Best movies like Heroic Purgatory
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Rikiya Shoda is an engineer working for the Atomic Agency in Japan. One day, his wife Nanako returns home with a lost teenager called Ayu. A man, pretending to be the father, comes to get her back; Ayu keeps telling him that Rikiya and Nanako are her parents. Through this disruption, Rikiya suddenly starts remembering his youth as a revolutionary.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 817
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: Japan
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: avant garde, weird
Best tv shows and movies like Heroic Purgatory (1970):
Similar in 86%
What a Flash! (1972)
Plot Summary:
The producers of this French film took approximately 100 people, put them on a soundstage and had them improvise this film based on the premise that they are on a spaceship escaping from the dictators of earth and only have a few days to live. Improvisation is a dangerous art-form; unprepared amateurs invariably come up with gross caricatures when challenged to improvise. The actors' choices in this film include an allegorical pageant of the life of Jesus, a marriage, an orgy, and some genuinely affectionate moments. Nonetheless, as an experimental effort in large-group improvisation, the film is instructive. - Clarke Fountain, Rovi.
IMDB Rating: 4.0
IMDB Votes: 144
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: experimental, avant garde, weird
Similar in 88%
Coup d'Etat (1973)
Plot Summary:
A freestyle biopic of Ikki Kita, the ultranationalist intellectual whose ideas inspired the failed military coup in 1936.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 524
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Japan
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: political
Similar in 76%
Eros + Massacre (1969)
Plot Summary:
Two interwoven stories. The first is a biography of anarchist Sakae Osugi which follows his relationship with three women in the 1920s. The second centers around two 1960s students researching Osugi's theories.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 216 min
Plot tags: erotic, erotic drama, avant garde, political, weird
Similar in 76%
Farewell to the Summer Light (1968)
Plot Summary:
The setup here is a couple. They are both Japanese. She is married to a European, is haunted by the Nagasaki bomb which killed her father. The two are in love.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 258
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: road movie, light
Similar in 76%
A Story Written with Water (1965)
Plot Summary:
Struggling with his true emotions, dreams, memories of the past and the reality Shizuo is about to marry, but is torn between his wife-to-be and the love to his mother.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 408
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
The Man Who Left His Will on Film (1970)
Plot Summary:
A metaphysical mystery involving a university student's camera getting stolen, and the thief then committing suicide. Looking back upon the event, the situation comes to be questioned if it happened at all.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 776
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, weird
Similar in 84%
Akitsu Springs (1962)
Plot Summary:
Yoshida’s first big-budget production and colour film is a haunting tale of unrequited love and postwar disillusion. The story of the fatal attraction between a spineless intellectual and a strong woman is conventional, but its enactment is radically new.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: avant garde
Similar in 78%
Woman of the Lake (1966)
Plot Summary:
A married woman lets her lover take naked pictures of her. The photos end up in possession of a man who starts blackmailing the couple.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 716
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
Under the Blossoming Cherry Trees (1975)
Plot Summary:
A mountain man beheads his many wives to prove his love to an alluring woman he meets in an enchanted forest.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Country: Japan
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: weird, cult film
Similar in 82%
If Cats Disappeared from the World (2016)
Plot Summary:
A postman learns that he doesn't have much time left to live due to a terminal illness. A devil then appears in front of him and offers to extend his life if he picks something in the world that will disappear. The man thinks about his relationships with ex-friends, ex-lovers, relatives and colleagues who will be sincerely sad when he dies.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: Japan
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, crying
Similar in 78%
Indecent Desires (1968)
Plot Summary:
Zeb finds a doll and a ring in a garbage can. Then, he sees Ann going to work with her friend Babs. He thinks she looks like the doll. When he gets home, he caresses the doll... Ann feels it! When Zeb finds out about Ann's fiance Tom, he really gets mad, burns the doll, and beats it up, which makes Ann think she's losing her mind.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 483
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: USA
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, independent film, weird
Similar in 75%
Irezumi (1966)
Plot Summary:
In this elegant proto-feminist shocker from Yasuzo Masumuro, a woman forced into prostitution wreaks her spidery revenge. A mysterious tattoo artist puts his masterpiece, a human-faced spider, on a kidnapped woman's back. She and her lover are then forced into a conspiracy-born nightmare, where they face the danger of becoming the very evil they seek to escape. With each new bloody incident, the spider's face seems to redden with ever-growing hunger….
