Best movies like Family of Strangers
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Three patients of different backgrounds, illnesses and stages are being treated at a psychiatric clinic in Nagano Prefecture. Their cases range from the criminal to merely asocial. That should be that, but soon matters take a darker turn when a corpse turns up and a murder has occurred. The culprit fingered is one of the patients.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 270
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like Family of Strangers (2019):
Similar in 85%
The Sign of the Cancer (1967)
Plot Summary:
A murder in a hospital run by incompetents.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 72
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: neo noir, psychotronic, poliziottesco
Similar in 79%
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%
The Scarlet Camellia (1964)
Plot Summary:
In this Japanese drama, a young woman begins murdering all those responsible for her ailing father's condition. First she torches her parents' villa, and then slaughters all her lascivious mother's lovers. Because the girl is so outwardly sweet and innocent, the detective looking into the deaths does not suspect her. Unbeknownst to him, the girl plans on turning herself in, but not before she kills one more person--her real father. Later she changes her mind, but when his good wife learns of his philandering, she commits suicide.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 51
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 163 min
Plot tags: jidai geki, detective
Similar in 77%
Sex Hunter: Wet Target (1972)
Plot Summary:
While rotting away in jail, Okamoto learns of the death of his beloved sister, Natsuko. Violently assaulted by a group of U.S. military men during a drunken joyride, she was found dead by local authorities. Haunted by the tragedy, Okamoto escapes from jail to hunt down and kill those who destroyed the life of his sister. What he uncovers during his investigation is much more horrifying than he could ever imagine! Fueled by rage, he meets the killers one by one as the film explodes into an unbelievable climax of bloodshed.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 54
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 69 min
Plot tags: disturbing
Similar in 86%
Prison Break (2017)
Plot Summary:
One late night in June 1942, Sakuma Seitaro dangles from the frame of a skylight in an isolation cell in Akita Prison. He forces open the glass window and breaks out of jail. This crime even reaches the ears of Urata Susumu, the chief warden of Kosuge Prison in Tokyo. Urata had been in charge of those sentenced to life in the prison until last year. Although Sakuma is a dangerous person who had also broken out of jail in Aomori, he submits to Urata who is the only person who had treated him kindly in the past. However, three months after escaping from jail, Sakuma shows up at Urata’s house. He has come to complain about the inhumane Akita prison officers. But he is locked up again after Urata notifies the police during an unguarded moment. A year later, Sakuma is sent to Abashiri Prison and Urata is also ordered to transfer as the prison’s chief warden.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 138
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Proof of the Man (1977)
Plot Summary:
When an American is murdered in a Japanese inn, Tokyo police detective Munesue follows the trail of the killer to New York. There he is joined by a New York City detective named Shuftan and together they sort out the crime.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 420
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan, USA
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: neo noir
Similar in 76%
Dead Man Out (1989)
Plot Summary:
A psychiatrist is sent to evaluate if a convicted multiple murderer who's awaiting execution on Death Row for eighth year now and whose behavior during that time got more and more erratic is still mentally fit to be executed.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 395
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
The Stranger Within a Woman (1966)
Plot Summary:
Tashiro (Keiju Kobayashi) coincidentally meets his best friend Sugimoto (Tatsuya Mihashi) in a bar very close to the apartment in which Sugimoto’s wayward wife is found dead. Although Tashiro is not a suspect in the police investigation, he is racked with guilt and confesses to his wife, Masako (Michiyo Aratama). In an effort to further relieve his tortured sense of guilt, he then confesses to Sugimoto. Neither his wife nor his friend can believe that he could have been involved.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 447
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
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 86%
64: Part 2 (2016)
Plot Summary:
1989 is the 64 Shouwa year in the Japanese calendar, thus the unsolved girl kidnapping-murder case is called "64(rokuyon)" that got up in this year in Criminal Investigation Department in the Prefectural Police Department. And 14 years were over as the prefecture's police to be unsolved greatest stain, and statute of limitations approached it. In 2002, Yoshinobu Mikami, an ex-detective who was assigned as the investigator of the "Rokuyon" case 14years ago, moves as a Public Relations Officer in the Police Affairs Department against his will. As a newly assigned Public Relations Officer, he was troubled with the relation between the reporters, new case has occurred. And that new case traced "Rokuyon" case exactly.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 315
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: Japan
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
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 87%
Stuck! (2009)
Plot Summary:
Beautiful young Daisy feels stuck working as a shopgirl by day and caring for her ailing mother by night. A suicide gone wrong leaves Daisy wrongly imprisoned, while the neighbor whose testimony put her away struggles with guilt. A tongue-in-cheek homage to 1950s women-in-prison films.
