Best movies like Midnight Swan
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Nagisa is transgender. She grew up in Hiroshima as a man, but now lives in Shinjuku, Tokyo as a woman. Due to an incident, she begins to live with middle school student Ichika, who is a distant relative. Ichika has been neglected by her mother Saori. From living in solitude by herself, to now living with Ichika, Nagisa develops maternal instincts for the first time.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 648
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like Midnight Swan (2020):
Similar in 84%
A Midsummer's Fantasia (2014)
Plot Summary:
A Korean Film director, Kim Taehoon plans to shoot his new film in a small local city called Gojo, Japan. He travels with his assistant director, Park Mijeong to do research prior to scriptwriting. They travel through several villages that are declining, and interview some local residents there. Most people say there is nothing special about Gojo. Along the way, Kim and Park meet a municipal official, Yusuke and a middle-aged man, Kenji, and are deeply impressed by their stories. The night before director Kim is to leave Japan, having a strange dream, he wakes up in the middle of night, and looks up at the night sky in Gojo.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 184
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea, Japan
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
Hot Springs Geisha (1968)
Plot Summary:
A look at the lives of a troupe of geishas working in a small seaside resort town. For the most part, their lives consist of greeting boatloads of oversexed businessmen and providing bawdy entertainment through the evening followed by private companionship at night, interspersed with occasional catfights with the rival geisha house. Their routine is suddenly thrown off by the appearance of an abandoned baby in the geishas' dormitory, followed by its disappearance only a short time later. Who could be responsible for such a thing?.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 59
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: grindhouse
Similar in 84%
The Night I Swam (2017)
Plot Summary:
Snow covered mountains in Japan. Every night, a fisherman makes his way to the market in town. His 6 year old son is awoken by his departure and finds it impossible to fall back to sleep. In the sleeping household, the young boy draws a picture he then slips into his satchel. On his way to school, still drowsy, he strays off the path and wanders into the snow.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 554
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan, France
Duration: 78 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
The Egoists (2011)
Plot Summary:
Kazu attacks a bar in Kabukicho, a Tokyo red-light district, and flees to his hometown with abducts Machiko, a pole dancer he's been stuck on. They begin living together, but their happiness is short lived as their pasts torment them both.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 96
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 136 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Something You Said Last Night (2022)
Plot Summary:
An aspiring twentysomething writer hesitantly accompanies her equally reluctant younger sister on vacation with their deliriously happy parents, in Luis De Filippis’ resonant, cliché-free debut feature.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 145
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Canada, Switzerland
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
Railroad Man (1999)
Plot Summary:
A railway stationmaster at a dying end-of-the-line village in Hokkaido is haunted by memories of his dead wife and daughter. When the railroad line is scheduled to be closed, he is offered a job at a hotel, but he is emotionally unable to part with his career as a railroader. His life takes a turn when he meets a young woman with an interest in trains who resembles his daughter.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: art house
Similar in 83%
Enter the Clowns (2002)
Plot Summary:
Xiao Bo (Yu Bo) lives in a world where the lines defining men from women are constantly dissolving.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 37
Genere: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Navarasa (2005)
Plot Summary:
The film revolves around the story of a young girl Shweta (P. Shwetha) taking her first steps towards adulthood. Ready for the adventure, the thirteen-year-old is upbeat, however soon discovers that every night, her uncle Gautam (Kushboo) transforms himself into a woman to lead a completely different life.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 45
Genere: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
Melodies of a White Night (1977)
Plot Summary:
A Russian composer and Japanese pianist enter a relationship strained by their geographic and cultural boundaries.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 164
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan, Soviet Union
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
The Woman Inside (1981)
Plot Summary:
A Vietnam vet decides to undergo a sex change operation in the 1970's. Canadian / American production.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 83
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
The Geisha (1983)
Plot Summary:
