Best movies like Greetings from Fukushima
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A young German woman bonds with an elderly Japanese woman while touring the Fukushima region of Japan in the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 820
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: crying
Best tv shows and movies like Greetings from Fukushima (2016):
Similar in 75%
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 89%
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 75%
Universal Signs (2008)
Plot Summary:
After the death of his fiancée's daughter while in his care, a deaf man shuts himself off from the world. Haunted by memories, it is only through new friendship that he can learn to forgive, love, and reconnect.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 152
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Kosumosu (1997)
Plot Summary:
Teen Akiko (Akane Oda) returns to her home village in Japan after seven years in South America, where she contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion. The town, thick with paranoia, is quick to ostracize the ailing Akiko. With only her best friend (Megumi Matsushita) and her mom (Mari Natsuki) in her corner, Akiko suffers awful discrimination at school and at home.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 43
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: crying
Similar in 84%
The Long Excuse (2016)
Plot Summary:
A recently widowed writer whose wife died in a bus crash comes to terms with his grief—or lack of it—in caring for the children of a working man who also lost his wife in the same accident.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
Voices in the Wind (2020)
Plot Summary:
In her search for answers, 17-year-old Haru sets out on a long journey across the country to the town where, in 2011, the devastating tsunami swept away her brother and parents. This road trip takes the young woman, who is still haunted by her loss, from Hiroshima to Tokyo and Fukushima and all the way to Ōtsuchi, where her family home once stood. On the way she encounters other people, other stories, other lives and other losses. Landscapes and faces. The journey ends in the middle of a garden in full bloom among the scarred surroundings of her coastal hometown.. In it stands a telephone box which, even though it is no longer connected, is used to speak to those who cannot be reached any other way.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 428
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: independent film, road movie, crying, intercultural, inter cultural
Similar in 86%
So Long, My Son (2019)
Plot Summary:
The changes in Chinese society from the 1950s to the '80s, as experienced by two families.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 185 min
Plot tags: sexy, social, independent film, non-linear
Similar in 87%
Becloud (2009)
Plot Summary:
Alejandro Gerber Bicecci’s “Vaho (Becloud)” tells the story of three childhood friends, Andres, Felipe, and Jose, and their lives in a dusty, run down corner of Mexico City. The boys were inseparable until they witnessed a tragedy that haunts them to the present day. The tragedy shaped each boy differently, and had a profound effect on their lives.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 128
Genere: Drama
Country: Mexico
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, disturbing, gloomy
Similar in 81%
Cherry Blossoms (2008)
Plot Summary:
After finding out that her husband, Rudi, has a fatal illness, Trudi Angermeier arranges a trip to Berlin so they can see their children. Of course, the kids don't know the real reason they're visiting -- and the catch is, neither does Rudi.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Germany
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, serious, stylized, realistic, funny, existential, gloomy, crying, extraordinary
Similar in 78%
Lucky (2017)
Plot Summary:
The story of a young mother with a failed marriage behind her, who fights daily for her dream to open a hair salon, challenging her fate in an effort to free herself and gain independence and right to happiness.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: social
Similar in 81%
Bliss (2012)
Plot Summary:
Two young people in Berlin, a refugee and a homeless punk, form a relationship.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 679
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, offbeat, affectionate
Similar in 88%
Sweet Bean (2015)
Plot Summary:
Sentaro runs a small bakery that serves dorayaki pastries filled with sweet red bean paste (“an”). When an old lady, Tokue, offers to help in the kitchen he reluctantly accepts. She will soon prove to have magic in her hands….
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan, France, Germany
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: culinary, sincere, thought provoking, touching, melancholic, motivational, sad, tear jerker, poignant, art house
Similar in 88%
Why Not? (1981)
Plot Summary:
The film depicts carnivalesque atmosphere summed up by the cry "Ee ja nai ka" ("Why not?") in Japan in 1867 and 1868 in the days leading to the Meiji Restoration. It examines the effects of the political and social upheaval of the time, and culminates in a revelrous march on the Kokyo, which turns into a massacre. Characteristically, Imamura focuses not on the leaders of the country, but on characters in the lower classes and on the fringes of society.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 681
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 151 min
Plot tags: clever, serious, realistic, witty, cynical, bilingual
Similar in 86%
Something to Live for: The Alison Gertz Story (1992)
Plot Summary:
An AIDS-stricken woman becomes a leader in the struggle to educate people about the disease and its prevention.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 476
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: crying
Similar in 85%
West (2013)
Plot Summary:
East Germany. Summer, late 70's. Three years after her boyfriend Wassilij's apparent death, Nelly Senff decides to escape from behind the Berlin wall with her son Alexej, leaving her traumatic memories and past behind. Pretending to marry a West German, she crosses the border to start a new life in the West. But soon her past starts to haunt her as the Allied Secret Service begin to question Wassilij's mysterious disappearance. Is he still alive? Was he a spy? Plagued by her past and fraught with paranoia, Nelly is forced to choose between discovering the truth about her former lover and her hopes for a better tomorrow.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, touching, captivating, gloomy
Similar in 86%
Everything Went Fine (2021)
Plot Summary:
When André, 85, has a stroke, Emmanuelle hurries to her father’s bedside. Sick and half-paralyzed in his hospital bed, he asks Emmanuelle to help him end his life. But how can you honor such a request when it’s your own father?.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags:
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 75%
And Along Come Tourists (2007)
Plot Summary:
Sven arrives in nowadays Auschwitz to do his civil service at the memorial. He encounters unfriendliness, especially by Stanislaw Krzeminski, the 85 year old KZ-survivor, and Krzysztof Lanuszewski, brother of his early love affair Ania. Even his boss Herold, the places manager, does little to help Sven familiarize. But when problems accumulate Sven realises that he already has become involved.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, psychological, captivating
