Best movies like A Long Goodbye
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A seventy-year-old retired school headmaster informs his wife and daughters that he has Alzheimer's disease. They are all concerned, but react differently due to their individual situations. The family watches as the husband and father regresses due to the disease and loses his memory. Interestingly, there are sparkling moments of his life of which the man will not let go.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 525
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Japan
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: emotional, crying
Best tv shows and movies like A Long Goodbye (2019):
Similar in 76%
Tokyo Park (2011)
Plot Summary:
Miura Haruma takes on the role of Koji, a college student aiming to become a professional photographer. One day, he receives an unusual request to shadow the client's girlfriend and take pictures of her; this assignment leads to subtle changes in his relationships with the women around him. Nana Eikura plays the ex-girlfriend of Koji's childhood friend, while Manami Konishi plays Koji's sister after one of his parents remarries, and Haruka Igawa plays the woman that Koji is photographing.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 235
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Japan
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
blank 13 (2017)
Plot Summary:
Thirteen years after abandoning his wife and two sons by stepping out for a pack of cigarettes and never returning, deadbeat gambler Masato dies of stomach cancer. At his funeral, a motley crew of fellow mahjong players, pachinko parlor employees and former drinking buddies gather to pay their respects and tell stories, revealing aspects of Masato’s life that complicate his sons’ resentment towards him.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 238
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Japan
Duration: 70 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
The Land of Rain Trees (2015)
Plot Summary:
Nobuyuki Sakisaka (Yuta Tamamori) is a salaryman. When he was in middle school student, he read light novel "Fairy Game”. He still has that light novel, because he was so shocked by the ending. One day, Nobuyuki Sakisaka browses the internet and comes across the blog "Rein Tsuri no Kuni.” He learns that the blog writer, Rika Hitomi (Mariya Nishiuchi), also was shocked by the ending in light novel "Fairy Game." Nobuyuki and Rika soon begin to exchange emails. Nobuyuki wants to meet Rika, but she refuses due to her secret.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 82
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags: crying
Similar in 79%
What's for Dinner, Mom? (2016)
Plot Summary:
Two sisters Tae and Yo come back to their old house which is soon to be torn down. Clearing up the family mementos, Tae finds a red box full of recipes and letters written by their mother who died 20 years ago. In these recipes and letters, she finds out how her mother had struggled in her life due to relocation from Japan to Taiwan, the death of her Taiwanese husband, and a battle with cancer. Tae travels to Taiwan to trace her mother's past, reminiscing about the dishes she made for the family.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 185
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Japan
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: sincere, captivating, culinary
Similar in 80%
The Anthem of the Heart (2017)
Plot Summary:
Jun is a girl whose words have been sealed away so that she cannot hurt anyone with them. But, one day, she is nominated to become an executive member of the "community outreach council." On top of that, Jun is also appointed to play the main lead in their musical.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 193
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Japan
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: sincere, uplifting, touching, captivating, entertaining, crying
Similar in 85%
Harmonium (2016)
Plot Summary:
Toshio hires Yasaka to work in his workshop. But then this old acquaintance, who has just been released from prison, begins to meddle in Toshio’s family life….
