Best movies like Before We Vanish
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies related to Before We Vanish? Leverage your familiarity to help others toward movies and tv shows you've seen before that might similarly transfix them. Aid in increasing the cohort of people bringing up videos between each other. We encourage your contribution!
Plot Summary:
Narumi is on bad terms with her husband Shinji when one day, Shinji goes missing. He comes back a couple of days later, but seems like a totally different person, and is now gentle and tender. He goes for a walk every day. Meanwhile, Journalist Sakurai covers the story of a family that was brutally murdered, when an unexplained phenomenon takes place. Shinji Kase tells his wife that he came to Earth to invade.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: Japan
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, captivating, contemplative, realistic, road movie, detective
Best tv shows and movies like Before We Vanish (2017):
Similar in 78%
Foreboding (2017)
Plot Summary:
Miyuki tells Etsuko that she has a ghost in her home. When Etsuko goes to her home, there is only her father there. Etsuko takes her to the hospital, Miyuki receives a diagnosis that she lacks the concept of 'family'.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 378
Genere: Sci-Fi
Country: Japan
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: psychological, unusual plot structure, suspense, contemplative, visually appealing
Similar in 75%
The Tale of Iya (2013)
Plot Summary:
It was summer when a stranger from Tokyo arrived at “Iya”, where the riches of nature still abound. This young man, named Kudo, was willing to live his new, self-sufficient life. He was exhausted by city life, and believed this beautiful land would give him some rest. On the contrary, the reality was not as easy as he thought. There was a confliction between a local construction company and a group of nature conservationists. Farmers are trying to save their harvests from harmful animals such as deer and monkeys. People are fighting for their own purposes: to get their job, to save the environment, or to survive.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 363
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 169 min
Plot tags: silent, exciting, touching, captivating, contemplative, silent film
Similar in 80%
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 83%
Pieta in the Toilet (2015)
Plot Summary:
Hiroshi (Yojiro Noda) has given up on his dreams of becoming a painter and works part-time cleaning office windows. He learns that he has only 3 months left to live. During his last summer, high school student Mai (Hana Sugisaki) appears. Hiroshi becomes attracted to her.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 294
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, touching, captivating, disturbing, atmospheric
Similar in 76%
Love and Lies (2017)
Plot Summary:
The Japanese government carries out a program to increase the birth rate in the country. Their program analyzes gene information from its residents and selects a marriage partner for them. Aoi Nisaka is a high school student. She is in a love triangle with childhood friend Yuto Shiba and Sosuke Takachiho. Sosuke Takachiho is appointed by the government to become her husband.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 258
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, captivating, romantic drama, cute, sweet
Similar in 76%
Life Back Then (2011)
Plot Summary:
Kyohei Nagashima (Masaki Okada) has shut away the world. During his high school days he was the target of bullying and experienced horrifying moments. Now as a young adult Kyohei takes a new job. He works for a company that specializes in cleaning out the homes of recently deceased individuals. With his new job Kyohei meets co-worker Yuki (Nana Eikura). Yuki has also experienced a traumatizing event as a teen and has also shut herself away from the world. These two young people form a bond as they go through the homes of the recently departed people. They gradually open up to each other and in the process to the world. Yet, their fragile psyches may or may not be ready for such changes.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 142
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: sincere, captivating, road movie, crying, learning
Similar in 86%
Real (2013)
Plot Summary:
Koichi and Atsumi are lovers who have known each other all their lives. A year ago, however, a suicide attempt by Atsumi left her in a coma. Through 'sensing', a type of neurosurgical procedure allowing contact with the intentional aspect of a comatose patient's mind, Koishi tries to find out why Atsumi tried to kill herself, and to bring her back to consciousness. He enters her subconscious, and is told to find a picture of a plesiosaur she drew when she was a child. It turns out that a childhood incident buried in their past will bring their minds together.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: Japan
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, surreal, mind bending, emotional, suspenseful, disturbing, romantic, gloomy, manga
Similar in 85%
I Just Didn't Do It (2006)
Plot Summary:
A young man fights for his freedom after he is accused of groping a girl on train.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 143 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
The Ravine of Goodbye (2013)
Plot Summary:
In a valley, with a dense growth of trees, a baby is killed. The baby's mother Satomi is arrested as the prime suspect. The police also learn that Satomi is involved in a romantic relationship with her next door neighbor Ozaki. The information was provided by the neighbor's lover Kanako. Meanwhile, magazine reporter Watanabe, who is covering the story, discovers the shocking fact that Ozaki was involved in a rape case 15 years ago. Even more shocking, the victim in the rape case is Kanako.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 496
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, captivating, realistic, romantic, sexy, crying, detective, juvenile
Similar in 76%
The Wings of the Kirin (2011)
Plot Summary:
A man's body is found under the statue of a winged kirin in the Nihombashi area of Tokyo. A suspect named Yashima has a car accident and falls unconscious while he is attempting to run away. Yashima's lover Kaori comes from Fukushima and tells detectives that he is absolutely not a criminal. Meanwhile, Detective Kyoichiro Kaga's (Hiroshi Abe) investigates and uncovers a point of contact between the dead body and Yashima. A hidden fact of the victim is revealed which even his children did not know about.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 873