IMDB Rating: 3.5
IMDB Votes: 238
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: independent film, neo noir
Similar in 90%
The Fight with the Panther (1975)
Plot Summary:
Three nymphets struggle to have a beneficial youth: Ana is suicidal, Mercedes is attracted to her brother William, and Patricia desires to be sexually abused.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 50
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Mexico
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
Shinjuku Swan (2015)
Plot Summary:
Shiratori Tatsuhiko works as a scout for Burst, a talent agency in Kabukichō, Shinjuku's red light district. In a business where money means everything Tatsuhiko finds himself in a constant struggle between rival talent scouts and the yakuza.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: humorous, tense, light, entertaining, crime drama
Similar in 88%
The Snow White Murder Case (2014)
Plot Summary:
Beautiful Noriko Miki works at a cosmetic company. One day, Noriko is murdered. People begin to suspect her co-worker Miki Shirono might have killed her. Television begins to cover her story. A TV show interviews Miki Shirono's colleagues, family, people from her hometown. Rumors turn into fear. Is she a wicked a woman?.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: Japan
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: tense, enigmatic, captivating, suspense, detective, game show, twisted, hot
Similar in 77%
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 90%
The Hour of the Lynx (2013)
Plot Summary:
Helen, a priest, is approached by scientist Lisbeth with a desperate plea for help. A young man, who has been sent to a high security psychiatric ward after having killed an old couple, has attempted suicide while rambling about God. Having been part of an experiment attempting to humanize inmates by assigning them pets, the young man has suddenly gone ballistic. Fearing that he will attempt suicide again priest and scientist must now confront their mutual animosities while trying to grasp the truth. In a race against time the two women begin a shocking journey deeper and deeper into the sick mind of a young man's soul.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Denmark, Sweden
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, realistic, mind bending, serious, suspenseful
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 76%
Japanese Summer: Double Suicide (1967)
Plot Summary:
A sex-obsessed young woman, a suicidal young man she meets on the street, a gun-crazy wannabe gangster—these are just three of the irrational, oddball anarchists trapped in an underground hideaway in Oshima’s devilish, absurdist portrait of what he deemed the “death drive” in Japanese youth culture.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 855
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: political, psychological, tense, atmospheric, offbeat, serious, realistic, surreal, stylized, allegory
Similar in 84%
Violence at Noon (1966)
Plot Summary:
Hakuchu no Torima" is the portrayal of a violent rapist as seen through the recollections of his wife and one of his victims. As the film starts, Eisuke (Kei Sato) encounters Shino (Saeda Kawaguchi), who works as a maid in a house. She is a former coworker from a failed collective farm, whose life he once saved -- only to rape her. Soon, Eisuke's criminal pattern of rapes and murders emerges as he goes on assaulting women (Shino being the witness of one of them, as Eisuke tries to violate her employer). When cooperating with the police on making a description of the rapist, Shino withholds her crucial knowledge of his identity. She prefers writing letters to Eisuke's dutiful wife, Matsuko, a schoolteacher (Akiko Koyama -- Mrs Oshima), in order to expose his true nature and perhaps induce her into turning Eisuke over to the police.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: psychological, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing, detective, weird
Similar in 78%
Oliver Twist (1982)
Plot Summary:
The classic Dickens tale of an orphan boy who escapes the horrors of the orphanage only to be taken in by a band of thieves and pickpockets.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 542
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
The Ceremony (1963)
Plot Summary:
A man (Robert Walker) has an affair with his condemned brother's (Laurence Harvey) girlfriend (Sarah Miles) while plotting his escape in Tangier.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 241
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Spain, USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: noir, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, gloomy
Similar in 88%
Flag in the Mist (1965)
Plot Summary:
When her only relative, her elder brother is accused of robbing and murdering an old woman loan-shark, pretty, young Kiriko (Chieko Baisho) travels from her home in Kyushu to Tokyo to get Japan's top lawyer to defend her brother. Unfortunately her naive idealism is shattered when the lawyer refuses to take the case based on her insufficient funds. What follows is a long determined revenge plot that sees the heroine become a Tokyo bar hostess and worse to punish the lawyer. The plot thickens with another murder mystery and a sleuthing reporter.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 169
