Damian loves water.
He has loved water from the first moment we put him in his first bathie.
03 September 2007

I am very picky about my romance stories.  That’s why, a looooong time ago when I was only a teenager, I decided to write romance stories; I could never find a decent romance because I don’t like the Harlequin-style romances nor the bodice rippers (apparently, that term is offensive in the romance market now, but the official term is “historical single-title”; boy, is that a mouthful).

Anyways, so I decided to write my own romances with characters I like and stories that I find interesting.  That proved to be much harder than I anticipated, but it has been an interesting and fun journey just the same.

Recently, I watched Howl’s Moving Castle by the legendary and inimitable Hayao Miyazaki.  It was a great romance story.  So I’ve decided to make a recommend list of romance movies in case someone out there is in the mood for a good romance but can only find the formulaic, insipid romantic comedy shite that is churned out year after year by Hollywood.

Some good romantic movies:

• Howl’s Moving Castle
  • Watch it in English.  It’s a very unusual story which makes it very difficult to follow while reading subtitles.
• You’ve Got Mail
  • And, to answer the question that always comes up, No, I don’t like Sleepless in Seattle nearly as much.
• The Secretary
  • Big Warning: This is a movie about a submissive and a dominant who find love even though they are considered deviant by accepted societal standards.  There are explicit sex scenes, so if you don’t like movies that involve fringe sexual subculture or that have explicit sex scenes, do not watch this one.
• The BBC Pride and Prejudice miniseries
  • No romance list would be complete without this one.  And though I also love Sense and Sensibility with Emma Thompson, that is more a story of love between two sisters.  The men really are only supporting characters in that one.
• The first four episodes of His and Her Circumstances
  • The rest of the series is not nearly as heart-throbbing as the first four episodes, and the ending has no resolution — it is Hideaki Anno after all — so just stop after the first four episodes.
• The Wedding Singer
  • I know many don’t think much of this movie, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
• And, in honor of my romantic husband, The Cutting Edge
  • I saw this once a long time ago with Matt.  Matt loves this movie and regularly re-watches it.  He has, apparently, loved this movie since he was a teenager, and his family tease him over it. 🙂

Well, that’s all I can think of now, but that’s a good list to start with. 🙂