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: tense, unusual plot structure, suspense, disturbing, detective, visually appealing
Similar in 87%
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 86%
Make a Bow and Kiss (2017)
Plot Summary:
Based on the comic book by Yakko Kaga.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 175
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: light, romantic, sweet, captivating, crying, whimsical
Similar in 84%
Neighboring Sakuko (2013)
Plot Summary:
3 years on from hospitalité, Kiki Sugino and Koji Fukada are back again with this socially-conscious film about a 18-year-old girl in-between adolescence and adulthood who spends a summer in a valley and enjoys romance. Sakuko, a 18-year-old girl studying for her university entrance exams, decides to accompany her aunt Mikie on a trip to a seaside town. There she befriends Takashi, a refugee from Fukushima who has dropped out of high school and works at a motel run by Ukichi, a friend of Mikie. In-between childhood and adulthood, Sakuko starts to understand the difficulties of becoming an adult.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 449
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan, USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, realistic, captivating, sincere, sentimental, feel good, serious
Similar in 75%
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 80%
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%
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%
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 81%
Bright Future (2002)
Plot Summary:
Two friends who work in the same oshibori laundry are lost in the drudgery of everyday life. They hang out together, barely functioning and barely communicating. Their middle-aged boss makes a desparate attempt to connect with them with disasterous consequences. Their future is far from bright.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 81%
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 83%
About the Pink Sky (2011)
Plot Summary:
High school student Izumi Kawashima, whose daily routine is rating newspaper articles, finds a wallet containing a large sum of cash. Instead of returning the wallet to its owner, Izumi decides to lend a substantial portion of the money to a middle-aged male acquaintance. She eventually returns the wallet to its owner, a wealthy high-school boy named Koki, who notices the missing money, and as compensation, asks Izumi to do something for his friend - to create a newspaper that brings happiness to its reader.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 198
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: sincere, atmospheric, serious, realistic, offbeat, sexy, hot
Similar in 83%
March Comes in Like a Lion 2 (2017)
Plot Summary:
The time spent between professional Shogi player Kiriyama and his three stories helps to heal his wounds. As he prepares to secure another win in an upcoming tournament, the father who left the three sisters appears and disturbs the peace.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 261
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: captivating, crying, weeping, entertaining
Similar in 84%
Say 'I Love You' (2014)
Plot Summary:
Mei Tachibana is a high school student. Due to a traumatic incident when she was a kid, Mei has been unable to make friends or have boyfriends. By mistake, Mei then injures the most popular male student named Yamato Kurosawa. Somehow, Yamato Kurosawa likes Mei Tachibana and tells everyone unilaterally that Mei is his friend. One day, Yamato Kurosawa saves Mei Tachibana from a stalker by kissing her. From that kiss, their love story begins.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: sexy, anime, light, sincere, shoujo, touching, captivating, romantic, romantic drama
Similar in 83%
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 82%
Tokyo Shutter Girl (2013)
Plot Summary:
The movie Tokyo Shutter Girl, based on the comic series by Kenichi Kiriki, consists of three separate works by three separate directors, each set in Tokyo. It is about three Japanese schoolgirls in a photo club.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 39
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: anthology, sexual
Similar in 86%
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 84%
The Land of Hope (2012)
Plot Summary:
An old couple, their only son, the son's wife, a young man and his lover live peacefully in a village. Then, a terrifying earthquake strikes that causes a nearby nuclear station to explode. The residents must evacuate, but the family lives on a farm, with only half of the area designated as an evacuation area.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: Japan, Taiwan, UK, Germany
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, serious, emotional, road movie, crying
Similar in 85%
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 83%
Schoolgirl Complex (2013)
Plot Summary:
At an all female high school, a senior of the radio club becomes fascinated with the club's newest member. As graduation nears and the summer heat rises, so does the sexual tension between the girls.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 273
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sentimental, romantic, sexy, touching, unusual plot structure, melancholic, erotic
Similar in 76%
Saki Achiga-hen: Episode of Side-A (2018)
Plot Summary:
Sequel movie to the live-action Saki TV series.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 33
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: captivating, tense, sincere, unusual plot structure, suspense, contemplative
Similar in 87%
Shin Godzilla (2016)
Plot Summary:
From the mind behind Evangelion comes a hit larger than life. When a massive, gilled monster emerges from the deep and tears through the city, the government scrambles to save its citizens. A rag-tag team of volunteers cuts through a web of red tape to uncover the monster's weakness and its mysterious ties to a foreign superpower. But time is not on their side - the greatest catastrophe to ever befall the world is about to evolve right before their very eyes.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 33000
Genere: Action, Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Country: Japan
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: suspense, tense, serious, natural horror, captivating, dark, political, stylized, cult classic, daikaiju