Best movies like Distance
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
On the eighth anniversary of a cult's failed chemical attack on Tokyo and their subsequent mass suicide, family members of those affected gather at the cult's former base on the shores of a lake to observe the anniversary of their loved ones' deaths.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: psychological, bleak, serious, atmospheric, mind bending, emotional, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Best tv shows and movies like Distance (2001):
Similar in 79%
Blood and Bones (2004)
Plot Summary:
In 1923, the young Kim Shun-Pei moves from Cheju Island (South Korea), to Osaka (Japan). Through the years, he becomes a cruel, greedy and violent man and builds a factory of kamaboko (processed seafood products) in his poor Korean-Japanese community exploiting his employees. He makes a fortune, abuses and destroys the lives of his wife and family, has many mistresses and children and shows no respect to anyone. Later he closes the factory, lending out the money with high interest and becomes a loan shark. His hateful behavior remains unchanged to his last breath, alone in North Korea. The film is told from the perspective of Masao, his legitimate son by his abused and degraded wife, who knows nothing about his father other than to fear him.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: psychological, rough, serious, realistic, bleak
Similar in 76%
Bashing (2005)
Plot Summary:
Yuko is a Japanese girl who was taken hostage in Iraq while volunteering there as an aid worker. Finally released and back in her hometown, Yuko finds herself ostracized as a national disgrace by society that sees her helping a country other than Japan, and the embarrassment of getting captured but not killed, as things of which to be brutally ashamed.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 506
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: psychological, realistic, bleak, serious, gloomy
Similar in 75%
Mourning for Anna (2010)
Plot Summary:
A mother deals with the violent murder of her daughter.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 160
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, serious, psychological, captivating, offbeat
Similar in 75%
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 80%
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 81%
The Stone Boy (1984)
Plot Summary:
One summer morning, 12-year-old Arnold Hillerman and his 17-year-old brother Eugene wake at dawn to pick peas and perhaps shoot a wild duck on their family's Montana farm. In a nearby pasture, Arnold's gun fires accidentally. His brother is killed instantly. Isolated by emotions he can't comprehend, Arnold (Jason Presson) must now come to terms with his grieving family - including his angry father (Academy Award®- winner Robert Duvall), his frightened mother (Oscar®- nominee Glenn Close), his antagonistic uncle (Oscar®- nominee Frederic Forrest) and his gentle, straight-talking grandfather (Wilford Brimley) - while his family must come to terms with Arnold. Linda Hamilton and Dean Cain co-star in this haunting drama that critic Richard Freedman of Newhouse Newspapers calls "profoundly moving- a magnificently acted tribute to the human spirit!".
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 830
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 78%
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 90%
The Promised Life (2002)
Plot Summary:
Sylvie is a hooker whose illegitimate daughter commits a crime. She and her daughter flee to find Sylvie's first love in the countryside. The daughter is trying to get to know her unwilling mother. Along the way, the two meet a male fugitive and bond with each other.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 756
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, serious, rough, bleak, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 90%
God's Sandbox (2002)
Plot Summary:
A successful author, Liz, searches for her daughter, Rachel, in the Sinai Desert. There she meets a Bedouin storyteller who relays the unusual love story of a Western tourist and the son of a Bedouin Sheik named Najim. Their relationship is torn apart when the American is exposed to a tribal ritual.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 180
Genere: Drama
Country: Israel
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, serious, emotional, sexy, bleak, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, sexual
Similar in 90%
No One Writes to the Colonel (1999)
Plot Summary:
Every Friday, the Colonel puts on his only suit and goes to the dock to await a letter announcing the arrival of his pension. But the townsfolk all know that this pension will never come. His wife also knows it, and even he knows it. But he is still waiting, living with the pain of the death of his son.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Mexico, France, Spain
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, atmospheric, realistic, psychological, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 86%
Our Homeland (2012)
Plot Summary:
From the late 1950s through the '70s, more than 90,000 of the ethnic Koreans in Japan emigrated to North Korea, a country that promised them affluence, justice, and an end to discrimination. KAZOKU NO KUNI tells the story of one of their number, who returns for just a short period. For the first time in 25 years, Sonho is reunited with his family in Tokyo after being allowed to undergo an operation there. Sonho’s younger sister Rie is at the centre of the film, and is not hard to recognise as the director’s alter-ego. In her documentaries DEAR PYONGYANG and SONA, THE OTHER MYSELF, Yang Yonghi told the story of her own life, and how, at age six, she experienced the departure of her three older brothers, who left their family for Pyongyang.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 285
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 79%
Angel's Fall (2004)
Plot Summary:
Zeynep, Tülin Özen works in a hotel as a housekeeper. But she suffers hell on earth because of her father's behavior. She only talks to Mustafa, 'Engin Dogan' who works in the same hotel and he is interested in Zeynep. She is not interested in Mustafa who is younger than Zeynep, but she is not indifferent to him. While Zeynep is trying to make a bonfire of bad situation, Selçuk, Budak Akalin who lives on the other side of city is a voice technician. He feels guilty after his wife's death. The suitcase which has his wife's dresses changes the Zeynep's destiny.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Greece, Turkey
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, atmospheric, touching, tense, bleak, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 89%
Liverpool (2008)
Plot Summary:
A sailor takes a short leave to visit his hometown and see if his mother is still alive.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina, France, Netherlands, Germany, Spain
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: realistic, atmospheric, contemplative, psychological, captivating, road movie, dread, slow cinema, aesthetic, sincere
Similar in 88%
Family Tree (2010)
Plot Summary:
When Frédérick, the patriarch of the Alsatian Muller family, is conspicuously absent from his son Charles' funeral, Frédérick's surviving son and his granddaughter, raw from their loss, await an explanation. Once revealed, Frédérick's reasons and the painful secret Charles harbored for years threaten the foundations of the entire family.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 205
