Best movies like Happy Birthday
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies similar to Happy Birthday? Share your insights to direct others find films and tv series you've viewed already that might suit them too. Aid in growing the cohort of people putting forward videos to one another. We welcome your contribution!
Plot Summary:
Rene Liu successfully delivers the complex role of Mi, who chooses to remain single rather than risking the slightest chance of being dumped. She loves her friend Nan (Louis Koo) more than anyone, yet she asks him to be her best friend instead of boyfriend. For ten years, he wishes her a happy birthday no matter how far they are geographically apart or who they are with. However, this year his greeting arrives 42 hours late.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 387
Genere: Romance
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, emotional, serious, realistic
Best tv shows and movies like Happy Birthday (2007):
Similar in 90%
Ten Winters (2009)
Plot Summary:
Born of a chance meeting in Venice, Silvestro and Camilla's rocky romance unfolds over 10 winters as new lovers come and go but they are eternally thrust back into one another's arms.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Romance
Country: Italy, Russia
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: humorous, serious, sincere, emotional, realistic
Similar in 83%
Snapshots (2002)
Plot Summary:
An aging hippy and a beautiful young woman meet in Amsterdam and find love.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 422
Genere: Romance
Country: Netherlands, UK, USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: uplifting, serious, emotional, realistic, sentimental, touching, feel good
Similar in 89%
Forget Me Not (2010)
Plot Summary:
The film follows Will Fletcher, a musician, and Eve Fisher, who works in a pub where he is performing, during one night in London. After Will has saved Eve from a drunken customer at closing time, they stay up all night together, meandering through the streets of London and forging a relationship. Next morning, Eve takes him to see her Alzheimer's-suffering grandmother. The film is often compared to Richard Linklater's films "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset", as the style is very similar.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, sincere, sentimental, melancholic, offbeat, heartbreaking, smart
Similar in 83%
Counting Backwards (2007)
Plot Summary:
For some, the lives we have are not always the lives we wanted. For Joe, a small time guy from the small time town of Sandwich, Illinois, his has not even come close - until now. Faced with death and having recently met the girl of his dreams, Claire, Joe has to find a way to live the life of passion he'd always wanted, and he has to do it fast. Journey with Joe towards the great beyond, not half as imaginative as the path he's finally forged here on Earth. Ride with him as he's forced to figure out the meaning of life that he won't have time to live. With the help of his best friend, Frank, and his brilliant, if not terrified mother, Sarah, Joe will finally learn to live, love, and explore beyond his wildest dreams. And we'll get to watch one man's journey unfold, from the first day of the rest of his life on.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 54
Genere: Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, sincere, touching, romantic, captivating
Similar in 80%
2 Gentlemen of Verona (2018)
Plot Summary:
In this modern setting for the Shakespeare classic, two small-town boys head to the big city looking for adventure and romance. But when they both fall for the same girl, friends become rivals.
IMDB Rating: 3.0
IMDB Votes: 46
Genere: Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, suspense, suspenseful, independent film
Similar in 76%
Inevitable (2013)
Plot Summary:
Fabian (Dario Grandinetti) works as a bank executive. After one of his colleagues in the bank dies, he falls into crisis. His wife, Mariela (Carolina Peleritti), is a psychologist and has Olga (Mabel Rivera) , an embittered woman who tries to take her frustration out on her, as one of her patients. Fabian will meet a famous blind author (Federico Luppi), who tries to help him. Following his advice, Fabian embarks himself on a relationship with Alicia (Antonella Costa), a young artist that he considers his inevitable love.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 228
Genere: Romance
Country: Argentina, Spain
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: tense, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 75%
Time to Spare (2011)
Plot Summary:
When Molly, the 21 year-old sister of Maarten, departs the family home, she leaves her older brother with empty nest syndrome. But it also opens up new opportunities for him, such as the possibility to explore his love for Arthur, a closet gay. Molly and Maarten wrestle with their personal relationships and also their relationship with one another, but fate nevertheless seems determined to strike them both down.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 898
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Netherlands, Belgium
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, gay cinema, queer cinema
Similar in 77%
All About Love (2005)
Plot Summary:
Andy Lau plays a husband who only learns the importance of expressing his tremendous love for his wife when it is too late.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 413
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: realistic, captivating, emotional, sentimental, touching, humorous, serious, surprise ending
Similar in 80%
But Always (2014)
Plot Summary:
After relocating to New York, former lovers feel the pull of romance once again.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 485
