Best movies like Double Suicide
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies like Double Suicide? Leverage your insights to guide others toward films 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:
Successful and married with children, paper-mill owner Jihei knows better than to contradict the strict social and moral codes of 18th-century Japan. But when he meets the lovely courtesan Koharu, he becomes a man obsessed. Koharu returns his love, even foregoing other customers while Jihei schemes to somehow buy her freedom. His efforts yield ruinous consequences for his business and his family life, and Koharu is meanwhile purchased by another client.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 142 min
Plot tags: surreal, romantic, mind bending, psychedelic, spiritual, serious, emotional, realistic, stylized, jidai geki
Best tv shows and movies like Double Suicide (1969):
Similar in 81%
Himiko (1974)
Plot Summary:
The myth of the Sun Goddess who founded Japanese society is seen through the lens of a modern view of history.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 699
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, History
Country: Japan
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: surreal, mind bending, psychedelic, esoteric, weird, cult film
Similar in 78%
Why Not? (1981)
Plot Summary:
The film depicts carnivalesque atmosphere summed up by the cry "Ee ja nai ka" ("Why not?") in Japan in 1867 and 1868 in the days leading to the Meiji Restoration. It examines the effects of the political and social upheaval of the time, and culminates in a revelrous march on the Kokyo, which turns into a massacre. Characteristically, Imamura focuses not on the leaders of the country, but on characters in the lower classes and on the fringes of society.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 681
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 151 min
Plot tags: clever, serious, realistic, witty, cynical, bilingual
Similar in 75%
Not Yet (1993)
Plot Summary:
This film tells the story of professor Uehida Hyakken-sama (1889-1971), in Gotemba, around the forties. He was a university professor until an air raid, when he left to become a writer and has to live in a hut. His mood has hardly changed, not by the change nor by time.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: emotional, epic, independent film, psychological, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, sentimental
Similar in 76%
Sword of the Beast (1965)
Plot Summary:
Legendary swordplay filmmaker Hideo Gosha’s Sword of the Beast chronicles the flight of the low-level swordsman Gennosuke, who kills one of his ministers as part of a reform plot. His former comrades then turn on him, and this betrayal so shakes his sense of honor that he decides to live in the wild, like an animal. There he joins up with a motley group who are illegally mining the shogun’s gold, and, with the aid of another swordsman, gets a chance not just at survival but to recover his name and honor.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, stylized
Similar in 75%
After the Rain (1999)
Plot Summary:
A group of travelers is stranded in a small country inn when the river floods during heavy rains. As the bad weather continues, tensions rise amongst the travelers trapped at the inn. Ihei Misawa is a ronin, a samurai without a master, whose skills with a sword make him a valuable employee but whose brutal honesty and lack of social graces prevent him from staying with one master for too long. One night, Ihei impulsively offers to buy food and drink for the guests at a hotel; he doesn't have the money to pay, and to raise cash he concocts a scheme to take on anyone brave enough to fight him for a prize. Ihei's fighting skills impress Lord Shigeaki, who offers him a position as fencing master in his court. Ihei gratefully accepts, but when Shigeaki challenges him to a fight, Ihei beats the Lord decisively. Ihea is certain that he's managed to throw another opportunity away when a band of mercenaries attacks him, and his skills as a swordsman are put to the ultimate test.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan, France
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: spiritual, jidai geki, atmospheric, serious, captivating, stylized
Similar in 83%
Samurai Rebellion (1967)
Plot Summary:
The mother of a feudal lord's only heir is kidnapped away from her husband by the lord. The husband and his samurai father must decide whether to accept the unjust decision, or risk death to get her back.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: tense, emotional, stylized, black and white, sincere, atmospheric, jidai geki, serious, captivating, suspenseful
Similar in 87%
An Actor's Revenge (1963)
Plot Summary:
