Best movies like Golden Kingdom
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies like Golden Kingdom? Contribute your knowledge to guide others to films and tv shows you've already watched that might appeal to them too. Facilitate broadening the circle of people putting forward videos insights one another. We encourage your involvement!
Plot Summary:
Story of four young monks left alone in their remote monastery in Myanmar. Shot entirely in newly-opened Myanmar with non-actors, the film bridges spirit, cinema, and traditional Burmese storytelling to open a view onto an unseen world.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 150
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Myanmar
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, tense, atmospheric, contemplative
Best tv shows and movies like Golden Kingdom (2015):
Similar in 88%
The Cleaner (2012)
Plot Summary:
A forensic cleaner, responsible for the removal of human corpses, has never been able to relate with people or life. Suddenly, he will become accountable for an 8-year-old orphan who has been left behind in the middle of a mysterious epidemic crisis in Lima.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 317
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: Peru
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: stylized, atmospheric, touching, serious, tense, contemplative, independent film
Similar in 80%
The Future (2013)
Plot Summary:
When their parents die, Bianca starts to smoke and Tomas is still a virgin. The orphans explore the dangerous streets of adulthood until Bianca finds Maciste, a retired Mr. Universe, and enters his dark mansion in search of a future.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, Chile, Germany, Spain
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: serious, tense, touching, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, sexual, sexy
Similar in 82%
Bopem (2015)
Plot Summary:
Teenager Ruslan is a half-orphan who lives by the dried Aral Sea. When he learns that due to serious illness he has no more than 3 months to live, Ruslan decides to punish those responsible for the death of his beloved mother.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 35
Genere: Drama
Country: Kazakhstan
Duration: 78 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, unusual plot structure, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 88%
Beneath the Blue (2010)
Plot Summary:
Dolphin experts confront the US Navy when its sonar program is suspected of causing the animals' deaths.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 832
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: captivating, tense, light, contemplative, exciting, feel good, serious, realistic
Similar in 79%
The Cold Lands (2013)
Plot Summary:
After his mother’s sudden death, a young boy disappears into the deep woods of upstate New York and takes up with an unpredictable and mysterious drifter.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 504
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, realistic, atmospheric, serious, independent film
Similar in 81%
Broken Roads (2012)
Plot Summary:
Broken Roads is a contrasted portrait of life, dealing with loss, a journey of rediscovery & the hills climbed which forever change us.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 230
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 151 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, indie film, bleak, captivating, gloomy
Similar in 75%
Hide Your Smiling Faces (2013)
Plot Summary:
Tommy and his older brother Eric live in the midst of vast remote forests. The death of their friend pushes them close to the edge. Eric doesn’t know how to channel his energy. All at once, nature’s vastness feels stifling.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: rough, touching, bleak, serious, gothic, mumblecore, visually stunning, atmospheric, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 76%
Boy Called Twist (2004)
Plot Summary:
The harrowing tale of a South African street-kid's search for love, based on Dickens' classic story. Growing up neglected in a rural orphanage, Twist escapes to the unpredictable freedom of Cape Town, where he falls in with Fagin's gang of street urchins. With a gritty honesty steeped in its vibrant characters, Boy called Twist superbly captures the contemporary equivalents of Dickens' seedy individuals as it shadows the timeless tale in its own inimitable style.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 165
Genere: Drama
Country: South Africa
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 81%
Macondo (2014)
Plot Summary:
A drama centered on an 11-year-old Chechnyan refugee living in Vienna whose life is thrown into disarray when a friend of his deceased father materializes.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 310
Genere: Drama
Country: Austria
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 79%
For the Love of a Child (2006)
Plot Summary:
1959, support from US troops based in Asia and later from the Sates enables two actresses to start a charity for mixed-race 'orphans' who are locally neglected as outcasts. Thus originates Childhelp, which later runs multi-disciplinary centers for abused and/or neglected children in the States. Among them is bright Jacob Fletcher, whose stepfather, a lawyer, terrorized him into utter trauma and reclaims him shortly after 10 months in jail. Jacob's peers have distressing stories of their own, but competent, devoted staff helps most of them decisively on the former farm, using animal therapy.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 431
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: touching, disturbing, rough, thought provoking, tense, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 89%
The Devil in the Skin (2011)
Plot Summary:
Coming-of-Age drama telling the story of the strong bond between Xavier and his little brother Jacques and their struggle to remain together despite all odds.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 71
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, serious, realistic
Similar in 79%
When Andrew Came Home (2000)
Plot Summary:
A mother searches for five years to find her kidnapped son in this fact-based drama. Unexpectedly the boy is found, but the reunion is not as she hoped. She now has to deal with five years of abuse that the boy suffered at the hands of his kidnappers.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 657
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, sad
Similar in 89%
Son of Babylon (2009)
Plot Summary:
A willful young boy follows his just as obstinate grandmother in a journey across Iraq, determined to discover the fate of her missing son, Ahmed's father, who never returned from war.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iraq, UK, France, Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, Egypt
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, touching, captivating, emotional, independent film, islamic, tense, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 81%
Jet Boy (2001)
Plot Summary:
Dave Schultz' feature debut Jet Boy is a drama about a boy attempting to figure out his future. Nathan (Branden Nadon) goes on a search to find his father after his mother dies of a drug overdose. Nathan has been prostituting himself in order to get by when he befriends Boon Palmer (Dylan Walsh). In Dylan, Nathan sees his possible future. In Nathan, Dylan sees a chance to rectify his past.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, serious, emotional, erotic, sexy, independent film, bleak, gloomy, queer cinema
Similar in 77%
Keeping the Promise (1997)
Plot Summary:
A colonial family seeks a better life in Maine's wilderness in this powerful adventure. When William Hallowell leaves behind 13-year-old son Matt to safeguard their claim, the boy relies on his new friendship with the Penobscot Indians for survival.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 347
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, historical drama
Similar in 88%
Siberia, Monamour (2011)
Plot Summary:
Siberia. Late autumn. In taiga, in the deserted village there lives an old man Ivan & his seven-year-old grandson Leshia. A pack of feral dogs devours everything alive in the neighborhood. One of these dogs is Leshia's best friend. Sometimes their relative uncle Yuri brings food to them. Once on his way back from Ivan's village uncle Yuri is attacked by dogs & perishes. Ivan & Leshia stay without supply. Once Leshia witnesses Ivan shooting at 'his' dog & runs away. The old Man finds him in a dry well, but he fails to get him out on his own. Ivan sets out through taiga in search of help. Now the dogs are hunting him... And the boy is waiting for his father.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Russia
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: touching, gloomy, sentimental, serious, captivating, bleak, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 87%
Kisses (2008)
Plot Summary:
Two kids, Dylan and Kylie, run away from home at Christmas and spend a night of magic and terror on the streets of inner-city Dublin.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Ireland, Sweden
Duration: 72 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, realistic, atmospheric, serious, captivating, stylized, teen, contemplative
Similar in 84%
All the Wilderness (2014)
Plot Summary:
Keeping to himself in the wake his father's death, James Charm finds refuge in solitary walks and creating morbid sketches — until a charismatic new friend and a quirky young woman begin to draw him out of his shell.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic, independent film, teen, stylized, interesting
Similar in 78%
Dog Days of Summer (2007)
Plot Summary:
A mysterious drifter lures two boys into uncovering the secrets of a sleepy southern town.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 462
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: independent film, touching, offbeat, serious, realistic, surprise ending, neo noir
Similar in 79%
White Water (2015)
Plot Summary:
White Water is the story of a 7 year-old black kid in segregated 1963 Opelika, Alabama who becomes obsessed with the desire to taste the water from the "white's only" drinking fountain and sets out on a quest to do the unthinkable: drink from it.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 209
