Once We Were Us ~ The Lingering Power of First Love

“Once We Were Us” is a 2025 Korean film, streaming on Viki, categorized as Romance. It’s a remake of a Chinese film.

 

• Memorable Quote: “You doubted me?”

SUMMARY: A chance encounter on a bus blossoms into intense young love tested by harsh realities. Years later, an unexpected reunion forces them to confront the choices they made that separated them.

♦ Now, We Are Us

In “Once We Were Us”, the story of two young adults begins in 2008, ends, and then an unexpected reunion restarts their relationship. But is it a “restart”?

• Lee Eun-Ho is a talented artist but he’s studying engineering. He’s a young man carrying the weight of unfulfilled dreams.
• Han Jeong-Won is a young woman who has stepped away from school to escape mounting pressures.

They are both on a bus heading to their hometowns, ,and end up seated side by side purely by chance. What starts as an awkward proximity slowly turns into conversation, shared complaints, and unexpected laughter. That bus ride becomes the first thread in a bond that neither of them planned, but both desperately needed.

Lee Eun-Ho and Han Jeong-Won spend more time together, and their relationship evolves from friendship and companionship into a passionate young love. They do all the things that lovers do for each other.

• Cheer and support one another’s goals and ambitions.
• Comfort one another when reality bites.
• Enjoy the feel-good feeling of being truly seen and accepted by someone else for who you are.

For a while, it’s as if they can shield each other from the harshness of the world. Yet, beneath the warmth of their romance, the pressures of adulthood keep building. Economic uncertainty, family expectations, and the gap between their dreams and reality begin to intrude on their carefully built world. Lee Eun-Ho and Han Jeong-Won find themselves making compromises, postponing hopes, and questioning whether love alone can carry them through.

Suppose We Meet Again?

Their arguments are not melodramatic explosions but the kind of painful, realistic conflicts that arise when two people are trying to grow in different directions while still holding on to each other. Eventually, the weight of their circumstances forces them onto separate paths. And then one day over a decade later, they are both on a plane heading to … ?? It doesn’t matter where because the minute they see each other …

It looks like a second chance. But does a second chance heal old wounds or simply reopen them?

Main Characters:

• Lee Eun-Ho (played by Koo Kyo-Hwan, “Escape”, “Kill Boksoon”, “Escape from Mogadishu”, “We Are All Trying Here”, “Parasyte the Grey”, “D.P. 1 and 2”, “Monstrous”)
• Han Jeong-Won (played by Moon (Mun) Ga-Young, “Law and the City”, “Killer Toon”, “My Dearest Nemesis”, “True Beauty”, “Find Me in Your Memory”, “The Merchant: Gaekju”)

Where to Watch

Viewership and Rating:

• IMDb: 7 out of 10 stars
• My Drama List: 7.8 out of 10 stars
• Viki viewers rated this film: 9.3 out of 10 stars
• Letterboxd: 3.7 out of 5 stars

My personal rating is the same as MDL.

“Once We Were Us” is about first love, regret, and second chances. It’s a remake of the 2018 Chinese film “Us and Them”, directed by Rene Liu. Usually, I agree with the rating of the Viki viewers. But not this time.

However, I did lift an idea from a review and comments left at Letterboxd: “The film’s standout achievement is its visual storytelling. The narrative weaves between the present—shot in a stark, muted black and white—and the vibrant, warm colors of the past. This stark contrast perfectly captures the fading warmth and nostalgic ache of first love.”

A lot of reviewers comment about the use of black-and-white cinematography. If the rating were based solely on this, then a viewer would probably agree with Viki and Letterboxd ratings.

Mun Ka-Young won Best Actress in the 2026 (62nd) BaekSang Arts Awards.

LINKS OF INTEREST:

Film Review: Once We Were Us (2025) – South Korea. | Neo Film Shop

Once We Were Us (2025) Bi Kim Do-Young Film Review. | Asian Movie Pulse

[Review] Once We Were Us | TheKMeal

Even Without the Glow of the Original, ‘Once We Were Us’ Shines on Its Own [Han Hyun-Jung’s Direct Review] | MK

TRAILER/TEASER:

Far East Film Festival 18. “Once We Were Us.” YouTube, 7 Apr. 2026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH_voK17Q1E.

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