While performing in a touring kabuki troupe, leading female impersonator Yukinojo comes across the three men who drove his parents to suicide twenty years earlier, and plans his revenge, firstly by seducing the daughter of one of them, secondly by ruining them.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, stylized, psychological, offbeat, serious, realistic, suspenseful, jidai geki, light, noir
Similar in 86%
Gate of Flesh (1964)
Plot Summary:
After World War II, some Tokyo prostitutes band together with a strict code: no pimps, attack any street walker who comes into our territory, defend the abandoned building we call home, and punish whomever gives away sex (who falls in love). Maya, a young woman whose family has died, joins the group. Into the mix comes Shin, a thief who's killed a G.I. The women allow him to hide while recovering from wounds, but then he won't leave. Maya is drawn to him, discovering as she falls in love that she can feel again; she's now more fully human, but at the same time, she's endangered herself and her livelihood. Can she and Shin make it out of Tokyo to establish life as a couple?.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: erotic, sexy, grindhouse, erotic drama, tense, rough, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 85%
Funeral Parade of Roses (1969)
Plot Summary:
A feverish collision of avant-garde aesthetics and grind-house shocks, Funeral Parade of Roses takes us on an electrifying journey into the nether-regions of the late-’60s Tokyo underworld. In Toshio Matsumoto’s controversial debut feature, seemingly nothing is taboo: neither the incorporation of visual flourishes straight from the worlds of contemporary graphic-design, painting, comic-books, and animation; nor the unflinching depiction of nudity, sex, drug-use, and public-toilets. But of all the “transgressions” here on display, perhaps one in particular stands out the most: the film’s groundbreaking and unapologetic portrayal of Japanese gay subculture.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: avant garde, disturbing, mind bending, surreal, psychedelic, social, sad, experimental, controversial, art house
Similar in 83%
Red Beard (1965)
Plot Summary:
Aspiring to an easy job as personal physician to a wealthy family, Noboru Yasumoto is disappointed when his first post after medical school takes him to a small country clinic under the gruff doctor Red Beard. Yasumoto rebels in numerous ways, but Red Beard proves a wise and patient teacher. He gradually introduces his student to the unglamorous side of the profession, ultimately assigning him to care for a prostitute rescued from a local brothel.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 21000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 185 min
Plot tags: black and white, cerebral, emotional, realistic, touching, existential, philosophical, psychedelic, spiritual, epic
Similar in 86%
Dolls (2002)
Plot Summary:
Dolls takes puppeteering as its overriding motif -- specifically, the kind practiced in Bunraku doll theater performances -- opening each section of his film with a story provided by the puppets and their masters, which relates thematically to the action provided by the live characters. Chief among those tales is the story of Matsumoto (Hidetoshi Nishijima) and Sawako (Miho Kanno), a young couple whose relationship is about to be broken apart by the former's parents, who have insisted their son take part in an arranged marriage to his boss' daughter. He initially agrees, causing the unstable Sawako to be committed to a psychiatric hospital. When he leaves his new bride at the altar to save Sawako, however, he realizes that she's so incapable of caring for herself that she needs to be tied to him with a red rope. Inextricably bound, the two wander through Japan, encountering others along the way who have similarly overlooked love for other, more fleeting pleasures: fame, power, money.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: surreal, emotional, melancholic, lyrical, romantic, atmospheric, sentimental, bleak, intellectual, depressing
Similar in 83%
The Passion of Anna (1969)
Plot Summary:
Andreas, a man struggling with the recent demise of his marriage and his own emotional isolation, befriends a married couple also in the midst of psychological turmoil. In turn he meets Anna, who is grieving the recent deaths of her husband and son. She appears zealous in her faith and steadfast in her search for truth, but gradually her delusions surface. Andreas and Anna pursue a love affair, but he is unable to overcome his feelings of deep humiliation and remains disconnected. Meanwhile, the island community is victimized by an unknown person committing acts of animal cruelty.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: art house, surreal, cerebral, psychological, bleak, spiritual, philosophical, mind bending, psychedelic, postmodern
Similar in 79%
Woman in the Dunes (1964)
Plot Summary:
An entomologist suffers extreme psychological and sexual torture after being taken captive by the residents of a poor seaside village.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 22000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 147 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, surreal, psychological, philosophical, black and white, experimental, avant garde, erotic, disturbing, cerebral
Similar in 87%
Scorn (2011)
Plot Summary:
Scorn takes a look into the trials and tribulations of a group of people dealing with relationships, love, pain and friendship during the course of one year.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 16
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, emotional, realistic, independent film, contemplative
Similar in 89%
Trishna (2011)
Plot Summary:
When her father is killed in a road accident, Trishna's family expect her to provide for them. The rich son of an entrepreneur starts to restlessly pursue her affections, but are his intentions as pure as they seem?.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, Sweden, India
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: sentimental, emotional, serious, realistic, ambiguous ending, erotic, hot
Similar in 87%
Dodes'ka-den (1970)
Plot Summary:
By turns tragic and transcendent, Akira Kurosawa’s film follows the daily lives of a group of people barely scraping by in a slum on the outskirts of Tokyo. Yet as desperate as their circumstances are, each of them—the homeless father and son envisioning their dream house; the young woman abused by her uncle; the boy who imagines himself a trolley conductor—finds reasons to carry on. The unforgettable Dodes’ka-den was made at a tumultuous moment in Kurosawa’s life. And all of his hopes, fears, and artistic passion are on fervent display in this, his gloriously shot first color film.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: touching, meditative, compassionate, atmospheric, depressing, surreal, emotional, mind bending, psychedelic, anthology
Similar in 77%
An Autumn Afternoon (1962)
Plot Summary:
Shuhei Hirayama is a widower with a 24-year-old daughter. Gradually, he comes to realize that she should not be obliged to look after him for the rest of his life, so he arranges a marriage for her.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: visual, visually stunning, sentimental, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy, avant garde, masterpiece
Similar in 79%
The End of Summer (1961)
Plot Summary:
The Kohayakawa family is thrown into distress when childlike father Manbei takes up with his old mistress, in one of Ozu’s most deftly modulated blendings of comedy and tragedy.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, emotional, serious, realistic, social, witty, stylized, gloomy
Similar in 90%
The Cowards who Looked to the Sky (2012)
Plot Summary:
Based on the award-winning novel of the same name, this boldly erotic yet movingly tender portrait of a group of vulnerable, variously wounded people — a depressed housewife, her high-school-aged lover, and his best friend, who is struggling to provide for himself and his senile grandmother — whose intersecting lives yield both sorrow and a fragile, yet enduring, hope for a brighter future. (TIFF).
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 229
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 141 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy, sexual, sexy
Similar in 75%
Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai (2011)
Plot Summary:
An tale of revenge, honor and disgrace, centering on a poverty-stricken samurai who discovers the fate of his ronin son-in-law, setting in motion a tense showdown of vengeance against the house of a feudal lord.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan, UK
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: tense, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, erotic, intense, jidai geki, atmospheric, contemplative
Similar in 90%
The Ballad of Narayama (1983)
Plot Summary:
In a small village in a valley everyone who reaches the age of 70 must leave the village and go to a certain mountain top to die. If anyone should refuse he/she would disgrace their family. Old Orin is 69. This winter it is her turn to go to the mountain. But first she must make sure that her eldest son Tatsuhei finds a wife.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: depressing, bleak, erotic, philosophical, neo noir, political, cerebral, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 90%
Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream That One Calls Human Life (1995)
Plot Summary:
Jakob arrives at the Institute Benjamenta (run by brother and sister Johannes and Lisa Benjamenta) to learn to become a servant. With seven other men, he studies under Lisa: absurd lessons of movement, drawing circles, and servility. He asks for a better room. No other students arrive and none leave for employment. Johannes is unhappy, imperious, and detached from the school's operation. Lisa is beautiful, at first tightly controlled, then on the verge of breakdown. There's a whiff of incest. Jakob is drawn to Lisa, and perhaps she to him. As winter sets in, she becomes catatonic. Things get worse; Johannes notes that all this has happened since Jakob came. Is there any cause and effect?.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, Japan, Germany
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: black and white, art house, surreal, cult classic, psychological, atmospheric, mindfuck, mind bending, psychedelic, spiritual
Similar in 88%
Memories of Tomorrow (2006)
Plot Summary:
After being stricken with Alzheimer's disease in the prime of his life, a successful young businessman slips slowly away from his loving family.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 912
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, psychological, emotional, captivating, independent film, serious
Similar in 88%
The Twilight Samurai (2002)
Plot Summary:
Seibei Iguchi leads a difficult life as a low ranking samurai at the turn of the nineteenth century. A widower with a meager income, Seibei struggles to take care of his two daughters and senile mother. New prospects seem to open up when the beautiful Tomoe, a childhood friend, comes back into he and his daughters' life, but as the Japanese feudal system unravels, Seibei is still bound by the code of honor of the samurai and by his own sense of social precedence. How can he find a way to do what is best for those he loves?.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 25000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: tense, emotional, sincere, atmospheric, realistic, touching, talky, lyrical, sentimental, jidai geki
Similar in 75%
Tokyo Decadence (1992)
Plot Summary:
A submissive hooker goes about her trade, suffering abuse at the hands of Japanese salarymen and Yakuza types. She's unhappy about her work, and is apparently trying to find some sort of appeasement for the fact that her lover has married.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: erotic, disturbing, tense, surreal, sexy, serious, realistic, controversial, psychological, captivating
Similar in 88%
Samaritan Girl (2004)
Plot Summary:
Yeo-jin and Jae-yeong are two teenage girls who are trying to earn money for a trip to Europe. To reach this end, Jae-yeong is prostituting herself while Yeo-jin acts as her pimp, setting her up with the clients and staying on guard for the police. Things take a turn for the worse when Yeo-jin gets distracted from her duty and the police raid the motel where Jae-yeong is meeting with a client. To avoid getting caught, Jae-yeong jumps out of a window, fatally injuring herself.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, captivating, realistic, erotic, psychological, sincere, romantic, depressing, spiritual
Similar in 85%
Cries & Whispers (1972)
Plot Summary:
As Agnes slowly dies of cancer, her sisters are so deeply immersed in their own psychic pains that they can't offer her the support she needs. Maria is wracked with guilt at her husband's suicide, caused by his discovery of her extramarital affair. The self-loathing, suicidal Karin seems to regard her sister with revulsion. Only Anna, the deeply religious maid who lost her young child, seems able to offer Agnes solace and empathy.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 36000
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, depressing, psychological, serious, bleak, surreal, disturbing, art house, cerebral
Similar in 84%
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 88%
Breaking the Waves (1996)
Plot Summary:
In a small and conservative Scottish village, a woman's paralytic husband convinces her to have extramarital intercourse so she can tell him about it and give him a reason for living.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 71000
Genere: Drama
Country: Denmark, Sweden, France, Netherlands, Norway, Iceland, Spain, UK
Duration: 159 min
Plot tags: disturbing, sad, bleak, heartbreaking, emotional, psychological, erotic, depressing, art house, touching
Similar in 75%
The Sea Is Watching (2002)
Plot Summary:
Based on Akira Kurosawa's final unproduced script, this Edo-period drama takes place almost entirely inside an ocean-village brothel. O-Shin is a young brothel worker who one night helps a young samurai escape from his pursuers. Against the warnings of her fellow workers, particularly Kikuno and the brothel's owner, O-Shin falls in love with the samurai.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Romance, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: sentimental, serious, realistic, touching, captivating, contemplative, gloomy, jidai geki