Best movies like Ilo Ilo
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Set in the mid 1990s in Singapore, ILOILO chronicles the relationship between a family and their maid from Ilo Ilo, a province in the Philippines.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: Singapore, Japan, Taiwan
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sincere, realistic, sentimental, touching, emotional, captivating, social, serious, gloomy, semi autobiographical
Best tv shows and movies like Ilo Ilo (2013):
Similar in 78%
The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (2006)
Plot Summary:
A boy is left alone in a Jewish neighborhood in the year of 1970, where both world cup and dictatorship happen in Brazil.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: sentimental, serious, emotional, touching, realistic, sincere, spectacular, period piece, masterpiece
Similar in 75%
Edi (2002)
Plot Summary:
No overview found.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 82%
Hidden in America (1996)
Plot Summary:
Story of a man Bill Januson whose pride in being the head of his family won't let him accept help from his sick daughters doctor. He has to prove to his kids that even with the death of his wife and the loss of his job that they can and will survive. After hitting brick wall after brick wall comes a glimmer of hope.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 538
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: crying, sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, disturbing, gloomy
Similar in 87%
Kamchatka (2002)
Plot Summary:
The movie show us how life was in Argentina for dissident people, in the seventies, under the military government.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina, Spain, Italy
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, serious, realistic, political, touching
Similar in 83%
Sivas (2014)
Plot Summary:
Establishing a bleak village in Eastern Turkey as its setting, Sivas features the story of Aslan, an eleven-year-old boy, and Sivas, a weathered fighting dog who develop a strong relationship after Aslan finds Sivas wounded in a ditch, left to die.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, Turkey
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, touching, captivating, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 75%
In Bloom (2013)
Plot Summary:
Eka and Natia leave their childhood behind and ignore societal customs to escape from their turbulent family lives.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Georgia, Germany, France
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: emotional, realistic, serious, captivating, social, art house, transgressive, sincere, queer cinema
Similar in 80%
Misunderstood (2014)
Plot Summary:
Rome, 1984, Aria is nine-year-old girl. On the verge of divorce, Aria's infantile and selfish parents are too preoccupied with their careers and extra-marital affairs to properly tend to any of Aria's needs. While her two older sisters are pampered, Aria is treated with cold indifference. Yet she yearns to love and to be loved. At school, Aria excels academically but is considered a misfit by everyone. She is misunderstood. Aria finds comfort in her cat - Dac and in her best friend - Angelica. Thrown out of both parents' homes, abandoned by all, even her best friend, Aria finally reaches the limit of what she can bear. She makes an unexpected decision in her life.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, realistic, sincere, serious, stylized, cult classic
Similar in 83%
Sandcastle (2010)
Plot Summary:
En is an 18-year-old who has lost his father to cancer. As his family is drawn together in a sudden tragedy, he has to decide what he believes in. But in a country where ideologies are forged on constantly shifting sands, he struggles to stay true to what he knows to be right. And in a family that prefers to forget, the sandcastles of all he holds dear seem doomed to be washed away by the tides of time.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 144
Genere: Drama
Country: Singapore
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: realistic, atmospheric, emotional, psychological, captivating, sincere, touching, serious
Similar in 86%
The Rocket (2013)
Plot Summary:
Set against the lush backdrop of rural Laos, this spirited drama tells the story of scrappy ten-year-old Ahlo, who yearns to break free from his ill-fated destiny. After his village is displaced to make way for a massive dam, Ahlo escapes with his father and grandmother through the Laotian outback in search of a new home. Along the way, they come across a rocket festival that offers Ahlo a lucrative but dangerous chance to prove his worth.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia, Thailand, Laos
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: captivating, realistic, sincere, touching, serious
Similar in 83%
The Way I Spent the End of the World (2006)
Plot Summary:
Bucharest 1989 - the last year of Ceausecu's dictatorship. Eva lives with her parents and her 7 year old brother, Lalalilu. One day at school, Eva and her boyfriend accidentally break a bust of Ceausescu. They are forced to confess their crime before a disciplinary committee and Eva is expelled from school and transferred to a reformatory establishment. There she meets Andrei, and decides to escape Romania with him. Lalalilu becomes convinced that Ceausescu is the main reason for Eva's decision to leave. So with his friends from school he devises a plan to kill the dictator.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Romania, France
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, captivating, serious, realistic, atmospheric
Similar in 84%
Darker Than Midnight (2014)
Plot Summary:
Davide is different from the other teenagers. Something makes him look like a girl. Davide is fourteen when he runs away from home. His intuition leads him to choose Villa Bellini, a park in Catania, as a refuge. The park is a world in itself, a world of the marginalized, to which the rest of the city turns a blind eye. But one day the past catches up and Davide has to face the most difficult choice, this time alone.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 355
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, captivating, realistic, queer cinema
Similar in 81%
Abandoned (2001)
Plot Summary:
Áron is a happy child in his family. But at some point things take a different turn, and his mother starts to lose her health rapidly. As this happens, the man in charge decides what's best for Áron without consulting the young boy's opinion, and the boy finds himself thrown out of his warm home into an orphanage in the woods. He's utterly displeased by what's happening, without knowing he has yet to face much worse. After a hard time getting over the harrassment of his classmates and being accepted as one of them, another obstacle on the way to his peace of mind faces him: His obnoxious teachers. He has no intention of being bad, but it's beyond his ability to blend into the revolting place he's in. The nasty treatment of the teaching crew gets the better of him, and he's not all that calm and passive anymore. But that leads into unpleasant events which Áron himself wouldn't want.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 610
Genere: Drama
Country: Hungary
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sincere, uplifting, touching, serious, art house, bleak, emotional, realistic
Similar in 76%
A Year in My Life (2006)
Plot Summary:
In 1950s France, a young boy is taken in by a couple after spending a few months in the care of social service.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 224
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: sentimental, uplifting, touching, sincere, captivating, feel good, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 75%
Our Life (2010)
Plot Summary:
Claudio works on a site in the suburbs of Rome. He is madly in love with his wife who is pregnant with their third child. However, a dramatic event comes to upset this simple and happy life. In a rage for life, Claudio energetically fights against the injustice that fell upon him. Love and support from his friends and family as well as the laughter of his children will help him to triumph against the odds.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: emotional, sincere, serious, realistic, captivating, touching, gloomy
Similar in 86%
Blame it on Fidel (2006)
Plot Summary:
A 9-year-old girl weathers big changes in her household as her parents become radical political activists in 1970-71 Paris.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, political, epic, historical drama, sincere, crying
Similar in 85%
Liam (2000)
Plot Summary:
A morality tale of xenophobia, religious prejudice, mob violence, poverty, and their effect on two children in Liverpool during the Depression. When a shipyard closes, Liam and Teresa's dad loses his job. Liam, who's about 8, making his first Holy Communion, gets a regular dose of fire and brimstone at church. Teresa, about 13, has a job as a maid to the Jewish family that owns the closed shipyard. The lady of that house is having an affair, and Teresa becomes an accomplice. Liam stutters terribly, especially when troubled. Dad comes under the sway of the Fascists, who blame cheap Irish labor and Jewish owners. A Molotov cocktail brings things to a head.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, Germany, France, Italy
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: touching, bleak, emotional, sincere, depressing, intense, tense, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 76%
Machuca (2004)
Plot Summary:
Santiago, capital of Chile during the Marxist government of elected, highly controversial president Salvador Allende. Father McEnroe supports his leftist views by introducing a program at the prestigious "collegio" (Catholic prep school) St. Patrick to allow free admission of some proletarian kids. One of them is Pedro Machuca, slum-raised son of the cleaning lady in Gonzalo Infante's liberal-bourgeois home. Yet the new classmates become buddies, paradoxically protesting together as Gonzalo gets adopted by Pedro's slum family and gang. But the adults spoil that too, not in the least when general Pinochet's coup ousts Allende, and supporters such as McEnroe.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Chile, Spain, UK, France
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: political, sincere, touching, emotional, thought provoking, serious, realistic, social, hispanic, sentimental
Similar in 76%
Stolen Summer (2002)
Plot Summary:
Pete, an eight-year-old Catholic boy growing up in the suburbs of Chicago in the mid-1970s, attends Catholic school, where as classes let out for the summer, he's admonished by a nun to follow the path of the Lord, and not that of the Devil. Perhaps taking this message a bit too seriously, Pete decides it's his goal for the summer to help someone get into heaven; having been told that Catholicism is the only sure path to the kingdom of the Lord, Pete decides to convert a Jew to Catholicism in order to improve their standing in the afterlife. Hoping to find a likely candidate, Pete begins visiting a nearby synagogue, where he gets to know Rabbi Jacobson, who responds to Pete's barrage of questions with good humor. Pete also makes friends with the Rabbi's son, Danny, who is about the same age; when he learns that Danny is seriously ill, he decides Danny would be an excellent choice for conversion.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, sincere, uplifting, cult classic, feel good, serious, realistic, inspirational, dramatic
Similar in 75%
Fifteen and Pregnant (1998)
Plot Summary:
Based on a true story, 15 year old Tina Spangler discovers she is pregnant. Her choices are abortion, adoption, or a lonely, exhausting life as a single parent. Abandoned by her boyfriend, she turns to her mother. Tina discovers although it has torn her world apart, her pregnancy could re-unite her shattered family and help her find her true purpose in life.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, psychological, sincere, talky, ridiculous
Similar in 88%
12 and Holding (2005)
Plot Summary:
Three pre-adolescents with virginal and eager-of-signals naivety, hit headlong against monstrous and inhospitable loneliness, in the incandescent fire among the ashes of their own inocence.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, emotional, heartbreaking, sad, sentimental, serious, depressing, harsh, art house
Similar in 78%
Of Boys and Men (2008)
Plot Summary:
Robert Townsend stars as the patriarch of a family devastated when his wife is killed in a senseless auto accident. Reeling with grief, each family member must find courage and vision to carry on, ultimately eager to do the mother proud.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 192
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, sentimental, captivating, touching, serious, independent film
Similar in 89%
Pellet (2000)
Plot Summary:
El Bola, a 12 year old boy a.k.a. "Pellet" is a 12 year old boy raised in a violent and sordid environment. Embarrassed by his family life, he avoids becoming close to classmates. The arrival of a new boy at school changes his attitude towards his classmates, and friendship. The heart of the story is the change in El Bola's life, at almost all levels, after befriending this new classmate. Written by ElianaM.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, disturbing, touching, social, sincere, depressing, controversial, hispanic
Similar in 82%
Kauwboy (2012)
Plot Summary:
Ten-year-old Jojo lives with his father, a security guard with a volatile personality who drinks to manage the unspoken despair he feels about his wife's absence, which he refuses to discuss with his son. In the midst of so much uncertainty, Jojo finds comfort and happiness in caring for an abandoned baby bird, a jackdaw, who is even more vulnerable than himself.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, melancholic, realistic
Similar in 83%
The Last Hammer Blow (2014)
Plot Summary:
When he first enters the Montpellier Opera House, Victor knows nothing about music. Nor does he know his father, Samuel Rovinski, who is there to conduct Mahler’s 6th symphony. To change the course of his suddenly uncertain future, for Nadia his mother, for Luna whom he has fallen in love with, Victor has decided to step out of the shadows. He’ll go as far as he needs to.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 520
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: realistic, sentimental, touching, emotional, captivating, sincere, serious
Similar in 78%
A Time in Quchi (2013)
Plot Summary:
Bao stays with his grandfather for the summer and is shocked to see there are no modern appliances.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 130
Genere: Drama
Country: Taiwan
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, atmospheric, captivating, serious
Similar in 87%
Like Father, Like Son (2013)
Plot Summary:
Ryota Nonomiya is a successful businessman driven by money. He learns that his biological son was switched with another child after birth. He must make a life-changing decision and choose his true son or the boy he raised as his own.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 27000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, disturbing, psychological, sincere, intense, poignant, realistic, sad, slow cinema
Similar in 79%
Mommy Is at the Hairdresser's (2008)
Plot Summary:
Summer 1966. It's time to enjoy the summer holiday, total freedom. Teenage Élise discovers that the sudden departure of her mother completely disrupts the family. Her brother Coco seeks solace in the garage, building a super racing car. Her youngest brother Benoît throws himself into his own inner world. The father seems absolutely knocked out by the situation. Élise decides to take control of her family, in an eloquent attempt to save them. With the assistance of flourishing nature around her, she stands on the threshold of an incomparable summer.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 922
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: emotional, sentimental, touching, serious, realistic, disturbing, sexy, sincere, captivating, sexual
Similar in 82%
Face (2002)
Plot Summary:
Genie, a Chinese-American teenager, develops feelings for a charming African-American DJ, but her grandmother forbids their romance forcing Genie to choose between family and love.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 350
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, emotional, sentimental, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 89%
Along the Ridge (2006)
Plot Summary:
A young father and his two children struggle to find harmony after his wife leaves them for another man.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: serious, touching, emotional, realistic
Similar in 90%
My Father My Lord (2007)
Plot Summary:
"My Father My Lord" is an intimate and deeply disturbing story of the conflict between a father's love and his deep devotion to religion. A respected Orthodox Rabbi dotes on his only son but his religious strictures leave an emotional gap between the impish child and the stern father. When the father's all-consuming obsession with observing religious ritual inadvertently leads to tragedy, his previously subservient wife rages against both her husband and God. A dramatic retelling of the story of Abraham.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 492
Genere: Drama
Country: Israel
Duration: 72 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, emotional, captivating, sad, thought provoking, serious, realistic, contemplative