Best movies like Ju Dou: Secret Love, Hidden Faces
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A woman married to the brutal and infertile owner of a dye mill in rural China conceives a boy with her husband's nephew but is forced to raise her son as her husband's heir without revealing his parentage in this circular tragedy. Filmed in glowing technicolour, this tale of romantic and familial love in the face of unbreakable tradition is more universal than its setting.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: China, Japan
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, realistic, erotic, independent film, sensual, erotic drama, technicolor, touching, serious, contemplative
Best tv shows and movies like Ju Dou: Secret Love, Hidden Faces (1990):
Similar in 83%
Dust in the Wind (1986)
Plot Summary:
A-yuan and A-yun are both from the small mining town of Jio-fen. In the city, A-yuan is an apprentice by day and goes to night school, and A-yun works as a helper at a tailors. Everyone thinks they are meant for each other, so do they. They fail to see time and fate are beyond their control.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Taiwan
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: slow cinema, teen, aesthetic, rough, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 79%
The Proposition (1998)
Plot Summary:
Father Michael McKinnon goes from the UK to Boston circa 1935. For unknown reasons, he avoids at all costs the most prominent parishioners, Arthur and Eleanor Barret. Meanwhile Eleanor and Arthur desperately want to have a child, but Arthur is sterile, so they hire Harvard law student Roger Martin to impregnate Eleanor, but unfortunately Roger falls in love with her.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: melancholic, absurd, sincere, erotic, emotional, inspirational, romantic drama, psychological, serious, realistic
Similar in 78%
Shanghai Triad (1995)
Plot Summary:
A provincial boy related to a Shanghai crime family is recruited by his uncle into cosmopolitan Shanghai in the 1930s to be a servant to a ganglord's mistress.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Crime, Drama, History, Romance, Thriller
Country: France, China
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, clever, stylized, crime drama, mind blowing, tense, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 90%
Feelings (2003)
Plot Summary:
Two seemingly happily married French couples are forced to contend with a number of issues.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, erotic, sensitive, sexy
Similar in 86%
Marie-Jo and Her 2 Lovers (2002)
Plot Summary:
Marie-Jo and Her Two Lovers (French: Marie-Jo et ses deux amours) is a 2002 French drama film directed by Robert Guédiguian. It was entered into the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 824
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: emotional, psychological, sincere, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 87%
Never Forever (2007)
Plot Summary:
When an American woman begins a dangerous relationship with an attractive immigrant worker, in order to save her marriage, she finds her true self.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: South Korea, USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: erotic, emotional, realistic, psychological, serious, romantic, sensual, gloomy, sexual, independent film
Similar in 84%
Kiss Me Again (2010)
Plot Summary:
A look at the lives of Carlo, Giulia, and their friends some 10 years after the events of L'Ultimo bacio.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, touching, captivating, melancholic
Similar in 90%
For a Woman (2013)
Plot Summary:
After the death of her mother, Anne makes a shocking discovery: an old photograph casts doubt on her origins and leads her to discover a mysterious uncle who lived with her parents after the war. As she lifts the lid on a long forgotten family secret, the young woman learns that her mother once succumbed to an amorous passion that was as intense as it was short-lived.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 870
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, semi serious, captivating, humorous, tragic
Similar in 85%
Lady Chatterley's Lover (2015)
Plot Summary:
An early-20th-century tale of love across class boundaries which tells the legendary and romantic story of Lady Chatterley’s affair with her gamekeeper. Jed Mercurio’s adaptation of DH Lawrence’s classic.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, erotic, costume drama, sentimental, captivating, disturbing, period piece, romantic drama, historical drama
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Coming Home (2014)
Plot Summary:
Lu and Feng are a devoted couple forced to separate when Lu is arrested and sent to a labor camp as a political prisoner during the Cultural Revolution. He finally returns home only to find that his beloved wife no longer remembers him.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: China
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, atmospheric, touching, realistic, social
Similar in 89%
Temptress Moon (1996)
Plot Summary:
Set in the decadent 1920s, Temptress Moon tells the very complicated story of a wealthy family living on the outskirts of Shanghai. Their youngest daughter, Ruyi, is brought up as a servant to her opium-addicted father and brother. Meanwhile, her brother-in-law Zhongliang has a successful, if illegal, career seducing and blackmailing married women in the city. When he comes to Ruyi's home the two fall in love, and trouble ensues.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: stylized, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, gloomy, epic, erotic, atmospheric, sexy
Similar in 88%
Sunday (1997)
Plot Summary:
This film concerns two mysterious characters who meet on a Sunday in Queens. Madeleine the most unsettling creature of that name since "Vertigo" is a middle-aged, moderately successful actress. Oliver/Matthew is either a homeless man or a famous film director or both. Madeleine hails him on the street as the latter, launching a bizarre chain of events that includes a conversation in a diner, a very unromantic sexual encounter, the arrival of Madeleine's odd husband and unsuspecting daughter, and a child's birthday party. The film also compassionately tracks the daily rounds of Oliver/Matthew's fellow denizens of the homeless shelter, some of whom will be recognizable to New York audiences.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 696
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: independent film, psychological, thought provoking, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 89%
A Good Lawyer's Wife (2003)
Plot Summary:
Bored, horny, and frustrated, a woman begins an affair with a teenage boy.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: South Korea
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, atmospheric, erotic, emotional, sexy, gloomy, dark, sensual, romantic drama
Similar in 82%
Don't Move (2004)
Plot Summary:
While waiting for the brain surgery of his daughter Angela, victim of a motorcycle accident, the surgeon Timoteo recalls his torrid affair with and passion for Italia, a simple woman from slums in the periphery of the big city where he lives. The ghost of the beloved and sexual object of desire Italia chases him in his memories.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Italy, Spain, UK
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: sexy, emotional, sincere, romantic, family comedy, sensual, serious, realistic, contemplative, touching
Similar in 84%
Faithless (2000)
Plot Summary:
Scripted by Ingmar Bergman, this very personal film is about a destructive affair which wrecks the marriage of an actress (Marianne) and musician (Markus). Wanting to continue the affair, Marianne moves in with her lover. But she is tormented by Markus' decision not to let her have custody of their daughter. Finally Markus announces he may have a solution to the stalemate, but this leads to deception, lies and ultimately, tragedy.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Sweden, Italy, Germany, Finland, Norway
Duration: 154 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, atmospheric, lyrical, tense, contemplative, stylized, gloomy, depressing, erotic
Similar in 88%
Tempted (2003)
Plot Summary:
The strain of juggling her responsibilities as wife, mother, and successful paralegal have worn Emma Burke (Virginia Madsen) out. Thus it is that Emma welcomes the opportunity to briefly take leave of her Boston home and head for sunny Hawaii. It is not, however, a pleasure trip: Having promised to honor the dying wishes of her Hawaiian-born surrogate mother, Emma had agreed to transport the woman's ashes to the Islands for a traditional burial ceremony. Leaving her husband, Mike (Andrew McFarlane), behind to care for their two children, Emma arrives in Hawaii for the first time since childhood, where she is reunited with her childhood friend Kala (Jason Momoa), the handsome son of her late surrogate parent. Against her better judgment, Emma falls in love with Kala, and he with her. Complications arise when Mike and the kids show up in the Islands, a the obligatory evil land developer rears his ugly head, and Emma learns the shocking truth about her biological mother.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 503
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, serious, realistic, romantic drama, sexual, sexy
Similar in 80%
Zhou Yu's Train (2002)
Plot Summary:
Zhou Yu, a ceramic artisan in China's rural Northwest, has a deep rapport with Chen Qing, a shy sensitive poet. Taking a long train ride every weekend just to make mad passionate love with him, her longing seems insatiable. Until one day, she meets the hedonistic vet Zhang Qiang and begins a torrid affair, which takes her to another train station, and another level of lust. Driven by the locomotive of love and desire, she hustles through a dark tunnel of no return.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: sentimental, atmospheric, touching, serious, contemplative, realistic, surprise ending, non-linear
Similar in 81%
Alexander the Last (2009)
Plot Summary:
An ensemble drama about a married actress, her sister and their myriad sexual and creative temptations.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 902
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 72 min
Plot tags: mumblecore, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, heartfelt, contemplative, independent film, sexual, sexy
Similar in 84%
The Golden Bowl (2000)
Plot Summary:
An intricately plotted tale of thwarted love and betrayal, "The Golden Bowl" tells the story of an extravagantly rich American widower and his sheltered daughter, both of whom marry only to discover that their respective mates, a beautiful American expatriate and an impoverished Italian aristocrat, are entangled with one another in a romantic intrigue of seduction and deceit.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA, France, UK
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: period piece, serious, stylized, realistic, costume drama, suspense, romantic drama, historical drama, clever, biting
Similar in 80%
Raise the Red Lantern (1991)
Plot Summary:
China in the 1920s. After her father's death, 19 year old Songlian is forced to marry the much older lord of a powerful family. With three wives already, each living in a separate house within the great castle, there is fierce competition for his attention and the privileges that are gained. This competition gets out of hand.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 35000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Hong Kong, China
