Best movies like Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Two very different people become friends and partners in this nautical drama. Nikos (Stephen Rea) is a radio man working on a Greek freighter when he finds himself stranded in Hong Kong after the firm that owned his ship suddenly goes out of business. Nikos is already depressed over his recent breakup with his girlfriend, and this latest turn of events hardly makes him feel any better; he develops a dependence on opium as he works a variety of odd jobs trying to keep himself together while waiting for his ship to return to the sea. Li (Ling Chu) is a ten-year-old Chinese girl, cut off from her mother and father, who has a sampan and asks Nikos to help her get the boat ready for the water. Nikos doesn't much care for Li at first, but her youthful optimism and determination to succeed make an impression on him, and in time he leads her on a voyage to find the family she left behind years before.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 523
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium, France, UK
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: independent film
Best tv shows and movies like Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (1995):
Similar in 87%
Shadow of China (1989)
Plot Summary:
A Chinese immigrant tries to make his way to the top as a businessman in Hong Kong while his former radicalism is transformed into cynicism.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 168
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan, USA
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 85%
Return to Dust (2022)
Plot Summary:
Humble, unassuming Ma and timid Cao have been cast off by their families and forced into an arranged marriage. They have to combine their strength and build a home to survive. In the face of much adversity, an unexpected bond begins to blossom, as both Ma and Cao, uniting with Earth’s cycles, create a haven for themselves in which they can thrive.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
Still Human (2018)
Plot Summary:
A paralysed and hopeless Hong Kong man meets his new Filipino carer, who has put her dream on hold and come to the city to earn a living. These two strangers live under the same roof through different seasons. As they learn more about each other, they also learn more about themselves. Together, they learn about how to face the different seasons of life.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
Xian's Finest (2000)
Plot Summary:
Wu, a veteran police officer in Xian, is demoted to work in a community policing center after he accidentally injures a hostage during a rescue mission. At first the new job appears to be simple and straightforward, but Wu and his family gradually get engulfed in a web of mistrust, jealousy, accusations, and even worse things.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 15
Genere: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
The Girl from Hunan (1987)
Plot Summary:
The heartbreaking tale of a young girl sold into an arranged marriage with a 2 year old boy who she must raise as his nanny until he is old enough to marry her. She is expected to honour tradition and to toe the line so far as social proprieties are concerned, but the young girl rebels against the edicts of her elders until at 16, she falls in love with another man... Though set in turn-of-the-century China, The Girl from Hunan deliberately parallel the state of affairs in the China of the late 1980s.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 219
Genere: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Tate's Voyage (1998)
Plot Summary:
Tate, a young and crooked businessman, thinks he can get rich quick by buying a Russian freighter in the port of Rotterdam. This turns out to be a fiasco because the ship has been arrested, the freight has been sealed by the customs and the crew has been waiting for months for their wages. When his girlfriend falls in love with the ship's mate, Tate makes a decision. He takes pity on the suffering crew and tries to save them from their helpless predicament. Written by Dennis Jansen.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 237
Genere: Drama
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
My Country, My Parents (2021)
Plot Summary:
Actress Zhang Ziyi, actor-and-director Wu Jing, comedian Shen Teng, and actor-and-director Xu Zheng come together to direct four short films as part of a new anthology drama paying tribute to China’s families.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 526
Genere: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 157 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
Class Relations (1984)
Plot Summary:
A young man (Christian Heinisch), recently arrived in New York from Europe, becomes swept up in a series of events that are beyond his knowledge or control.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 748
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany, France
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: political, contemplative, masterpiece
Similar in 87%
Perfect Education 3 (2002)
Plot Summary:
A lonely young Japanese student, Ai Narushima (Kana Ito) goes on a field trip with her school. At night she decides to take a taxi into the city. The Chinese taxi driver, Bo Tony Ho, is also a lonely soul and on a whim, decides to kidnap the young student. He takes her to the countryside and confines her in a room for days. The taxi driver doesn't abuse the student, but at night attempts to cuddle next to her. Eventually the lonely young Japanese student realizes he is as lonely as she is.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 101
Genere: Drama
Country: Hong Kong, Japan
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
The Gamekeeper (1980)
Plot Summary:
George Purse is the gamekeeper for the duke's estate, a role he takes seriously. His position gives him a certain status, but he has an uneasy relationship with some of the locals, not least those who turn to poaching.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 160
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 86%
Misery Harbour (1999)
Plot Summary:
A young writer named Espen Arnakke tells the story of his escape from the small Danish town of Jante. Espen boards a ship headed to Newfoundland, but the harsh conditions on board makes him jump ship, and he ends up in the little town of Misery Harbour. There he meets the girl of his dreams. But his passion shifts to jealousy when one of the men from the ship mysteriously appears in town, and sets out to make Espen's life a misery.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 410
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Canada
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, emotional, realistic, disturbing, independent film
Similar in 86%
K (2015)
Plot Summary:
A mongolian interpretation of Kafka's "The Castle".