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
The Third Murder (2017)
Plot Summary:
Shigemori is a lawyer tasked with defending Misumi in a murder trial. Misumi has previous convictions for murder and has confessed to the crime, but evidence in the case leads to Shigemori having doubts about what really happened.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: Japan
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: suspense, psychological, captivating, tense, social
Similar in 77%
Three Walls (2003)
Plot Summary:
Three men are on death row. Jaggu (Jackie Shroff), a lawyer and a poet, is serving a sentence for murdering his wife because she was cheating on him with another man. Nagya (Nagesh Kukunoor), a man angry with the whole world, is arrested for murdering his wife too, but he claims that it was an accident where she falls off the sidewalk while they were talking. Ishaan (Naseeruddin Shah), a happy-go-lucky man, is also arrested for murder that he commits while in the act of robbery. The prison's custodian is Mohan (Gulshan Grover), who attempts several methods to reform the prison's inmates. A documentary filmmaker, Chandrika (Juhi Chawla) comes to the jail to set a film about these three men. In the process, she finds redemption to her troubled marriage.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: India
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: serious, tense, touching, bleak, contemplative, rough, realistic, suspenseful, offbeat, twist ending
Similar in 77%
R: Hit First, Hit Hardest (2010)
Plot Summary:
The R of the title stands for the young protagonist, Rune, fearlessly played by Pilou Asbæk. Imprisoned for violent assault, he's a cocky, good-looking young man placed in the hardcore ward, where his survival depends on quickly learning the prison's parallel world of rules, honor, and obligations. R also stands for Rachid, a young Muslim prisoner who becomes Rune's friend and accomplice, defying the rigid racial stratifications among the inmates.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: tense, realistic, rough, captivating, disturbing, psychological, suspense, thought provoking, independent film, bleak
Similar in 75%
A Short Film About Killing (1988)
Plot Summary:
Jacek climbs into the taxi driven by Waldemar, tells him to drive to a remote location, then brutally strangles him, seemingly without motive.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 22000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: disturbing, bleak, contemplative, social, psychological, psychological thriller, philosophical, offbeat, neo noir, sad
Similar in 83%
Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story (2004)
Plot Summary:
Redemption tells the story of Stan "Tookie" Williams, founder of the Crips L.A. street gang. Story follows his fall into gang-banging, his prison term, and his work writing children's novels encouraging peace and anti-violence resolutions which earned him multiple Nobel Peace Prize nominations. After exhausting all forms of appeal, Tookie was executed by lethal injection.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Crime
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: uplifting, serious, emotional, realistic, bleak, political, hood, crime drama, sincere, touching
Similar in 90%
Twisted Justice (2016)
Plot Summary:
Taking his inspiration from the biggest scandal in Japan’s police history, Kazuya Shiraishi has created a massive and sinister crime epic about the grand forces of corruption that brings to mind the best of Kinji Fukasaku’s yakuza movies (Cops vs. Thugs among others). Starting in 1970s Hokkaido like a nervous Japanese Starsky & Hutch–chan, the film charts the moral descent of Detective Moroboshi (Go Ayano) over three decades. Green in years but already hard‐grained and ready to play rough, the young cop quickly gets a bit too cozy with the other side of the law when his senior colleague Murai (Pierre Taki) teaches him the ropes and ruts of the police business. Soon, he swaggers and rants through the streets of Sapporo a lean, mean, sex‐crazy bully, indistinguishable from a yakuza. Burning with the same blaze as the hard‐boiled classics of yore, Twisted Justice scorches away the sleekness and macho self‐congratulation of the genre. .
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 430
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, disturbing, detective
Similar in 86%
Dead Man Walking (1995)
Plot Summary:
A justice drama based on a true story about a man on death row who in his last days forms a strong relationship with a nun who teaches him forgiveness and gives him spirituality as she accompanies him to his execution.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 100000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: touching, psychological, thought provoking, sad, emotional, atmospheric, suspense, depressing, serious, realistic