Similar in 76%
Good Day, Ramon (2013)
Plot Summary:
After five failed attempts to go to the United States, 18-year-old Ramón decides to look for a friend’s aunt in Germany, but never finds her. With no papers or money, and without knowing the language, he barely survives living on the street until he meets Ruth, an old retired nurse who doesn’t speak Spanish. Beyond language barriers and prejudices, they discover that solidarity and humanity make life bearable.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Mexico, Germany
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, emotional, captivating, motivational, feel good, humorous, semi serious
Similar in 83%
Tokyo Shaking (2021)
Plot Summary:
March 11, 2011. The biggest tsunami Japan has ever experienced triggers the Fukushima disaster. Risks are being downplayed but the foreign community in Tokyo is terrified by this tragic event and the fact that no one is capable of assessing its scope. Among them, Alexandra, a French executive newly arrived from Hong Kong to work in a bank, has to face this nuclear crisis. Torn apart between fol- lowing the company’s instructions and going back to her husband and children who are still in Hong Kong, she will find herself defending honor and given word, despite the pervading terror and chaos.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 537
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 88%
The Light Shines Only There (2014)
Plot Summary:
A man has thrown away love and a woman has given up on love. The two souls meet in a brief summer in the northern city of Hakodate.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 663
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: rough, touching, serious, realistic, romantic, anthology, bleak
Similar in 79%
The Rebirth (2007)
Plot Summary:
Coincidence and the aftermath of violence. A man's middle-school daughter has been murdered. His wife is already deceased. He tells a counselor he wants to live in anonymity, working with his hands. He moves away and gets a job in a factory. The woman who is the mother of the killer wants to apologize to the father, although she knows it would change nothing. He refuses to meet. She moves back to her hometown. She works in the kitchen at an inn where the man now lives. No one speaks. He eats alone. He reads in his apartment. She walks to her home and has a sandwich. She keeps her eyes lowered. He drives to work. Does either want to connect? What bond can they establish? Written by.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 263
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 80%
Café Lumière (2003)
Plot Summary:
Making her way through life by forming superficial relationships, Yoko (Japanese pop idol Yo Hitoto) keeps everyone at arm's length, whether it's her father (Nanji Kobayashi) and stepmother (Kimiko Yo) or Hajime (Tadanobu Asano), the owner of a small bookstore who could be the father of her unborn child. Yoko seems most at home when she's riding the train, speeding around the city with only her thoughts to entertain her.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan, Taiwan
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, serious, realistic, contemplative, uplifting, art house, slow cinema, aesthetic
Similar in 87%
Homeland (2014)
Plot Summary:
When Jiro Sawada was a sophomore in high school he was framed for something he did not do. Afterwards, he left his hometown in a small village in Fukushima Prefecture. After the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, Jiro Sawada goes back to his hometown, when nobody is able to live there, and begins to live there again. His separated family begin to reunite.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 108
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: touching, atmospheric, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 77%
Tokyo Family (2013)
Plot Summary:
In this film director Yoji Yamada bows down before his teacher and role model. Yamada was assistant director on Yazujirō Ozu’s Tōkyō monogatari, a moving family portrait set after the Second World War. In his remake, Yamada has made very few departures from Ozu’s masterpiece in order to update the story of ageing couple Shukichi and Tomiko to present day Japan. Once again, the pair decides to leave their quiet lives in the country to pay a visit to their children and grandchildren in Tokyo. Once there, they discover that neither their oldest son, a doctor named Koichi, nor their eldest daughter Shigeko - who runs a beauty parlour - has time for them: both are too busy attending to their everyday concerns. Even the youngest son went his own way. The old couple feel lonely and bewildered in the fast-paced metropolis.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 146 min
Plot tags: realistic, sincere, touching, emotional, psychological, captivating, sentimental, serious, crying
Similar in 85%
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 81%
The Whales of August (1987)
Plot Summary:
The Whales of August is a 1987 film based on a play by David Berry starring Bette Davis and Lillian Gish as elderly sisters. Also in the cast were Ann Sothern as one of their friends, and Vincent Price as a peripheral member of the former Russian aristocracy. The film was shot on location on Maine's Cliff Island. The house still stands and is a popular subject of artists on the island. The film was directed by Lindsay Anderson, his final feature film, and the screenplay was adapted by David Berry from his own play.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: clever, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy, sentimental, independent film, eighties
Similar in 89%
Rhapsody in August (1991)
Plot Summary:
The story centers on an elderly hibakusha, who lost her husband in the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki, caring for her four grandchildren over the summer. She learns of a long-lost brother, Suzujiro, living in Hawaii who wants her to visit him before he dies.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: emotional, melancholic, lyrical, psychological, sincere, atmospheric, serious, talky, philosophical, meditative
Similar in 89%
Small World (2010)
Plot Summary:
Conrad Lang, a handyman in a rich family - he has been raised like a brother with Thomas, who has the same age -, accidentally puts fire to the big holiday house he keeps. He returns to the town he grew up in, to the family home, where Philippe, Thomas's son, and Simone are getting married. Conrad's frequent memory loss and behavioural problems rapidly reveal a neurological disease (Alzheimer's is suggested by doctor Cohen when he examens Elvira) which leads Elvira, Thomas's stepmother, to install Conrad in a guesthouse on the property, with the help of a nurse. When Conrad looses more and more his landmarks in present and past, memories of his youth come back to surface. They intrigue Simone, since these memories do not entirely fit together with the official family history.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 636
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Germany
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: psychological, realistic, serious, captivating, suspenseful, gloomy
Similar in 84%
The White Sound (2001)
Plot Summary:
Lukas, a young schizophrenic man, has to deal with a new town, a new relationship, and the paranoia in his head.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, mindfuck, transgressive