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, serious, suspenseful, realistic
Similar in 89%
Walking Thunder (1995)
Plot Summary:
In the 1850's, a young boy and his family on their way West become stranded in the Rockies. With the help of a local mountain man, a Sioux medicine man, and a legendary bear knows as "Walking Thunder," the boy learns to become a man, and his family's survival is secured.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 274
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: independent film, exciting, serious, realistic
Similar in 83%
Jess + Moss (2011)
Plot Summary:
Jess, age 18, and Moss, age 12 are second cousins in the dark-fire tobacco fields of rural Western Kentucky. Without immediate families that they can relate to, and lacking friends their own age, they only have each other. Over the course of a summer they venture on a journey exploring deep secrets and hopes of a future while being confronted with fears of isolation, abandonment and an unknown tomorrow.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 980
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, realistic, contemplative, stylized, psychological, captivating, teen, aesthetic, sincere, touching
Similar in 79%
A Year in My Life (2006)
Plot Summary:
In 1950s France, a young boy is taken in by a couple after spending a few months in the care of social service.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 224
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: sentimental, uplifting, touching, sincere, captivating, feel good, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 82%
Tsili (2014)
Plot Summary:
Tsili is a young girl caught in the middle of World War II. After her family is taken to a concentration camp, Tsili hides in the forest, free from hatred and men, until the arrival of Marek, a stranger who speaks to her in Yiddish.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 64
Genere: Drama
Country: Israel, France, Italy
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, bleak, disturbing, tense
Similar in 82%
Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East? (1989)
Plot Summary:
Three people live in a remote Buddhist monastery near Mount Chonan: Hyegok, the old master; Yong Nan, a young man who has left his extended family in the city to seek enlightenment - Hyegok calls him Kibong!; and, an orphan lad Haejin, whom Hyegok has brought to the monastery to raise as a monk. The story is mostly Yong Nan's, told in flashbacks: how he came to the monastery, his brief return to the city, his vacillation between the turbulence of the world and his hope to overcome passions and escape the idea of self. We also see Hyegok as a teacher, a protector, and a father figure, and we watch Haejin make his way as a curious and nearly self-sufficient child.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 137 min
Plot tags: spiritual, slow cinema, psychedelic, thinking, aesthetic, psychological, atmospheric, thought provoking, serious, captivating
Similar in 78%
Snow in August (2001)
Plot Summary:
In a world filled with hatred, their only hope was magic. Believe and anything can happen.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 326
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, atmospheric, emotional, psychological, serious, captivating, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 83%
House with a Turret (2012)
Plot Summary:
During the final winter of WWII, as displaced persons return to their former homes in the Soviet Union, an 8-year-old boy is left alone when his mother dies en route.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 166
Genere: Drama
Country: Ukraine
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, stylized, road movie, bleak, gloomy
Similar in 80%
Thursday Till Sunday (2012)
Plot Summary:
As she and her family embark on a short vacation, a Chilean teenager slowly comes to the realization that her parents might be splitting up.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 648
Genere: Drama
Country: Chile, Netherlands
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: tense, sentimental, touching, serious, bleak, emotional, realistic, road movie, atmospheric, gloomy
Similar in 85%
A Time in Quchi (2013)
Plot Summary:
Bao stays with his grandfather for the summer and is shocked to see there are no modern appliances.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 130
Genere: Drama
Country: Taiwan
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, atmospheric, captivating, serious
Similar in 76%
Absence (2014)
Plot Summary:
A daily, familiar, sexual and emotional drama. Based on the character Serginho, the plot is based around various aspects of this "no longer a boy, not yet a man". We follow his day to day: the recently acquired role of man of the house, taking care of his mother and younger brother; is work at the market; his friendship with Mudinho and Silvinha; and his confusing relationship, between sex and affection, with professor Ney. The film is a tapestry of the life moments of a boy in transition.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 177
Genere: Drama
Country: Brazil, Chile, France
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, bleak