Yokiro was the most successful Geisha house in Western Japan during the first half of the 20th century and remains open to this day. At its peak, it was home to over 200 geisha, however behind the fabulous facade, there were many battles - between family members, men and women, and with the Yakuza. Momokawa was sold to Yokiro at age 12, and despite being the top geisha, her many complicated relationships provide unending challenges throughout her glamorous but turbulent life.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 346
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 144 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
Fragile (2016)
Plot Summary:
The story of Kishi Keiichitaro, a dashingly handsome pathologist who is intensely eccentric and brutally honest, but also holds one of the most brilliant minds. A pathologist is a physician whose job is to determine a diagnosis of disease or cause of death based on an assortment of data, including a patient's tissue, bodily fluids, organ samples, blood, etc.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 41
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 54 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
The Youngsters (2014)
Plot Summary:
Five siblings struggle to live together after their parents have passed away. Arguments are a norm, and each have their own problems with studying, finding a job, marriage, etc. But no matter how dysfunctional their family can be, blood is thicker than water and the ties that bind will keep them together through thick and thin.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 132
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 54 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
Lowlife Love (2015)
Plot Summary:
Tetsuo (Kiyohiko Shibukawa) is a lowlife. A film director with a small indie hit many years back, yet he has never gotten any further as he refuses to go against his 'artistic integrity'.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 485
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: romantic, captivating, independent film, entertaining
Similar in 90%
Fire Festival (1985)
Plot Summary:
Tatsuo, a reverent lumberjack, seeks to disrupt plans to build a marine park on his family land, instead promoting his traditions in reactionary ways.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 308
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
The Garden Left Behind (2019)
Plot Summary:
Traces the relationship between Tina, a young Mexican trans woman, and Eliana, her grandmother, as they navigate Tina's transition and struggle to build a life for themselves as undocumented immigrants in New York City.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 616
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Brazil
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
I Want to Be a Woman (1977)
Plot Summary:
José Maria is a seventeen year old boy; his father is a successful restaurant owner in a town some distance from Barcelona, in Spain. The boy is intelligent and sensitive, but his mannerisms and habits, and lack of masculine drive, lead him to get bullied at school. The school principal decides that José is the disruptive influence, and asks for him to be removed from the school. The father berates the boy, and his mother, for his failure to be a red-blooded young man, and sends him away for a while to live with a friend in the country. Father visits the boy, and takes him to a strip club in Barcelona, run by a lady friend of his, intending that this will "cure" him of his sexual reserve. However one of the acts is a pre-operative transsexual, and there is a full frontal exposure at the end. Father has arranged that after the show.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 326
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: erotic, social, entertaining, crying, queer cinema
Similar in 89%
Ninja 4: Siege (1964)
Plot Summary:
[Period covered: 1614-1615] 4th film in the shinobi no mono series Tokugawa Ieyasu is now the ruler of all Japan. But one last loose thread must be tied up before his domination is complete -- the destruction of the Toyotomi clan, now beseiged in Osaka castle. Ieyasu's ninja are the only ones who can penetrate the fortress, but unfortunately for Ieyasu, Kirigakure Saizo (Ichikawa) and the other Toyotomi ninja can just as easily get out. As armies of samurai maneuver for battle, the fate of the nation will be decided by a desperate struggle in the dark!.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 230
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
The Whores (1994)
Plot Summary:
The prostitutes of Palermo are pictured in this episodic Italian drama. The film lacks a real unifying thread as it presents scenes from the lives of 7 hookers. Five are women. One is a man, and one is a transvestite. In one episode, an aging ill-mannered Neapolitan, Orlanda, entertains North African visitors in her home. They do not seem to mind her constant barrage of racist comments. One of her clients falls for her and protects her from a client who stalks her. She is surprised. The male prostitute finds himself becoming violent after his client is too attentive. Liucca gets beaten in lieu of a payment. A mother struggles with her profession and homelife. Grimaldi dehumanizes clients.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 158