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 65
Genere: Drama
Country: Hong Kong, China
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
The Key Is in the Door (1978)
Plot Summary:
Marie (Annie Girardot) teaches high school and has a 16-year-old daughter in her class. Divorced some years previously, she has some vague egalitarian notions about friendship with her students and leaves her door open to them. One of her protégés is found beaten up just outside her door, and an emergency physician comes by to treat her. When her daughter starts seeing someone she doesn't much like, and she begins having a brief affair (her first since the divorce) with the ER doctor, she begins to reconsider her policy.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 134
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Little Moth (2007)
Plot Summary:
A couple purchases an eleven-year old girl who cannot walk, with the intention of using her to earn money through begging.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 138
Genere: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
Sicily! (1999)
Plot Summary:
A man returns to visit his native Sicily after living in New York for a long time. He learns about the Sicilian way of life from stylized conversations with an orange picker, his fellow train passengers, his mother, and a knife-sharpener.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France, Germany
Duration: 66 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
Love in a Fallen City (1984)
Plot Summary:
Taking place in 1941, Love in a Fallen City centers on Pai (Cora Miao), a young woman who has been ostracized by her family for divorcing her rich husband. A local match-maker, Mrs. Hsu (Helen Ma), takes pity on Pai and decides to bring her to Hong Kong, under the guise of employing her as the Hsu's nanny, but in reality to introduce her to Fan (Chow Yun-Fat). Pai and Fan seem to hit it off, but Fan's refusal to marry Pai soon sours things. However, as the Japanese begin to invade Hong Kong, the two begin to realize their true feelings for each other.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 326
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
Conflict (1973)
Plot Summary:
In the near future, the Catholic church has joined with other western religions in an ecumenical movement that has washed out much of the original message of the religion. A group of Irish monks have begun saying the mass again in Latin and have begun to have an international following. Martin Sheen is sent from Rome to bring them to task and they must confront what is truly essential in their worship and what is not.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 123
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 76 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
Human (1962)
Plot Summary:
The ship Kaijin Maru is left adrift after losing all means of navigation in a storm. The four people on the ship are becoming increasingly desperate as food and water run out.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 216
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: tension, suspense
Similar in 76%
Mad World (2016)
Plot Summary:
An absentee father and his bipolar son are forced to live together as they struggle with a recent family tragedy. The tension and anxiety boil as they live and try to cope in a tiny apartment. As time passes, they realize their shared pain is not their only source of grief, as they find the outside world is a cruel and unjust place.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing, sad, art house, independent film, crying
Similar in 76%
Five No Budget Films (2010)
Plot Summary:
Little Fish Eat Big Fish is a Kolkata based group of no-budget film makers. The latest venture of the group is the 5 no-budget short films produced in 2009-10. They opted for a direct to DVD release in the last Kolkata Book Fair. Details for the five short films in the DVD are provided below. 1) The Sandbook --- A short fiction by Snigdhendu Bhattacharya. The film is an adoption of a short story by Jorge Luis Borges. The story moves with the landing of an amazing book in the hand of a scholer, who tries to understand "the internal ties in events occuring" in and around the book in order to go through it. The film is a melodramatic interpretation of the story within a very limited budget.2) Jean-Luc Godard Had No Script -- A no-budget fiction by Anamitra Roy. The film approaches the larger history of politically conscious films in a mimetic way. The title of the film is a bit exploitative as it is neither a spoof and has been made with a very tight script.3) ...Or A Horror film -- A.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 20
Genere: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: experimental, anthology, independent film
Similar in 86%
Traps (1994)
Plot Summary:
An erotic thriller set in 1950 French Occupied Indo-China.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 59
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 76%
1914 the Glorious Summer (1996)