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: China
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: sentimental, serious, emotional, realistic, retro
Similar in 80%
2 Young (2005)
Plot Summary:
A young boy from a working-class family and a bored young girl from a rich family are falling in love. Soon, she's pregnant and the teenagers have to escape from their disapproving parents.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 546
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, realistic, semi serious, humorous, sexual, sexy
Similar in 89%
A Stranger's Heart (2007)
Plot Summary:
Man and woman (Peter Dobson and Samantha Mathis) fall in love in a heart transplant facility. They are both attracted to a little girl (Mary Matilyn Mouser) who turns out to be the orphan of their heart donors.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 446
Genere: Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, uplifting, emotional, serious, realistic
Similar in 77%
The Voyage (1974)
Plot Summary:
Adriana De Mauro loves Cesar Braggi, but Cesar, honoring his father's dying wish, allows his brother, Antonio, to marry Adriana. As fate wills, Antonio dies in an automobile accident. Adriana's mourning for Antonio ends when Cesar steps in to rekindle her lust of life. Soon, Adriana begins having dizzy spells. Cesar helps her to a specialist, and the diagnosis is not good. She has an incurable disease. For the rest of their time together, Cesar woos Adriana and eventually proposes to her on a gondola. Yet, for some reason or other, Signora De Mauro, Adriana's mother, is not pleased with the relationship and argues bitterly with Cesar.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 664
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 89%
Romeo and Juliet (2014)
Plot Summary:
Orlando Bloom and Condola Rashad take on the title characters in a modern adaptation of the timeless classic, Romeo and Juliet. This Broadway stage production is being broadcast in movie theaters.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 500
Genere: Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, romantic, sexy
Similar in 80%
Fish and Elephant (2001)
Plot Summary:
The story follows the elephant keeper in the Beijing Zoo who maintains an aquarium of fish in her home (hence the two-animal title), and her lesbian lover, a fabric saleswoman in an outdoor market. Her relationship is tested, however, when her recently divorced mother returns to town in the hope of setting her daughter up in marriage. Further complicating matters is one of Xiaoqun's ex-lovers also returning to her life with the law in pursuit.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 209
Genere: Romance
Country: China
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, serious, emotional, realistic, queer cinema
Similar in 81%
Above & Beyond (2001)
Plot Summary:
Cop drama meets romance: This intense thriller is about a police officer who shoots his best friend (who also wears a badge) while on the job. His buddy is permanently paralyzed, and the incident raises eyebrows around the precinct. Was it an accident, or did this detective's feelings for his pal's wife cause him to cross the line? Only true super sleuths will figure it out before the end!.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 199
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: sentimental, serious, emotional, realistic, independent film
Similar in 86%
Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2 (2014)
Plot Summary:
Hong Kong action auteur Johnnie To indulges his silly side with this hilariously inventive sequel to his hit romantic comedy, about two former lovers who find themselves irresistibly drawn back together — despite the fact that each of them is engaged to someone else.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 775
Genere: Romance
Country: Hong Kong, China
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: feel good, realistic, semi serious, light, captivating, entertaining, humorous
Similar in 90%
Dreaming of Joseph Lees (1999)
Plot Summary:
Set in rural England in the 1950s Eva (Samantha Morton) fantasises about her handsome, worldly cousin Joseph Lees (Rupert Graves), with whom she fell in love as a girl. However, stuck in a closed community she becomes the object of someone else's fantasy, Harry (Lee Ross). When Harry learns that Eva is planning to leave the village in order to live with and look after the injured Lees, he devises a gruesome scheme in order to force her to stay and look after him.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 920
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: emotional, sentimental, atmospheric, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy, erotic, psychological, romantic
Similar in 80%
Heartbeat (1993)
Plot Summary:
The beautiful and talented Adrian is a writer for one of America's most popular TV soap operas. She is also pregnant, and when she refuses to abort her baby, Adrian's selfish husband deserts her. It falls to one of the soap opera's producers, the recently divorced Bill, to convince Adrian to give romance a second chance.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 407
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, realistic, humorous, serious, soap opera
Similar in 81%
Together (2013)
Plot Summary:
Comprised by two love stories: The first story features Donnie Yen as a traffic cop, “Mr. Cool” who never smiles due to a rare disease. He meets and falls in love with Michelle Chen, a patient with amnesia, and spends most of her time looking for her missing fiancé. The second story features Zhendong Ke as a Criminal Intelligence Bureau cop who falls in love with Angela Baby after a 7-day "game of romantic" with her. But when his bureau starts monitoring her, he begins to have doubt on her. Is she a criminal?.
