Best movies like Iron & Silk
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Iron and Silk is a 1990 movie based on the eponymous book by American writer Mark Salzman. It details his journey to China after college to study Chinese wu shu, better known in the west as kung fu, and to teach English. Though not trained as an actor, Salzman starred as himself, as did Pan Qingfu, who claimed no one else could portray him on film. Salzman's experiences occurred in Changsha, Hunan, though the film was shot in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. (Wikipedia).
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 638
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA, Japan
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: independent film, realistic, semi serious, cult film
Best tv shows and movies like Iron & Silk (1990):
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My Young Auntie (1981)
Plot Summary:
Cheng (Kara Hui Ying Hung), a beautiful martial arts ace, battles to keep her inheritance from the ruthless Yun Wei (Johnny Wang Lung Wei), but her efforts are sabotaged by Yu Tao (Hsaio Ho), her wayward and irrepressible great-nephew. Following a frenzy of spectacular comic mishaps, the hapless duo are setup and imprisoned and the deeds to Cheng's estate are stolen. She is held hostage after a doomed attempt to reclaim the papers back from Yu Wei's place, and the stage is set for a savage fight to the death.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 909
Genere: Action, Comedy
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: humorous, epic, semi serious
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Grad Night (2006)
Plot Summary:
A group of friends celebrates their graduation from Crispus Attucks High School with a jammin' party. It's hormones on overdrive, recreational drugs and lap dancing galore as the Class of 2005 goes out in style.
IMDB Rating: 1.8
IMDB Votes: 749
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: semi serious, humorous, realistic
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Whiteboyz (1999)
Plot Summary:
In a virtually all-white Iowa town, Flip daydreams of being a hip-hop star, hanging with Snoop Doggy Dogg and Dr. Dre. He practices in front of a mirror and with his two pals, James and Trevor. He talks Black slang, he dresses Black. He's also a wannabe pusher, selling flour as cocaine. And while he talks about "keeping it real," he hardly notices real life around him: his father's been laid off, his mother uses Food Stamps, his girlfriend is pregnant, James may be psychotic, one of his friends (one of the town's few Black kids) is preparing for college, and, on a trip to Chicago to try to buy drugs, the cops shoot real bullets. What will it take for Flip to get real?.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France, USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: realistic, humorous, not serious, slang, hood, clever, witty, cynical
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Me and Mrs. Jones (2002)
Plot Summary:
Tabloid journalist Liam Marple, sets about to dig up dirt on Laura Bowden, the new British Prime Minister. Posing as a political fundraiser, Liam gains entrance into Number 10 Downing, where he promptly wins the confidence of the idealistic PM.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 333
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, romantic, sexual
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Ciao, Professore! (1992)
Plot Summary:
A bureaucratic snafu sends Marco Tullio Sperelli, a portly, middle-aged northern Italian, to teach third grade in a poor town outside Naples.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy
Country: Italy
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: feel good, humorous, realistic, semi serious, light, inspirational, sexy, thought provoking, clever, enigmatic
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The Family Game (1983)
Plot Summary:
A sendup of the stereo-typical Japanese family: dad is a salaryman jerk, unable to relate to anyone; mom is a hopeless housewife; the older son is a moderate academic success; but the younger son is a rebellious goof-off for whom a tutor must be hired. The tutor, played by the prototypical bad-boy actor Matsuda Yusaku, proceeds to blow the entire family apart.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: sentimental, clever, humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious, biting, suspense
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Teachers (1984)
Plot Summary:
A teacher tries to overcome his frustration teaching a high-school that seems to be full of flunkies.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: clever, humorous, realistic, semi serious, learning
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Highland Park (2013)
Plot Summary:
A high school faculty lotto pool places its fate in the lucky numbers they've played for ten years after hearing budget cuts have eliminated all their jobs.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 494
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, light, captivating, sentimental, feel good, semi serious, independent film
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Plot Summary:
Two yuppies play mean tricks on one another until one joke has fatal consequences.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 865
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Austria, Switzerland
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: bleak, semi serious, humorous, realistic, cynical
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Frownland (2007)
Plot Summary:
A rotten egg lobbed with spazmo aim at the spotless surface of the silver screen, FROWNLAND centers on social misfit and self-labeled "troll from under the bridge" Keith Sontag (Dore Mann). When he's not trying to sell coupons door-to-door, Keith struggles with evicting his roommate from their seedy apartment, helping a friend who's suicidal and just getting by as an outsider in the cruel city.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 758
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: mumblecore, humorous, semi serious, clever, realistic, witty, stylized, inspirational, controversial, offbeat
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After School (1988)
Plot Summary:
A student-teacher relationship goes way beyond the classroom, including pre-historic times.
IMDB Rating: 3.5
IMDB Votes: 214
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: sex comedy, offbeat, humorous, realistic, semi serious, independent film, sexy, teen sex comedy, hot, teen comedy
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Living on Tokyo Time (1987)
Plot Summary:
When her visa expires, a young Japanese immigrant in San Francisco agrees to marry a Japanese-American boy to avoid being deported back to Japan.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 276
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: independent film, humorous, realistic, semi serious
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Hong Kong Confidential (2010)
Plot Summary:
One week in one of the most exotic and picturesque cities of the world. The day of changes comes when Amaya meets a charming Englishman, Paul and it dramatically changes Amaya's perception of her cultural and personal identity.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 565
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Latvia, Hong Kong
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: sentimental, humorous, semi serious, atmospheric, psychological, sincere, touching, realistic
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Where's the Party Yaar? (2003)
Plot Summary:
The film is based on Sunil Thakkar's own experiences running and throwing parties for the Music Masala radio station, and having to discriminate between "Fresh off the Boat" Indians and the more fashionable, hip, Americanized Indians. Ironically enough, Thakkar's character in the film is exactly the type of person he barred from parties in those days.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: feel good, humorous, semi serious, sexy, realistic, witty, hot
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Foreign Letters (2012)
Plot Summary:
A bittersweet coming-of-age film, Foreign Letters is itself a love letter to the unshakeable bond between friends. Set in the pre-email era of the 1980s, young Ellie, newly arrived to the US from Israel, anxiously waits for letters from her best friend back home. Suffering from homesickness, language difficulties and rejection at school, life brightens when she meets Thuy, a Vietnamese refugee her age. As the two bond and become inseparable, they eventually hurt each other, and Ellie must find a way to restore their trust. Based on director Ela Thier's personal immigration experience, Foreign Letters is a film about poverty, prejudice, shame, and the healing power of friendship.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 273
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic
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Caterina in the Big City (2003)
Plot Summary:
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IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, semi serious, humorous
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Plot Summary:
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IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 447
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA, China
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, independent film
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IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Sweden
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: feel good, semi serious, sentimental, humorous, realistic
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A wannabe Hollywood player sets out to Americanize an Indian girl from the Himalayas.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 664
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
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IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 308
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Country: Hong Kong, China
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Plot tags: feel good, realistic, semi serious, sincere, humorous
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Liang is a four-year-old little rebel, possessed of a pair of luminous eyes and a precociously indomitable will. His father deposits him at a well-appointed residential kindergarten in post-1949 Beijing, since his parents are often away. Life at the kindergarten appears rich and colourful, made up of a variety of cheerfully sunny rituals and games meant to train these children to be good members of society.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: China, Italy
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: humorous, serious, realistic, touching
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Excuse my French (2014)
Plot Summary:
A Christian kid suddenly is forced to go to a public school after his father dies and because of a misunderstanding everyone thinks that he's a Muslim.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Egypt
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, stylized, semi serious, sad
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Out of It (1969)
Plot Summary:
An introverted nerd and a dumb, violent jock vie for the attentions of a cheerleader.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 174
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: independent film, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, sexual, sexy
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Chalk (2006)
Plot Summary:
Life in the trenches of that most honorable and frustrating profession...teaching. It's the start of a memorable new year at Harrison High. The self-conscious Mr. Stroope is convinced that his time has come - this year he will be furnished with the golden title of "Teacher of the Year," if only his smarter students would stop using words that he can't understand.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: mockumentary, humorous, semi documentary, psychological, captivating, clever, realistic, witty, semi serious, biting
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Watching TV with the Red Chinese (2012)
Plot Summary:
In New York City in 1980, Dexter Mitchell plays half-willing big brother to his neighbors, a trio of exchange students from the People's Republic of China.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 112
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, offbeat, non-linear, independent film
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The Utopian Society (2003)
Plot Summary:
6 college students from different backgrounds, are assigned to work together on a final project. These six students have so far spent no time together, can't stand each other and must pass this final assignment in order to pass the class. The assignment is to create a utopian society, on paper. They've had all semester to work on the project but in the tradition of most college group assignments, have opted to wait until the last minute to cram the entire semester's work into one night.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 232
Genere: Comedy
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: semi serious, clever, touching, humorous, realistic, witty, mumblecore, talky
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Everybody's Doing It (2002)
Plot Summary:
Angela and Travis consider having sex for the first time just as their high school starts up an abstinence education program. Making matters worse, a "good girl" collects abstinence pledges from students and blows the whistle on Angela and Travis.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 293
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious, captivating
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American Chai (2001)
Plot Summary:
The film deals with an Indian American student who wanted to pursue his love of music over the more 'typical' academic endeavors of Indian Americans (e.g., medicine, engineering, law, and business).
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 327
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, witty, semi serious, realistic
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Shanghai Calling (2012)
Plot Summary:
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IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA, China
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: feel good, humorous, semi serious, realistic, independent film
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Plot Summary:
A boy learns that confidence and self-esteem are the greatest gifts.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 759
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 74 min
Plot tags: feel good, humorous, realistic, semi serious