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, depressing, stylized, visually stunning, intense, serious, realistic, poignant, cerebral, independent film
Similar in 84%
Curse of the Golden Flower (2006)
Plot Summary:
During China's Tang dynasty the emperor has taken the princess of a neighboring province as wife. She has borne him two sons and raised his eldest. Now his control over his dominion is complete, including the royal family itself.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 46000
Genere: Action, Drama, Romance
Country: Hong Kong, China
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: costume drama, visual, colorful, absurd, serious, captivating, visually stunning, stylized, action adventure, sexy
Similar in 88%
Eros (2004)
Plot Summary:
A three-part anthology film about love and sexuality: a menage-a-trois between a couple and a young woman on the coast of Tuscany; an advertising executive under enormous pressure at work, who, during visits to his psychiatrist, is pulled to delve into the possible reasons why his stress seems to manifest itself in a recurring erotic dream; and a story of unrequited love about a beautiful, 1960s high-end call girl in an impossible affair with her young tailor.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, France, Italy, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: sexy, erotic, anthology, atmospheric, stylized, sexual, poetic, erotic drama, realistic, serious
Similar in 79%
Chinese Box (1997)
Plot Summary:
The story of Hong Kong, from New Year's Day to June 30th, 1997, when the British left their colony and turned it over to the People's Republic of China.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Japan, USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, independent film, sentimental, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, philosophical, sexy, thought provoking
Similar in 85%
Brownian Movement (2010)
Plot Summary:
A psychiatrist's adulterous past continues to haunt her and her husband after they move to India.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: realistic, atmospheric, erotic, sexual, psychological, sentimental, captivating, sensual, touching, serious
Similar in 75%
A Village Affair (1995)
Plot Summary:
Based on the bestselling novel by Joanna Trollope Recently returned to England from New York City, vivacious heiress Clodagh Unwin befriends a couple new to her village. The husband is entranced by the young aristocrat, but Clodagh has eyes for someone else: his wife, Alice. Alice has a gilded life--beautiful children, a handsome husband, and a stately home. Secretly, she’s depressed after the birth of her third child and unhappy in her marriage. Clodagh proves irresistible. But when tongues start wagging, the women learn that love might not be enough.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 582
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: emotional, serious, realistic, sincere, touching, melancholic, sensual, sexual, independent film, sexy
Similar in 77%
Amnesty (2011)
Plot Summary:
Amnesty is a 2011 Albanian movie directed by Buyar Alimani. It’s a story about two people who meet up in jail when they come for monthly visits of their spouses. They fall in love after becoming witnesses to a wedding in jail but relationship has to end because both their spouses get amnesty from the government. What happens next is shown in usual east european movie style.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 223
Genere: Drama
Country: Albania, Greece, France
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, touching, serious, realistic, erotic, contemplative, gloomy
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Come Undone (2010)
Plot Summary:
Anna is an accountant for an important insurance firm and lives with her longterm lover Alessio - a man who longs for a stable longterm relationship with children, home, etc. Anna, feeling as though the fire has fizzled in that relationship takes up with co-worker Domenico and the two begin a passionate affair.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Italy, Switzerland, France
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: erotic, sensual, sincere, touching, sexy, serious, realistic, sexual, art house, explicit
Similar in 89%
The Little House (2014)
Plot Summary:
Following the death of the unmarried and childless Taki, Takeshi, a young relative of hers, discovers several pages of closely written lines in which the old lady has recorded her memories. This is how he learns the truth about her youth working as a housemaid and nanny for the Hirai family in a little house in Tokyo with a red gabled roof.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration: 136 min
Plot tags: sentimental, realistic, psychological, captivating, touching, serious, stylized
Similar in 83%
The Painted Veil (2006)
Plot Summary:
A British medical doctor fights a cholera outbreak in a small Chinese village, while also being trapped at home in a loveless marriage to an unfaithful wife.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 95000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: China, Canada, USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, scenic, captivating, heartbreaking, melancholic, costume drama, romantic, period piece, atmospheric
Similar in 83%
In the Mood for Love (2000)
Plot Summary:
A melancholy story about the love between a woman and a man who live in the same building and one day find out that their husband and wife had an affair with each other. More and more the two meet during their daily lives as they determine that they both don’t want to be lonely in their marriage.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 163000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Hong Kong, France
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: art house, atmospheric, melancholic, visually stunning, artsy, contemplative, visually appealing, visual, sexy, psychological