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan, France
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing, crying, detective
Similar in 80%
Girl's Step (2015)
Plot Summary:
Azusa (Anna Ishii) and Narumi (Fuka Koshiba) are 2nd grade high school students. They lack confidence and also any kind of ambitions. Hazuki (Karin Ono), Tamaki (Mika Akizuki) and Mika (Miku Uehara) are also unnoticed students at the same high school. These five girls form a dance club and begin to dance to get credits. They soon learn the joys of dancing and also learn to express themselves.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 57
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Japan
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: funny, captivating, entertaining, disturbing
Similar in 85%
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%
The Travelling Cat Chronicles (2018)
Plot Summary:
Nana is the cutest girl. She is also smart and aware of her talents. She has paws and purrs. Her father Satoru cannot take of her anymore and must give her up. He searches for someone to take care of Nana and begins visiting people who may be good candidates. As Nana and her father take trips in their car Satoru meets old friends, meets new friends and his own story unfurls in the process.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 527
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, crying
Similar in 88%
Girl (2012)
Plot Summary:
"Girls" follows four beautiful women and depicts the troubles found in their love lives and work place. Yukiko Takigawa (Karina) works at a big advertising firm and has a good looking boyfriend. Seiko Takeda is married and has no children. She works at a large real estate company. Yoko Kosaka is a single woman working at a historic stationary company. Takako Hirai is a single mother who works for a car manufacturer.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 103
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
Our Departures (2018)
Plot Summary:
Akira is widowed and left with a pre-teen stepson. Travelling with him to her late husband's hometown, she meets her odd father-in-law and yet decides to make a go of living and working there. She attends training and joins the railway company where her father-in-law works and her late man dreamt of ending up as a child.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 250
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Japan
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: sexy, crying
Similar in 81%
The House Where the Mermaid Sleeps (2018)
Plot Summary:
Kaoruko and Kazumasa Harima are a separated couple with two children. They plan to divorce once their daughter, Mizuho, enters elementary school. One day, they receive devastating news of their daughter falling into a coma after a near-drowning accident at a pool. The doctors declare her brain dead with no prospect of recovery and the couple must decide if they should donate her organs to others in need or to wait until her heart stops beating.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 334
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 76%
The 8-Year Engagement (2017)
Plot Summary:
Hisashi and Mai are a happy couple in their 20s who are engaged to be married. But three months before their wedding, Mai becomes seriously ill. Her heart stops momentarily, and she falls into a deep coma. Hisashi visits Mai at the hospital every day before work. With no idea if or when she will ever awake, Mai’s parents encourage Hisashi to find someone else, but he refuses to give up and continues to pray for her recovery. As if his prayers are answered, Mai begins to regain consciousness several years later, and even utters a few words. But tragically, she has suffered brain damage and has no memory of Hisashi.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: romantic, touching, sincere, serious, romantic drama, crying, humorous, fun
Similar in 86%
Head Full of Honey (2014)
Plot Summary:
Before eleven years old Tilda's parents can put her beloved grandfather in an old people's home due to his progressing Alzheimer disease, she takes him on one last adventure that subliminally threatens to tear her family apart.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Family
Country: Germany
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: sincere, sentimental, emotional, touching, captivating, compassionate
Similar in 79%
Pecoross' Mother and Her Days (2013)
Plot Summary:
Laid-back baby boomer Yuichi (Ryo Iwamatsu) is a middle-aged manga artist and singer-songwriter when he isn't at his salaryman day job or watching out for his elderly mother. Suffering from increasing dementia since her husband's death, Mitsue (Harue Akagi) is a constant source of comic energy or annoyance for Yuichi, and he and his son must soon decide if they should put her in a home for the elderly. Jumping back in time, we see how Mitsue (played by Kiwako Harada) tracked the tumult of the latter half of the 20th century, being raised as one of 10 brothers and sisters, surviving the war, and having to push her alcoholic husband (Ryo Kase) along in life. "Pecoross" is directed by the oldest active film director in Japan, Azuma Morisaki, who creates an emotionally complex work that is only the more profound and life-affirming for its cartoonish portrayal.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 202
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Family
Country: Japan
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: sincere, captivating, realistic, thought provoking, humorous, entertaining, social, manga, crying, fable
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%
Bento Harassment (2019)
Plot Summary:
Kaori (Ryoko Shinohara) is a single mother and she raises her high-school age daughter Futaba (Kyoko Yoshine). Her daughter is in a rebellious phase and ignores her mother. Kaori decides to take measures to communicate with her daughter and also get some revenge. Kaori creates messages in her daughter's bento meals.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 426
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Family
Country: Japan
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: sentimental, light, feel good, humorous, sincere, touching, entertaining
Similar in 79%
My Brother Loves Me Too Much (2017)
Plot Summary:
Setoka Tachibana is a female high school student who has confessed her feelings to other boys 12 times, but has been rebuffed each time. Her older brother Haruka Tachibana cares for his younger sister deeply, but he keeps secret from her that they are not blood related. One day, Setoka's first love Takane Serikawa appears after many years and approaches her.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 326
Genere: Drama, Family, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: romantic, sentimental, light, sincere, feel good, captivating, entertaining
Similar in 88%
A Story of Yonosuke (2012)
Plot Summary:
The year is 1987 and Japan is just reaching the peak of its economic success. Eighteen-year old Yonosuke Yokomichi arrives in Tokyo from Nagasaki. Ordinary in every way possible, he lives in a suburb far from the excitement of the big city and commutes to a university in the center of Tokyo.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 160 min
Plot tags: psychological, realistic, tense, captivating, independent film, crying
Similar in 86%
Her Love Boils Bathwater (2016)
Plot Summary:
A terminally ill single mother is determined to reconcile her splintered family.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: psychological, sentimental, sincere, captivating, melancholic, disturbing, inspirational, comedy drama, crying, detective
Similar in 89%
Our Little Sister (2015)
Plot Summary:
A story that revolves around three sisters who live in their grandmother's home and the arrival of their 13-year-old half sister.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Japan
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, realistic, captivating, independent film, inspirational, offbeat, manga, poignant, art house
Similar in 90%
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 86%
A Loving Husband (2016)
Plot Summary:
Schoolteacher Yohei is married to Miyoko. For the first time in 25 years they begin to live by themselves when their son marries and moves out. Then Yohei discovers that all’s not well in his marriage.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 277
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Japan
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 83%
Until the Break of Dawn (2012)
Plot Summary:
High school student Ayumi is trained by his grandmother to act as a "tsunagu," an intermediary for people who want to reach the dead.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 266
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
Love & Pop (1998)
Plot Summary:
Pretty Tokyo teen Hiromi Yoshii (Asumi Miwa) and her girlfriends struggle with rivalries, clothes and boyfriends, just like any other high school clique. But out for kicks and blind to the consequences, the girls of Love & Pop hide a dirty little secret. From phone booths and street corners, in department stores and restaurants, the girls practice enjo-kosai or "compensated dating" -- arranging liaisons with older men drawn to their evident nubile charms and schoolgirl uniform innocence.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: disturbing, offbeat, serious, realistic, witty, sexual, sexy
Similar in 80%
Dear Friends (2007)
Plot Summary:
High school student Rina has a bad attitude and thinks that friends are something that you use when you need them. She doesn't have any real relationships and is not even on good terms with her parents. Rina is the clubbing queen and could get any guy she wants with her stunning looks. One day, Rina suddenly collapses and her world falls apart. She finds out that she has cancer. The only one who starts to support her is her classmate Maki. Maki tells that they were friends in primary school even though Rina doesn't remember. Maki wants to get close to Rina and help her like Rina had helped Maki when she had hard times.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 438
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: captivating, sexy
Similar in 86%
Spencer's Mountain (1963)
Plot Summary:
Clay Spencer is a hard-working man who loves his wife and large family. He is respected by his neighbors and always ready to give them a helping hand. Although not a churchgoer, he even helps a newly arrived local minister regain his flock after he and Clay get into a bit of trouble. If he has one dream in life it's to build his wife Olivia a beautiful house on a piece of land he inherited on Spender's mountain. When his eldest son, Clayboy, graduates at the top of his high school class and has the opportunity to go to college, Clay has only one option left to him.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: emotional, talky, intense, touching, humorous, sentimental, feel good, retro, heartfelt, realistic
Similar in 82%
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 76%
The Railway Children (1970)
Plot Summary:
The Waterbury family are completely happy until mysterious men take their father away and they have to move up to Yorkshire without him. The three open-hearted children soon make many friends including their Old Gentleman whom they regularly wave to on his morning train journey. Bobbie, the eldest girl, makes contact with him to try and get help for the problems they are facing. Meanwhile the children find themselves involved in several unexpected dramas on the railway.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: UK
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, feel good, semi serious, family saga, sad, sentimental, light, inspirational, romantic
Similar in 90%
Bee Season (2005)
Plot Summary:
11-year-old Eliza is the invisible element of her family unit: her parents are both consumed with work and her brother is wrapped up in his own adolescent life. Eliza ignites not only a spark that makes her visible but one that sets into motion a revolution in her family dynamic when she wins a spelling bee. Finding an emotional outlet in the power of words and in the spiritual mysticism that he sees at work in her unparalleled gift, Eliza's father pours all of his energy into helping his daughter become spelling bee champion. A religious studies professor, he sees the opportunity as not only a distraction from his life but as an answer to his own crisis of faith. His vicarious path to God, real or imagined, leads to an obsession with Eliza's success and he begins teaching her secrets of the Kabbalah. Now preparing for the National Spelling Bee, Eliza looks on as a new secret of her family's hidden turmoil seems to be revealed with each new word she spells.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA, Germany
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, depressing, realistic, psychological, sincere, thought provoking, serious, spiritual, anamorphic