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, touching, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 84%
Putty Hill (2010)
Plot Summary:
Friends and family of Cory, a young man who has died of an overdose, gather at a Baltimore-area karaoke bar for his wake and compare stories about him. Gradually, as it becomes clear that there are many holes in their recollections about Cory, they fill in the blanks by talking about things that reveal aspects of their own lives. Among those mourning him and searching for meaning are his cousin Jenny, his sister Zoe and his brother James.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 762
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: sincere, emotional, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, mumblecore, atmospheric, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 90%
Beautiful Boy (2010)
Plot Summary:
A married couple on the verge of separation are leveled by the news their 18-year-old son committed a mass shooting at his college, then took his own life.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: bleak, emotional, realistic, psychological, psychological thriller, depressing, social, educational, sad, multicultural
Similar in 80%
Melancholia (2008)
Plot Summary:
A story about victims of summary executions. Three people start a strange therapy to escape their agonies.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 537
Genere: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 450 min
Plot tags: bleak, psychological, serious, stylized, atmospheric, slow cinema, psychedelic, aesthetic, experimental, contemplative
Similar in 75%
Two Gates of Sleep (2010)
Plot Summary:
After preparing for their mother's imminent death, two brothers go on an arduous upriver journey to honor her final request.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 266
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 78 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, sincere, atmospheric, serious, realistic, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 84%
Into the Fire (2005)
Plot Summary:
TV Movie Drama - Sean Patrick Flanery, Melina Kanakaredes, JoBeth Williams.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 251
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, emotional, realistic, bleak, gloomy
Similar in 89%
Everything Is Fine (2008)
Plot Summary:
Josh is an ordinary teen living in an ordinary suburb. One morning he finds his friend's dead body. Next, he discovers that three more friends also have killed themselves, leaving him out of their pact. As the sole survivor, Josh becomes more and more detached from the world around him. It is a modern portrait of today's teens: invincible yet fragile, clear-thinking yet confused.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: psychological, emotional, realistic, touching, erotic, sincere, bleak, serious, gloomy
Similar in 87%
I Wish (2011)
Plot Summary:
Two young brothers at opposite ends of Kyushu devise a magical plan to reunite their separated parents in Hirokazu Koreeda's benign and superbly acted picture of family life.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, stylized, realistic, poignant, art film, teen, moody, beautiful
Similar in 83%
Kabei: Our Mother (2008)
Plot Summary:
Set in Tokyo in 1940, the peaceful life of the Nogami Family suddenly changes when the father, Shigeru, is arrested and accused of being a Communist. His wife Kayo works frantically from morning to night to maintain the household and bring up her two daughters with the support of Shigeru's sister Hisako and Shigeru's ex-student Yamazaki, but her husband does not return. WWII breaks out and casts dark shadows on the entire country, but Kayo still tries to keep her cheerful determination, and sustain the family with her love. This is an emotional drama of a mother and an eternal message for peace.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 89%
Be Sure to Share (2009)
Plot Summary:
Shiro’s struggle with his father’s cancer and impending death leads to a realization that he must communicate his love and admiration for him before it’s too late. A series of flashbacks reveals their relationship over time, and the trouble Shiro faced connecting to his strict father who was also his teacher and soccer coach. With a consuming secret of his own, Shiro, now in his late twenties and about to get engaged, must eventually learn how to share the pain of it with his loved ones.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 463
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, emotional, contemplative, psychological, sentimental, sincere, serious, gloomy
Similar in 81%
Nobody Knows (2004)
Plot Summary:
In a small Tokyo apartment, twelve-year-old Akira must care for his younger siblings after their mother leaves them and shows no sign of returning.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 30000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 141 min
Plot tags: depressing, touching, serious, atmospheric, bleak, gloomy, heartbreaking, contemplative, melancholic, meditative
Similar in 87%
After Life (1998)
Plot Summary:
After death, people have just one week to choose only a memory to keep for eternity.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: Japan
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: philosophical, surreal, emotional, spiritual, existential, psychological, sincere, touching, contemplative, stylized
Similar in 86%
All Around Us (2008)
Plot Summary:
Kanao, a courtroom portrait artist, observes crimes, scandals and the decline of Japanese values without passing judgement. As he and his wife endure the tragedy of their first child’s death, hope slowly unfolds and their love story flickers to life once again.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 890
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: emotional, realistic, touching, psychological, serious, gloomy
Similar in 78%
Still Walking (2008)
Plot Summary:
Twelve years after their beloved eldest son, Junpei, drowned while saving a stranger's life, Kyohei and Toshiko welcome their surviving children home for a family reunion. Younger son Ryota still feels that his parents resent that he isn't the one who died; his new wife, Yukari, is awkwardly meeting the rest of the family for the first time. Daughter Chinami strains to fill the uncomfortable pauses with forced cheer.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: serious, contemplative, sincere, touching, realistic, philosophical, thought provoking, disturbing, poignant, art house
Similar in 87%
The Neon Bible (1995)
Plot Summary:
While on a train, a teenage boy thinks about his life and the flamboyant aunt whose friendship acted as an emotional shield from his troubled family. This film evokes the haunting quality of memory while creating a heartfelt portrait of a boy's life in a rural 1940s Southern town.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, Spain
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: stylized, inspirational, serious, emotional, erotic, southern gothic, independent film, sentimental, atmospheric, thought provoking
Similar in 78%
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 76%
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