Plot Summary:
An old aristocrat, short of money, who does not accept the new world ruled by the bourgeois class ,epitomized by the industrialist and by the doctor who finally grabs the the aristocrat's castle which soon will be turned into a hospital.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 131
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
Negatives (1968)
Plot Summary:
A couple's bizarre romantic relationship is disrupted by the intrusion of a third person.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 150
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: offbeat, independent film
Similar in 89%
Dead Run (2005)
Plot Summary:
Classmates Shuji and Eri becomes friends, both young people have family problems. When Eri is taken away to Tokyo by her relatives, Shuji becomes increasingly isolated at school and drifts into criminal activity.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 312
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
Climbers High (2008)
Plot Summary:
On August 12, 1985, a jumbo jet crashes, causing 520 fatalities, making the accident the biggest single-plane accident in the world. The local press reporters are tossed about by the waves of facts and rumors. While overwhelmed by the magnitude of the accident, Yuuki, in charge of this crash report at a local newspaper, faces a string of decision-making moments. What are news and a reporter? How should a man do his work and survive in a corporate hierarchy? What do family and friends mean to him? An intriguing story, which keeps the audience on the edge of tension and reality.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 254
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 145 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Ten Years (2015)
Plot Summary:
Five shorts reveal a fictional Hong Kong in 2025, depicting a dystopian city where residents and activists face crackdowns under iron-fisted rule.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: anthology, psychological, thought provoking, captivating, disturbing, independent film, mockumentary, banned
Similar in 79%
Little Q (2019)
Plot Summary:
Little Q is an aspiring guide dog, training to be a guide for the blind. Soon Little Q is partnered with Bo-ting, a renowned pastry chef who’s losing his sight. But Bo-ting is irritable and reluctant, constantly losing his temper at those around him and rejecting Little Q. Eventually, dog and owner bond as Little Q wins Bo-ting over with its unwavering loyalty. However, as Little Q gets older and Bo-ting’s health suffers, the two of them face an unwilling separation.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 242
Genere: Drama
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 80%
Dust (1985)
Plot Summary:
A South African spinster (Jane Birkin) murders her father (Trevor Howard) after he rapes the wife of the black foreman for his plantation.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 249
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium, France
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, independent film
Similar in 84%
The Cruel Embrace (1987)
Plot Summary:
Nicole (Marianne Basler) gives birth to a mentally challenged boy after she is gang-raped by American soldiers at the close of World War II in this grim dramatic tragedy. Young Ludo is hidden in the attic of the family home and continues to yearn for his mother's affection. Nicole enters into a loveless marriage with an older man who agrees to adopt Ludo, but her deteriorating mental health leads her to sloth and alcoholism. Ludo is sent off to an asylum, but escapes and takes up residence on a deserted beach in an old tanker that has run aground. This feature won the grand prize at the 1987 Barcelona Film Festival.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 181
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium, France
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 88%
Sounds of Sand (2006)
Plot Summary:
On the one hand, there's the desert eating away at the land. The endless dry season, the lack of water. On the other there's the threat of war. The village well has run dry. The livestock is dying. Trusting their instinct, most of the villagers leave and head south. Rahne, the only literate one, decides to head east with his three children and Mouna, his wife. A few sheep, some goats and Chamelle, a dromedary, are their only riches. A tale of exodus, quest, hope and fatality. Rahne and his family travel across hostile lands under a lethal sun, walking endlessly onwards and frequently crossing paths with death. But "Sounds of sand" is also a parable about determination and eternity that takes us in the footsteps of Shasha, a nomad child full of the joys of life, whose tenacity and strength will conquer her father's love.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 553
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium, France
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sincere, atmospheric, serious, captivating, bleak, realistic