Best movies like Japanese Story
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Against the background of an Australian desert landscape, so much space and so few people, Sandy, a geologist, and Hiromitsu, a Japanese businessman, play out a story of human inconsequence in the face of the blistering universe. The end of the journey leaves no-one capable of going back to where they started from.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Australia
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: emotional, stylized, sincere, atmospheric, captivating, road movie, romantic, sentimental, inspirational, offbeat
Best tv shows and movies like Japanese Story (2003):
Similar in 88%
Here (2011)
Plot Summary:
Set against the gorgeous landscape of Armenia, Here chronicles a brief but intense relationship between an American satellite-mapping engineer (Foster) and an expatriate photographer (Azabal) who impulsively decide to travel across the remote countryside. As their trip comes to an end, the two must decide where to go from Here.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 967
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: captivating, surreal, sincere, realistic, tense, atmospheric, serious, independent film, grunge
Similar in 80%
Samson and Delilah (2009)
Plot Summary:
Samson and Delilah's world is small- an isolated community in the Central Australian desert. When tragedy strikes they turn their backs on home and embark on a journey of survival. Lost, unwanted and alone the discover that life isn't always fair, but love never judges.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Australia
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, captivating, sincere, atmospheric, realistic, art house, anthropological, bleak
Similar in 85%
Broken English (1996)
Plot Summary:
Ivan is the fierce patriarch of a family of Croatian refugees in Auckland. Nina is his daughter, ready to live on her own, despite his angry objections. Eddie is the Maori she takes as her lover. Nina works at a restaurant where Eddie cooks. For a price, she agrees to marry a Chinese, another restaurant employee, so that he (and his Chinese wife) can establish permanent residency. The money gives her the independence she needs to leave her parents' house and move in with Eddie. Complications arise when Eddie realizes the depth of her father's fury and the strength of Nina's family ties.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 734
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: New Zealand
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: sexy, sentimental, serious, realistic, sexual, crying, independent film, erotic, romantic, road movie
Similar in 82%
Serenades (2001)
Plot Summary:
A girl is born to an Aboriginal mother and an Afgan father.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 105
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Australia
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: serious, touching, sincere, captivating, tense, realistic, independent film
Similar in 83%
Ae Fond Kiss... (2004)
Plot Summary:
A young man upsets his Punjabi family when he falls in love with an Irish schoolteacher.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, Italy, Germany, Spain, Belgium
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: realistic, emotional, sentimental, touching, romantic, offbeat, serious, crying, erotic, sexy
Similar in 78%
Cactus (1986)
Plot Summary:
A woman who injured her eyes in car accident and a young blind man fall for each other.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 234
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Australia
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, crying, independent film
Similar in 84%
Drowning on Dry Land (1999)
Plot Summary:
A taxi driver (Naveen Andrews) picks up a fare (Barbara Hershey) in Manhattan. She offers the driver a large sum to drive her to the desert. While the pair drive across the country, the woman tries various strategies to lure the driver into conversation. Despite his reticence, the pair begins a tumultuous and steamy relationship.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 237
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: road movie, psychological, touching, serious, realistic, talky
Similar in 83%
Mother and Child (2009)
Plot Summary:
The lives of three women have a commonality: adoption. Karen is a physical therapist who regrets that, as a teenager, she gave up her daughter for adoption. Elizabeth was an adopted child and is now a successful lawyer, but her personal life lacks warmth. Lucy and her husband have failed to conceive and now hope to adopt a baby to make their family complete.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA, Spain
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: sincere, emotional, realistic, talky, sad, captivating, cult classic, indie film, serious, contemplative
Similar in 86%
The Black Balloon (2008)
Plot Summary:
Thomas is turning 16. His dad's in the army and they've just moved to a town in New South Wales; his mom is pregnant; his older brother, Charlie, who's autistic, has his own adolescent sexual issues. Thomas finds Charlie an embarrassment in public, so when Thomas is attracted to Jackie, a girl in his swim class, Charlie presents any number of obstacles when she drops by their house, when the three of them go for a walk, and during a family birthday dinner. Can Thomas find a way to enter the world of teen romance and still be his brother's keeper, or is Charlie's disability going to prove more than Thomas can handle?.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Australia
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, educational, sad, independent film, dark comedy, indie film, psychological
Similar in 83%
Flirting (1991)
Plot Summary:
The year is 1965 and Danny Embling, is an awkward, underdeveloped teen suffering from occasional bouts of stuttering, attends an all-male boarding school in New South Wales, Australia. it has been some time since Danny has had any romantic relationship with a girl. He slowly becomes interested in Thandiwe Adjewa, a Ugandan-Kenyan-British girl attending the all-girls school across the lake.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Australia
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, romantic, disturbing, sentimental, sincere, serious, teen, atmospheric, independent film
Similar in 85%
Ask the Dust (2006)
Plot Summary:
Mexican beauty Camilla hopes to rise above her station by marrying a wealthy American. That is complicated by meeting Arturo Bandini, a first-generation Italian hoping to land a writing career and a blue-eyed blonde on his arm.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Germany, USA
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, erotic, sexy, melancholic, stylized, intense, serious, realistic, romantic, touching
Similar in 82%
Evening (2007)
Plot Summary:
As Constance (Natasha Richardson) and Nina (Toni Collette) gather at the deathbed of their mother, Ann (Vanessa Redgrave), they learn for the first time that their mother lived an entire other lifetime during one evening 50 years ago. In vivid flashbacks, the young Ann (Claire Daines) spends one night with a man named Harris (Patrick Wilson), who was the love of her life.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA, Germany
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, sentimental, romantic, intense, realistic, heartbreaking, tear jerker, epic, cult classic
Similar in 85%
Jungle Fever (1991)
Plot Summary:
A successful and married black man contemplates having an affair with a white girl from work. He's quite rightly worried that the racial difference would make an already taboo relationship even worse.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: sexy, serious, emotional, realistic, controversial, hood, sentimental, captivating, scary, touching
Similar in 75%
The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981)
Plot Summary:
In this story-within-a-story, Anna is an actress starring opposite Mike in a period piece about the forbidden love between their respective characters, Sarah and Charles. Both actors are involved in serious relationships, but the passionate nature of the script leads to an off-camera love affair as well. While attempting to maintain their composure and professionalism, Anna and Mike struggle to come to terms with their infidelity.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: romantic, emotional, costume drama, scenic, stylized, atmospheric, clever, postmodern, erotic, retro
Similar in 80%
The End of the Affair (1999)
Plot Summary:
On a rainy London night in 1946, novelist Maurice Bendrix has a chance meeting with Henry Miles, husband of his ex-mistress Sarah, who abruptly ended their affair two years before. Bendrix's obsession with Sarah is rekindled; he succumbs to his own jealousy and arranges to have her followed.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: romantic, erotic, intellectual, heartbreaking, enigmatic, melancholic, period piece, atmospheric, sexy, romantic drama
Similar in 77%
Candy (2006)
Plot Summary:
A poet falls in love with an art student, who gravitates to his bohemian lifestyle -- and his love of heroin. Hooked as much on one another as they are on the drug, their relationship alternates between states of oblivion, self-destruction, and despair.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 47000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Australia
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: disturbing, depressing, romantic, touching, emotional, sexy, independent film, realistic, erotic, crying
Similar in 87%
My Blueberry Nights (2007)
Plot Summary:
Elizabeth has just been through a particularly nasty breakup, and now she's ready to leave her friends and memories behind as she chases her dreams across the country. In order to support herself on her journey, Elizabeth picks up a series of waitress jobs along the way. As Elizabeth crosses paths with a series of lost souls whose yearnings are even greater than her own, their emotional turmoil ultimately helps her gain a greater understanding of her own problems.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 56000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: China, France, USA, Hong Kong
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: road movie, sentimental, atmospheric, psychological, touching, romantic, melancholic, heartbreaking, sincere, feel good
Similar in 81%
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
Similar in 80%
One Night Stand (1997)
Plot Summary:
In Los Angeles, Max Carlyle makes a good living directing commercials and has a happy home life with his wife, Mimi, and two children. When Carlyle travels to New York City to visit his friend Charlie, who has been diagnosed with AIDS, he has repeat run-ins with a beautiful woman, Karen, and eventually sleeps with her. Though he goes home the next day and doesn't return until a year later, Carlyle's infidelity still lingers.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: sexy, melancholic, light, intense, touching, serious, realistic, erotic, clever, romantic
Similar in 80%
The Sleeping Dictionary (2003)
Plot Summary:
A young Englishman is dispatched to Sarawak to become part of the British colonial government. He encounters some unorthodox local traditions, and finds himself faced with tough decisions of the heart involving the beautiful Selima, the unwitting object of his affections.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, Germany, USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: romantic, sexy, erotic, scenic, captivating, serious, period piece, fairy tale, touching, art film
