "I like to feel his eyes on me when I look away."