IMDB Rating: 4.0
IMDB Votes: 264
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: emotional, sentimental, touching, realistic, captivating, serious
Similar in 83%
With This Ring (2015)
Plot Summary:
After attending their friend Elise's (Sudano) wedding to Nate (Bishop) on New Year's Eve, Trista (Hall), a career-driven talent agent, Viviane (Scott), a successful gossip columnist, and Amaya (Cooper), a struggling actress, make a pact to get married within the year to either a new love or a man waiting in the wings. But the close friends face their own set of challenges - Trista has not gotten over her commitment-phobic ex-boyfriend Damon (White), Viviane is secretly in love with Sean (George), the father of her son, and Amaya is desperate to break up her boyfriend Keith's (Sanders) unhappy marriage so they can live happily ever after. Each woman starts the year with high hopes and dreams of what will happen over the next 12 months... but will they all make it to the altar?.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: humorous, touching, sentimental, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 76%
You're My Home (2012)
Plot Summary:
After returning back to family, Leyla tries to fix everytihng while starting a new life wit Iskender. Everything goes smoothly until troubles find Leyla.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Country: Turkey
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: romantic, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, sentimental, captivating, melancholic
Similar in 87%
Friends (2000)
Plot Summary:
A story about a girl named Priya (Preity Zinta) who is the apple of her parents' eyes. She defied the Indian culture when she got pregnant out of marriage by Saif Ali Khan.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: India
Duration: 155 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, serious, realistic, crying
Similar in 75%
The Bread, My Sweet (2001)
Plot Summary:
Dominic works round the clock: nights making biscotti for his family's bakery in a working-class Italian neighborhood in Pittsburgh, then days downtown where he's a specialist in firing people at a company that negotiates mergers. He's thrown for a loop with he learns that Bella, an elderly neighbor who's his family's closest friend, has but a few months to live. All her life, she's saved money in coffee cans for her daughter, Lucca's, wedding, but Lucca is off in foreign lands, initially as a Peace Corps volunteer, and doesn't need a man. Dominic vows to bring Lucca home and convince her to marry him to fulfill Bella's most fervent wish. What will Lucca say?.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 959
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, realistic, feel good, semi serious, romantic drama, humorous
Similar in 85%
Sometimes (1976)
Plot Summary:
A story spanning two generations, where two lovers are forced to marry against their will, but hold onto memories of their romance. Years later circumstances force them to confront their spouses, their children and each other.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: India
Duration: 177 min
Plot tags: romantic, sentimental, touching, epic, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, saga
Similar in 79%
Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas (2005)
Plot Summary:
A woman discovers the truth about her former lover from the diary that his first wife wrote to their son, Nicholas.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sentimental, realistic, touching, serious, emotional, erotic, tear jerker
Similar in 82%
Nuts for Love (2000)
Plot Summary:
En 1975, unos meses antes del comienzo de la dictadura militar argentina, Alicia y Marcelo se conocen en un concierto de Sui Géneris. El amor surge inmediatamente entre ellos, pero el retorno del novio de Alicia provoca la separación. En 1982, en Madrid, sus caminos vuelven a cruzarse. Tras el encuentro, se dan cuenta de que, a pesar de que el amor sigue latente, sus destinos discurren por rumbos separados. Años después, en 1990, tras otro encuentro casual, Marcelo decide hacer frente a sus sentimientos por Alicia: ambos quieren hacer realidad su sueño postergado desde la adolescencia.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 466
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Argentina, Spain
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, serious, emotional, sentimental, realistic, contemplative, talky, gloomy
Similar in 88%
Lost in Time (2003)
Plot Summary:
Sui Wai lost her fiance Ah Man in a car accident. With the obligations of life sitting heavy on her shoulders, she lives on only to find herself confiding in her beloved through a phone call. Dai Fai. a mini-bus driver who witnessed Ah Man's death, is always there offering her attentive encouragement and support, yet he himself also lives in the shadow of his last relationship. When Siu Wai strives to face the future without the man she loves, Dai Fai finds himself steadily falling in love with her.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, sincere, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 77%
The Affair (1973)
Plot Summary:
A crippled lady songwriter meets an older lawyer, who becomes her first love.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 294
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 74 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 75%
Under the Hawthorn Tree (2010)
Plot Summary:
The daughter of a right-winger, schoolgirl Jing Qiu (Zhou Dong-Yu) is sent to the countryside for reeducation, and tasked to help write a textbook. There she meets Lao San (Shawn Dou), a young soldier with a bright future ahead. Despite the class divide and parental disapproval, romance blooms against turbulent times.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: China
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, sincere, realistic, romantic, serious, emotional
Similar in 78%
Lover's Concerto (2002)
Plot Summary:
Lee Ji-hwan receives photographs in the mail that reminds him of how he met two girls, Shim Su-in and Kim Gyeong-heui, one summer five years ago. He shares his memories with his friend Cheol-hyeon. He recalls initially being in love with Su-in, but she rejects him. Throughout the summer, the three remain friends. Ji-hwan and Gyeong-heui develop feelings for each other but are reluctant to admit it. Ji-hwan recalls the complex relationship between the three to Cheol-hyeon.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: South Korea
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, romantic, captivating, romantic comedy, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative