Best movies like Kikujiro

Similar in 84%

My Life as a Dog (1985)

Plot Summary:

A boy, obsessed with comparing himself with those less fortunate, experiences a different life at the home of his aunt and uncle in 1959 Sweden.

Similar in 79%

Takeshis' (2005)

Plot Summary:

Beat Takeshi lives the busy and sometimes surreal life of a showbiz celebrity. One day he meets his blond lookalike named Kitano, a shy convenience store cashier, who, still an unknown actor, is waiting for his big break. After their paths cross, Kitano seems to begin hallucinating about becoming Beat.

Similar in 90%

Boiling Point (1990)

Plot Summary:

Masaki, a baseball player and gas-station attendant, gets into trouble with the local Yakuza and goes to Okinawa to get a gun to defend himself. There he meets Uehara, a tough gangster, who is in serious debt to the yakuza and planning revenge.

Similar in 75%

Sonatine (1993)

Plot Summary:

Kitano plays Murakawa, a Tokyo yakuza tiring of gangster life. Along with a few of his henchmen, he is sent by his boss to Okinawa to help end a gang war, supposedly to mediate between two warring clans. He finds that the dispute between the clans is insignificant and whilst wondering why he was sent to Okinawa at all, Murakawa's headquarters are bombed and he and his gang are ambushed in a bar.

Similar in 77%

Zatoichi (2003)

Plot Summary:

Zatôichi is a 19th century blind nomad who makes his living as a gambler and masseur. However, behind this humble facade, he is a master swordsman gifted with a lightning-fast draw and breathtaking precision. While wandering, Zatôichi discovers a remote mountain village at the mercy of Ginzo, a ruthless gang-leader. Ginzo disposes of anyone who gets in his way, especially after hiring the mighty samurai ronin, Hattori, as a bodyguard. After a raucous night of gambling in town, Zatôichi encounters a pair of geishas--as dangerous as they are beautiful--who've come to avenge their parents' murder. As the paths of these and other colorful characters intertwine, Ginzo's henchmen are soon after Zatôichi. With his legendary cane sword at his side, the stage is set for a riveting showdown.

Similar in 78%

Dolls (2002)

Plot Summary:

Dolls takes puppeteering as its overriding motif -- specifically, the kind practiced in Bunraku doll theater performances -- opening each section of his film with a story provided by the puppets and their masters, which relates thematically to the action provided by the live characters. Chief among those tales is the story of Matsumoto (Hidetoshi Nishijima) and Sawako (Miho Kanno), a young couple whose relationship is about to be broken apart by the former's parents, who have insisted their son take part in an arranged marriage to his boss' daughter. He initially agrees, causing the unstable Sawako to be committed to a psychiatric hospital. When he leaves his new bride at the altar to save Sawako, however, he realizes that she's so incapable of caring for herself that she needs to be tied to him with a red rope. Inextricably bound, the two wander through Japan, encountering others along the way who have similarly overlooked love for other, more fleeting pleasures: fame, power, money.

Similar in 88%

Rent-a-Cat (2012)

Plot Summary:

A single woman runs a rent-a-cat service to provide companions for lonely people.

Similar in 86%

Scabbard Samurai (2010)

Plot Summary:

Nomi Kanjuro (Takaaki Nomi) is a master less samurai on the run after throwing away his sword for good. He has with him his headstrong 9-year-old daughter Tae (Sea Kumada). A bounty is soon placed on Nomi Kanjuro and 3 assassins go after the score. When Nomi Kanjuro is eventually captured and placed in front of the local feudal lord (Jun Kunimura) he is given a choice. A boy prince has been grieving ever since the death of his mother. Nobody has been able to make the boy smile. Nomi can attempt to make the boy smile within 30 days or he must commit seppuku (suicide).

Similar in 83%

Eldorado (2008)

Plot Summary:

Yvan finds a burglar in his house. After some consideration, Yvan decides not to call the police and to drop the lad near the nearby city but he ends up giving him a lift home to his parents. Together, they travel through Belgium and meet some extraordinary people and find themselves in ditto situations.

Similar in 84%

Pieces of April (2003)

Plot Summary:

Quirky and rebellious April Burns lives with her boyfriend in a low-rent New York City apartment miles away from her emotionally distant family. But when she discovers that her mother has a fatal form of breast cancer, she invites the clan to her place for Thanksgiving. While her father struggles to drive her family into the city, April -- an inexperienced cook -- runs into kitchen trouble and must ask a neighbor for help.