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: erotic, gay cinema
Similar in 87%
Joyland (2022)
Plot Summary:
As a patriarchal family yearn for the birth of a baby boy to continue their family line, their youngest son secretly joins an erotic dance theatre and falls for a transgender starlet.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: Pakistan, USA
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: iconic
Similar in 84%
A Fantastic Woman (2017)
Plot Summary:
Marina's life is thrown into turmoil following the death of her partner. Mourning the loss of the man she loved, she finds herself under intense scrutiny from those with no regard for her privacy.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 27000
Genere: Drama
Country: Chile, Spain, Germany
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: lyrical, art house, indie film, sentimental, captivating, melancholic, suspenseful, suspense, social, surreal
Similar in 85%
Ito (2021)
Plot Summary:
A shy country girl chooses a part-time job at a maid cafe where she serves customers while dressed up as a maid.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 533
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 76%
Star Watching Dog (2011)
Plot Summary:
An abandoned car is discovered near a camping ground and inside it is the body of an identified middle-aged man and a dog who seems to have died months later. This is the story of the life of the loving and faithful dog and his owner told from the dog's point of view. City hall employee Kyousuke Okutsu is assigned to uncover the man's identity for a proper funeral. As he investigates the situation, he remembers his late family and his own dog's unfailing loyalty.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 247
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: depressing, sad, tear jerker, tearjerker
Similar in 76%
Baragaki: Unbroken Samurai (2021)
Plot Summary:
Set in the 19th century, "Moeyo Ken" follows the life of Toshizo Hijikata. He was the vice-commander of the Shinsengumi and fought against the Meiji Restoration.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 257
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 148 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, disturbing, period drama
Similar in 77%
Funeral Parade of Roses (1969)
Plot Summary:
A feverish collision of avant-garde aesthetics and grind-house shocks, Funeral Parade of Roses takes us on an electrifying journey into the nether-regions of the late-’60s Tokyo underworld. In Toshio Matsumoto’s controversial debut feature, seemingly nothing is taboo: neither the incorporation of visual flourishes straight from the worlds of contemporary graphic-design, painting, comic-books, and animation; nor the unflinching depiction of nudity, sex, drug-use, and public-toilets. But of all the “transgressions” here on display, perhaps one in particular stands out the most: the film’s groundbreaking and unapologetic portrayal of Japanese gay subculture.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: avant garde, disturbing, mind bending, surreal, psychedelic, social, sad, experimental, controversial, art house
Similar in 82%
(S)He (2020)
Plot Summary:
(S)HE is the story of a transgender child named Juju, a girl born into a boy’s body. With the onset of puberty, JuJu’s discomfort explodes. Our film follows a child’s struggle to get her parents and friends to accept her true gender, as she transitions from boy to girl. But in this tiny rural town, where everyone knows everyone else, it’s an impossible challenge. Juju will have to move in with her mother while her parents break up. Juju becomes Emma, and sings in a rock band at her new high school. With everyone seeing her as a girl, she’ starts to blossom. But as her popularity grows, social networking sit’s rekindle the nightmare she thought she’d left behind.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 48
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 77%
Close-Knit (2017)
Plot Summary:
After being neglected by her mother, a little girl is taken in by her uncle and his transgender girlfriend, who create a loving home for her.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: psychological, disturbing, educational, sexual, sexy, queer cinema
Similar in 78%
Tokyo Noir (2004)
Plot Summary:
In this excursion into Tokyo's dark side, a sexually repressed woman finds liberation by turning tricks at night a sex worker is taken by surprise when her ex drops by and a sex blogger finds strange kinship with a loner.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 32
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 82%
Nobody Knows (2004)
Plot Summary:
In a small Tokyo apartment, twelve-year-old Akira must care for his younger siblings after their mother leaves them and shows no sign of returning.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 30000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 141 min
Plot tags: depressing, touching, serious, atmospheric, bleak, gloomy, heartbreaking, contemplative, melancholic, meditative
Similar in 77%
Hero (2007)
Plot Summary:
Kohei Kuryu returns to Tokyo, reunites with his former colleagues, and goes up against one of the most famous lawyers in Tokyo to solve a new case and team up with his best partner, Maiko Amemiya.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, psychological, suspense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, stylized