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, masterpiece
Similar in 76%
Intentions of Murder (1964)
Plot Summary:
Sadako, cursed by generations before her and neglected by her common-law husband, falls prey to a brutal home intruder. But rather than become a victim, she forges a path to her own awakening.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: rough, suspense, tense, bleak, disturbing, erotic, freeze frame, avant garde
Similar in 90%
Strawberries Need Rain (1971)
Plot Summary:
Death comes to take a beautiful young girl, and she persuades him to let her live out her fantasies before he finally takes her away.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 91
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, independent film
Similar in 86%
Field of Dogs (2014)
Plot Summary:
A visionary romance based on a contemporary reading of Dante.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 416
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: Poland, Italy, Sweden
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: allegory, bleak, serious, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing, surreal, avant garde, weird
Similar in 80%
Midori: The Camellia Girl (2016)
Plot Summary:
14-year-old Midori is the constantly abused chore girl for a freakshow. Things begin to change for her after a dwarf magician joins the freak show, but not always for the better.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 342
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: Japan
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: sadistic, intense, compassionate, dark, manga, erotic, weird
Similar in 83%
Mandara (1971)
Plot Summary:
About two student couples who become members of an obscure sect. The cult seeks a prehistoric utopia with free sex and without society's norms and values. The students are torn between ambient pressure and the sect leader's authority to organ music in the creative camera angles.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 498
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: independent film, weird
Similar in 78%
Day-Dream (1964)
Plot Summary:
While under sedation in a dentist's office, a young art student has sex fantasies about naked women, vampires and a beautiful patient he saw in the office.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 259
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Country: Japan
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: erotic, experimental, disturbing, controversial, dark fantasy, weird
Similar in 87%
Pitfall (1962)
Plot Summary:
A man wanders into a seemingly deserted town with his young son in search of work. But after a bit of bad luck, he joins the town's population of lost souls.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Japan
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: surreal, mind bending, psychedelic, depressing, experimental, avant garde, atmospheric, rough, offbeat, bleak
Similar in 81%
Sing a Song of Sex (1967)
Plot Summary:
Four sexually hungry high school students preparing for their university entrance exams meet up with an inebriated teacher singing bawdy drinking songs. This encounter sets them on a less than academic path.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 853
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: absurd, erotic, touching, serious, realistic, stylized, sexual, suspense, sexy, weird
Similar in 85%
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 89%
Confessions Among Actresses (1971)
Plot Summary:
In this intricately layered Japanese film, the nature of actresses and what they gain from acting is explored. The lives of three actresses are laid bare, and scenes from their lives are woven in and out of interviews with each of them. Each of them has experienced a traumatic event which contributes to their particular enjoyment of becoming someone else in dramatic roles.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 260
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
The Art of Love (1983)
Plot Summary:
Young student Claudine has a dream in which the Roman student Cornelius, fascinated by the beautiful wife of the commander, attends lectures on the art of love of great Ovid. Ancient tragedy happens again in a few centuries.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 313
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: erotic, sexy, sex comedy, sensual
Similar in 84%
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 75%
Pastoral Hide and Seek (1974)
Plot Summary:
A young boys' coming of age tale set in a strange, carnivalesque village becomes the recreation of a memory that the director has twenty years later.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: Japan
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: surreal, experimental, psychedelic, mind bending, disturbing, avant garde, weird, cult film
Similar in 88%
Akira Kurosawa's Dreams (1990)
Plot Summary:
A collection of magical tales based upon the actual dreams of director Akira Kurosawa.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 28000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: Japan, USA
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: surreal, atmospheric, anthology, philosophical, cerebral, mind bending, art film, spiritual, artsy, visually appealing
Similar in 85%
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 77%
20th Century Boys 2: The Last Hope (2009)
Plot Summary:
Set 15 years after "Twentieth Century Boys," Kanna (Airi Taira) reunites with several main characters from the first film in an attempt to stop Friend's increasing influence over the world and continued plans to eliminate humanity, as detailed in the New Book of Prophecy.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: Japan
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, stylized, exciting, manga, anime, offbeat, weird
Similar in 80%
Mushi-Shi: The Movie (2006)
Plot Summary:
Mushi are beings in touch with the essence of life, far more basic and pure than normal living things. Most humans are incapable of perceiving Mushi and are oblivious to their existence, but there are a few who possess the ability to see and interact with Mushi. One such person is Ginko who travels from place to place to research Mushi and aid people suffering from problems caused by them.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: Japan
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, stylized, captivating, anime, psychotronic, weird, bizarre
Similar in 89%
Enter the Void (2009)
Plot Summary:
This psychedelic tour of life after death is seen entirely from the point of view of Oscar (Nathaniel Brown), a young American drug dealer and addict living in Tokyo with his prostitute sister, Linda (Paz de la Huerta). When Oscar is killed by police during a bust gone bad, his spirit journeys from the past -- where he sees his parents before their deaths -- to the present -- where he witnesses his own autopsy -- and then to the future, where he looks out for his sister from beyond the grave.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 86000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan
Duration: 161 min
Plot tags: psychedelic, art house, visually stunning, philosophical, atmospheric, meditative, disturbing, surreal, cerebral, mindfuck