Similar in 88%

Aaltra (2004)

Plot Summary:

In this pitch black comedy the rivalry between two neighbors escalates into an all out war. Through a maintenance error on a tractor they both end up, paralyzed, in a wheelchair. It seems they are doomed to stay together. They no longer focus their rage on each other but on the manufacturer of the tractor, in Helsinki. So get ready for a hilarious wheelchair road movie.

Similar in 80%

Box of Moon Light (1996)

Plot Summary:

Al Fountain, a middle-aged electrical engineer, is on the verge of a mid-life crisis, when he decides to take his time coming home from a business trip, rents a car, and heads out looking for a lake he remembers from his childhood. But his wandering takes him into the life of Kid, a free-spirited young man who helps Al escape from the routine of everyday life and find freedom to enjoy himself.

Similar in 87%

Smoke Signals (1998)

Plot Summary:

Young Indian man Thomas is a nerd in his reservation, wearing oversize glasses and telling everyone stories no-one wants to hear. His parents died in a fire in 1976, and Thomas was saved by Arnold. Arnold soon left his family, and Victor hasn't seen his father for 10 years. When Victor hears Arnold has died, Thomas offers him funding for the trip to get Arnold's remains.

Similar in 77%

Everything Is Illuminated (2005)

Plot Summary:

A film based on the semi-autobiographical novel of the same name by American writer Jonathan Safran Foer, in which a young Jewish American man endeavors—with the help of eccentric, distant relatives—to find the woman who saved his grandfather during World War II, in a Ukrainian village which was ultimately razed by the Nazis.

Similar in 78%

The Go-Getter (2007)

Plot Summary:

When his mother dies, a teenager takes a road-trip in a stolen car to find his long-lost brother. Along the way he discovers a profound connection with the car-owner and with himself as well.

Similar in 76%

Brother (2000)

Plot Summary:

A Japanese Yakuza gangster’s deadly existence in his homeland gets him exiled to Los Angeles, California, where he is taken in by his little brother and his brother’s gang. This is the first English film by Takeshi Kitano.

Similar in 77%

Tour de Force (2014)

Plot Summary:

Belgium, of all places. What's Belgium got besides chocolates and fries? No matter, this year it was Hannes' and Kiki's turn to choose the destination of their annual bike tour with their closest friends. They all looks forward to the adventure, after all they know that what counts the most is the time they spend together. It's only after the tour has begun that Hannes tells his friends that he's suffering from an incurable disease. The trip is to be his last. At first, the group is shocked and helpless, but after they hit the road again, they embark on a wild and one-of-a-kind adventure. Through Hannes, they realize how precious life is. Equipped with a list of things that still remain to do, and aware that nothing will be the same after this trip, they celebrate life as they never did before.

Similar in 88%

Gueros (2014)

Plot Summary:

Set amidst the 1999 student strikes in Mexico City, this coming-of-age tale finds two brothers venturing through the city in a sentimental search for an aging legendary musician. Shot in black-and-white, Güeros brims with youthful exuberance.

Similar in 86%

Tumbleweeds (1999)

Plot Summary:

A woman constantly runs from town to town with her 12 year old daughter to escape failed relationships. The film opens with one escape and the shift into a new start in San Diego. There Mom takes up with a controlling trucker and fights with her weirdo boss. Meanwhile, the daughter, used to making the constant shifts, finds a fit at school including getting chosen for a play lead.

Similar in 76%

Lost in Translation (2003)

Plot Summary:

Two lost souls visiting Tokyo -- the young, neglected wife of a photographer and a washed-up movie star shooting a TV commercial -- find an odd solace and pensive freedom to be real in each other's company, away from their lives in America.

Similar in 86%

The Way (2010)

Plot Summary:

When his son dies while hiking the famed Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route in the Pyrenees, Tom flies to France to claim the remains. Looking for insights into his estranged child’s life, he decides to complete the 500-mile mountain trek to Spain. Tom soon joins up with other travelers and realizes they’re all searching for something.

Similar in 78%

Fandango (1985)

Plot Summary:

Five college buddies from the University of Texas circa 1971 embark on a final road trip odyssey across the Mexican border before facing up to uncertain futures, in Vietnam and otherwise.

Similar in 82%

The Way Way Back (2013)

Plot Summary:

Over the course of his summer break, a teenager comes into his own thanks in part to the friendship he strikes up with one of the park's managers.

Similar in 79%

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Plot Summary:

A family loaded with quirky, colorful characters piles into an old van and road trips to California for little Olive to compete in a beauty pageant.