Best movies like Perfect Days
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies similar to Perfect Days? Impart your insights to direct others toward movies and tv shows you've already seen that may also captivate them. Help increase the assembly of people bringing up videos amongst one another. We welcome your contribution!
Plot Summary:
Hirayama seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his very structured everyday routine he enjoys his passion for music and for books. And he loves trees and takes photos of them. A series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan, Germany
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like Perfect Days (2023):
Similar in 84%
Memory Box (2021)
Plot Summary:
Maia, a single mother, lives in Montreal with her teenage daughter, Alex. On Christmas Eve, they receive an unexpected delivery: notebooks, tapes, and photos Maia sent to her best friend from 1980’s Beirut. Maia refuses to open the box or confront its memories, but Alex secretly begins diving into it. Between fantasy and reality, Alex enters the world of her mother’s tumultuous, passionate adolescence during the Lebanese civil war, unlocking mysteries of a hidden past.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 767
Genere: Drama
Country: Lebanon, Canada, France, Qatar
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: semi autobiographical
Similar in 78%
Crying for Love (2008)
Plot Summary:
Three girls meet by chance in a hospital. Struggling to come to terms with their fate, they all look back on a decisive moment in their life: Sara, a professional swimmer relentlessly urged on by her ambitious father, was deprived of her only real chance of happiness. Mette has left her deeply religious family, finding it too hard to bear that they have accepted her fate while she hasn't. And Stephanie has brutally rejected her boyfriend in fear of being rejected herself. Although their stories are very different, the three girls are brought together in their search for love and companionship. Based on the Oscar nominated short fiction »At Night«.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 300
Genere: Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
Mother's Milk (2011)
Plot Summary:
An English family is forced to come to terms with the imminent loss of their beloved holiday house in Provence.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 41
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, France
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: light, captivating
Similar in 87%
Villon's Wife (2009)
Plot Summary:
This enticing period melodrama depicts a long-suffering woman's relationship with her brilliant but self-destructive writer husband in postwar Tokyo. Based on a semi-autobiographical 1947 novel by Osamu Dazai, the story centers less on the womanizing, heavy-drinking, suicidal hero than on the wife who loves him. Written by Palm Springs International Film Festival.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 425
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Moving On (2019)
Plot Summary:
A family gathers at grandfather’s place by chance and breaks up. Okju, who has been observing her family for a short time, gains the strength to rise above the loss through this experience.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 797
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: serious, atmospheric, sincere, melancholic
Similar in 82%
Back When We Were Grownups (2004)
Plot Summary:
A 53-year-old widow believes she's turned into the wrong person in this bittersweet tale based on Anne Tyler's best-seller. Beck's (Blythe Danner) plate is full: She runs a catering business and cares for her large family, but feels lost inside. Determined to find herself, Beck embarks on a journey, starting with her ex-beau (Peter Fonda) and ending with an unexpected soul mate. Jack Palance, Peter Riegert, Faye Dunaway and Ione Skye also star.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 335
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: crying
Similar in 85%
Starting Over (2014)
Plot Summary:
Nana is 19 and lives in a corner of Tokyo. Her birth mother and Marin, a girl the same age who she loves, were the only people she could trust. Nana confronts them in her yearning for love, but the world does not give it to her. With her whole life ahead of her, Nana struggles, suffers, and begins a search for the true meaning of love.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 42
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, independent film, minimal cast
Similar in 86%
The Lowlife (2017)
Plot Summary:
Based on a 2016 novel by Mana Sakura, “The Lowlife” shows the stories of three women who work in Japan’s adult video industry.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 190
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: captivating
Similar in 85%
Summer in the City (1971)
Plot Summary:
Released from prison a man wanders through a new reality.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 330
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: student film
Similar in 88%
To Chiara (2021)
Plot Summary:
The Guerrasio family and friends gather to celebrate Claudio and Carmela’s oldest daughter’s 18th birthday. There is a healthy rivalry between the birthday girl and her 15-year-old sister Chiara as they compete on the dancefloor. It is a happy occasion, and the close-knit family are on top form. However, everything changes the next day when the father disappears. Chiara, unconvinced by the cover story, starts to investigate. As she gets closer to the truth, she is forced to decide what kind of future she wants for herself.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: social
Similar in 81%
Chronicle of My Mother (2011)
Plot Summary:
Best-selling novelist Kosaku Igami has made a career out of using his family as fodder for his novels, much to their dismay. When his mother, the spirited family matriarch, is diagnosed with dementia, Igami must come to terms with the toll his own behavior has taken on his increasingly distant family and resolve his own long-simmering resentments. Evocative of classic Ozu, this gorgeously wrought epic family portrait explores the tenderness and trappings of familial bonds. (Chicago International Film Festival).
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 482
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: sincere, captivating, semi autobiographical, crying, entertaining
Similar in 84%
Don't Call Me Son (2016)
Plot Summary:
Pierre is seventeen and in the middle of puberty. He plays in a band, has sex at parties and secretly tries on women’s clothing and lipstick in front of a mirror. Ever since his father’s death, his mother Aracy has looked after him and his younger sister Jacqueline, spoiling them both. But when he discovers that she stole him from a hospital when he was a new born baby, Pierre’s life changes dramatically. In her new film, director Anna Muylaert explores the mother-child relationship through the eyes of a rebellious son whose whole world unravels overnight.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: depressing, suspense, melancholic, disturbing, queer cinema
Similar in 90%
Paris Memories (2022)
Plot Summary:
The story revolves around Mia who finds herself caught up in a terrorist attack on a Parisian brasserie one Saturday night in the autumn. Three months later, still unable to pick up where she left off and remembering only piecemeal details of the event, she decides to search through her memory banks. Memories of the man she hid with and whose hand she held throughout the ordeal float back up to the surface. Is he still alive? Is she herself still alive? Mia searches the whole of Paris for this hand which saved her life….
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
Owl and the Sparrow (2007)
Plot Summary:
In modern-day Saigon, three lonely strangers form a unique family as a ten-year old orphan plays matchmaker to a zookeeper and a beautiful flight attendant.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 965
Genere: Drama
Country: Vietnam, USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: uplifting, sincere, serious, sentimental, touching, emotional, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 89%
Midnight Bus (2017)
Plot Summary:
Middle-aged Riichi Takamiya drives the midnight bus between Tokyo and snow-swept Niigata, where he lives. Just as the relationship with his younger girlfriend is about to bloom, his emotionally desperate ex-wife suddenly reappears.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 61
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 157 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, manga
Similar in 78%
Cafe Seoul (2009)
Plot Summary:
Jun, a Japanese freelance reporter, discovers hidden gem of Korean traditional bakery "Moran-dang" by chance in the middle of the city of Seoul, while covering stories of the city. Moran-dang takes him back to his memory of childhood and urges him to stay there for more stories. One day, Moran-dang is vandalized by construction villains in town who maliciously try to take the spot of the bakery and the owner and chef, Sang-Woo gets hands injured. When Moran-dang is in danger of closing, little brother Sang-Hyuk returns home after drifting apart. As Jun inspires Sang-Hyuk to restore his family tie and the secret recipes, Sang-Hyuk and Jun are connected in friendship to save Moran-dang.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 58
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan, South Korea
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, captivating, psychological, sentimental, uplifting, serious
Similar in 83%
Ramen Shop (2018)
Plot Summary:
Masato is a young ramen chef in the city of Takasaki in Japan. After the sudden death of his emotionally distant father, he chances upon a suitcase of memorabilia and a red notebook – filled with musings and old photos – left behind by his Singaporean mother who died when he was just ten years old. Acting on a hunch, he takes off for Singapore with the notebook, hoping to piece together the story of his life, as well as that of his parents.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Singapore, Japan, France
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: realistic, captivating, emotional, contemplative
Similar in 87%
Peaceful (2021)
Plot Summary:
A son in denial of a serious illness. A mother facing the unbearable. And between them a doctor fighting to do his job and bring them to acceptance. The three of them have one year and four seasons to come together and understand what it means to die while living.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 801
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 84%
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (2005)
Plot Summary:
Takada, a Japanese fisherman has been estranged from his son for many years, but when the son is diagnosed with terminal cancer his daughter-in-law, Rie, summons him to the hospital. Through a series of obstacles and relationships, he is brought unexpectedly closer to both an understanding of himself and of his son.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: China, Japan, Hong Kong
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, serious, realistic, stylized, road movie, crying, independent film, art film
Similar in 77%
Eureka (2000)
Plot Summary:
In Kyushu, southwest Japan, one hot summer morning, a municipal bus is hijacked. In the carnage only three people survive: the driver, a school girl, and her older brother.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan, France
Duration: 217 min
Plot tags: bleak, psychological, enigmatic, lyrical, sincere, road movie, depressing, captivating, slow cinema, existential
Similar in 85%
Tokyo Sonata (2008)
Plot Summary:
Ryûhei Sasaki (Teruyuki Kagawa) is keeping a secret from his wife, Megumi (Kyôko Koizumi), and his two teenage sons. Even though he leaves the house every day, he's not really going to work. He's going to an employment office. He recently lost his job due to outsourcing, but is determined to find another position, all while supporting an old friend who is also out of work. But when Megumi accidentally finds out Ryûhei's secret and doesn't tell him, her trust in him, and their marriage, suffers.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan, Netherlands, Hong Kong
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: lyrical, talky, stylized, touching, serious, psychological, realistic, disturbing, poignant, atmospheric
Similar in 89%
Maladies (2012)
Plot Summary:
A talented and successful actor retires at a young age due to a perceived mental illness. Now living in a small town with his deranged sister and his best friend, we watch as their Maladies intertwine.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 787
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, emotional, realistic, captivating, tense, rough, serious, independent film
Similar in 75%
Notes for My Son (2020)
Plot Summary:
Battling terminal cancer, a woman writes a one of a kind notebook about life, death and love for her son to remember her by. Based on a true story.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, suspense, sad, compassionate, poignant, deep, profound
Similar in 84%
Living (2022)
Plot Summary:
A veteran civil servant and bureaucratic cog in the rebuilding of Britain post-WWII, Williams expertly pushes paperwork around a government office only to reckon with his existence when he’s diagnosed with a fatal illness.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 30000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, Japan, Sweden
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: existential, visually stunning, period piece, independent film, period drama
Similar in 78%
Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai (2011)
Plot Summary:
An tale of revenge, honor and disgrace, centering on a poverty-stricken samurai who discovers the fate of his ronin son-in-law, setting in motion a tense showdown of vengeance against the house of a feudal lord.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan, UK
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: tense, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, erotic, intense, jidai geki, atmospheric, contemplative
Similar in 87%
Riding the Bus with My Sister (2005)
Plot Summary:
A woman spends time with her developmental disabled sister after the death of their father.
IMDB Rating: 3.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, realistic, serious, cult film
Similar in 84%
Tokyo Tower: Mom and Me, and Sometimes Dad (2007)
Plot Summary:
Adapted from the bestselling Japanese autobiography of the same title, this gentle coming-of-age drama concerns an adolescent boy, Boku - Masaya, torn between the inherited recklessness of his father Oton and the inherited responsibility, wisdom and emotional strength of his mother Okan. Following a period of intensely rebellious behavior, Boku learns that his mom has contracted cancer; suddenly, his mother comes to live with him in Tokyo the entire emotional landscape of his life is altered.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 142 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, emotional, captivating, independent film, realistic
Similar in 86%
The Eel (1997)
Plot Summary:
White-collar worker Yamashita finds out that his wife has a lover visiting her when he's away, suddenly returns home and kills her. After eight years in prison, he returns to live in a small village, opens a barber shop (he was trained as a barber in prison) and talks almost to no-one except for the eel he "befriended" in prison. One day he finds the unconscious body of Keiko, who attempted suicide and reminds him of his wife. She starts to work at his shop, but he doesn't let her become close to him.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: enigmatic, captivating, psychological, touching, independent film, atmospheric, offbeat, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 76%
The Dynamiter (2011)
Plot Summary:
All fourteen-year-old Robbie Hendrick ever wanted was a family. Yet as another Mississippi summer begins, his wayward mother has run off again fearing a breakdown and he's left to burn the days caring for his half brother, Fess. As the deep days and nights pass without her return and with older brother Lucas dangerously in their lives again, Robbie must face the fact that his dream of a family may only be a dream and he might just lose the only family he's ever had: Fess.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 609
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 73 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, touching, serious, realistic, sentimental, sincere, feel good, gothic, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 86%
The Keys to the House (2004)
Plot Summary:
Meeting his handicapped son for the first time, a young father attempts to forge a relationship with the teenager.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, Germany, France, USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, touching, emotional, sincere, bleak, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, crying