Similar in 87%
Feast of Love (2007)
Plot Summary:
A meditation on love and its various incarnations, set within a community of friends in Oregon. It is described as an exploration of the magical, mysterious and sometimes painful incarnations of love.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: touching, romantic, sentimental, semi serious, feel good, humorous, realistic, erotic, inspirational, emotional
Similar in 84%
Dying Young (1991)
Plot Summary:
After she discovers that her boyfriend has betrayed her, Hilary O'Neil is looking for a new start and a new job. She begins to work as a private nurse for a young man suffering from blood cancer. Slowly, they fall in love, but they always know their love cannot last because he is destined to die.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: romantic, sentimental, sad, touching, inspirational, cute, emotional, erotic, bleak, novela
Similar in 84%
One Day (2011)
Plot Summary:
A romantic comedy centered on Dexter and Emma, who first meet during their graduation in 1988 and proceed to keep in touch regularly. The film follows what they do on July 15 annually, usually doing something together.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 161000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: sentimental, romantic, emotional, sad, touching, realistic, heartbreaking, romantic drama, tear jerker, serious
Similar in 78%
We Don't Live Here Anymore (2004)
Plot Summary:
Married couple Jack and Terry Linden are experiencing a difficult period in their relationship. When Jack decides to step outside the marriage, he becomes involved with Edith, who happens to be the wife of his best friend and colleague, Hank Evans. Learning of their partners' infidelity, Terry and Hank engage in their own extramarital affair together. Now, both marriages and friendships are on the brink of collapse.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: emotional, stylized, psychological, touching, sincere, contemplative, erotic, realistic, scary, sensual
Similar in 76%
Somersault (2004)
Plot Summary:
Australian teenager Heidi is left with little choice but to leave home after she's caught red-handed with her mother's boyfriend. With few options, Heidi ends up in Jindabyne, a tourist community. Upon meeting Joe at a bar, she pursues a relationship with him and tries to find something resembling a normal home life. Heidi makes small strides by getting a job and finding a place to stay, but her relationship with Joe must overcome more than its share of hurdles.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Australia
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, realistic, sexy, psychological, depressing, melancholic, lyrical, art house, erotic
Similar in 90%
Autumn in New York (2000)
Plot Summary:
Autumn in New York follows the sexual exploits of Will Keane - New York restaurateur, infamous verging-on-50 playboy, master of the no-commitment seduction - until he runs into an unexpected dead end when he meets Charlotte Fielding. Charlotte is half Will's age and twice his match, a 21 year-old free spirit yearning to get out and taste the excitement of adult life.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 28000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: romantic, sentimental, emotional, touching, heartbreaking, sad, sexy, intense, contemplative, romantic drama
Similar in 79%
The Painted Veil (2006)
Plot Summary:
A British medical doctor fights a cholera outbreak in a small Chinese village, while also being trapped at home in a loveless marriage to an unfaithful wife.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 95000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: China, Canada, USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, scenic, captivating, heartbreaking, melancholic, costume drama, romantic, period piece, atmospheric
Similar in 80%
Love Story (1970)
Plot Summary:
Harvard Law student Oliver Barrett IV and music student Jennifer Cavilleri share a chemistry they cannot deny - and a love they cannot ignore. Despite their opposite backgrounds, the young couple put their hearts on the line for each other. When they marry, Oliver's wealthy father threatens to disown him. Jenny tries to reconcile the Barrett men, but to no avail.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 37000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, sentimental, romantic, sad, serious, tear jerker, sweet, melancholic, romantic drama
Similar in 75%
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003)
Plot Summary:
This South Korean film takes place on an isolated lake, where an old monk lives in a small floating temple. The monk has a young boy living with him, learning to become a monk. We watch as seasons and years pass by.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 86000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: South Korea, Germany
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: philosophical, atmospheric, melancholic, meditative, spiritual, art house, touching, stylized, scenic, lyrical
Similar in 84%
Monster's Ball (2001)
Plot Summary:
Set in the southern USA, a racist white man, Hank, falls in love with a black woman named Leticia. Ironically, Hank is a prison guard working on Death Row who executed Leticia's husband. Hank and Leticia's inter-racial affair leads to confusion and new ideas for the two unlikely lovers.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 93000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: psychological, depressing, emotional, realistic, sexy, touching, melancholic, compassionate, sensual, tense