Best movies like Not One Less
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Teacher Gao loves the students in his poor village and is devoted to educating them in the hope of their greater futures. When he is called away to tend to his dying mother for a month, the Mayor calls in an inexperienced 13 year-old replacement, Wei Minzhi; much to Teacher Gao's dismay. Teacher Gao cannot stand the thought of losing anymore students: he has already lost twelve to ever-increasing attrition, and he promises Wei an extra 10 yuan if she succeeds in ensuring that upon his return, there will be not one less. Wei's difficult mission to fulfill Teacher Gao's wish and her own concern for the welfare of the children begins.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: inspirational, road movie, touching, realistic, sad, art film, informative, sincere, feel good, humorous
Best tv shows and movies like Not One Less (1999):
Similar in 78%
Electric Shadows (2004)
Plot Summary:
For no apparent reason, a mute young woman assaults a youth who delivers water on his bicycle, injuring him and ruining his bike. Surprisingly, she asks him to feed her fish while she is in custody. Her tiny apartment, he discovers, is a shrine to his favorite escape, the movies.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, art film, masterpiece
Similar in 78%
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (2005)
Plot Summary:
Takada, a Japanese fisherman has been estranged from his son for many years, but when the son is diagnosed with terminal cancer his daughter-in-law, Rie, summons him to the hospital. Through a series of obstacles and relationships, he is brought unexpectedly closer to both an understanding of himself and of his son.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: China, Japan, Hong Kong
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, serious, realistic, stylized, road movie, crying, independent film, art film
Similar in 80%
A Place in the World (1992)
Plot Summary:
Mario and Ana, in voluntary exile from Buenos Aires, live in a remote Argentine valley with their 12-year-old son Ernesto. Mario runs a school and a wool cooperative; Ana, a doctor, heads a clinic with Nelda, a progressive nun. Into this idealistic family comes Hans, a jaded Spanish geological engineer -- surveying the land for the local patron, to see if it can be dammed for hydro-electric power, which would drive the peasants from the land into the cities.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina, Spain, Uruguay
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, captivating, realistic, crying
Similar in 77%
Beijing Bicycle (2001)
Plot Summary:
A seventeen-year-old country boy working in Beijing as a courier has his bicycle stolen, and finds it with a schoolboy his age.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Taiwan, China
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, compassionate, harsh, serious, realistic, controversial, contemplative, crying, thought provoking
Similar in 84%
Magnifico (2003)
Plot Summary:
With a daughter who suffers from cerebral palsy and a son who's lost his much-needed scholarship, an impoverished married couple begins to abandon their faith and courage in the face of such misfortune. But when a gifted young boy called Magnifico uses his goodness to magically transform their lives for the better, the family's belief in miracles is restored. Suddenly, living with adversity doesn't seem like such a burden.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 930
Genere: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, emotional, uplifting, serious, realistic, surprise ending, sad, tagalog, contemplative
Similar in 81%
Times and Winds (2006)
Plot Summary:
In a small, poor village leaning over high rocky mountains, the villagers are simple and diligent people who struggle to cope with a harsh nature. They earn their living off the earth and a few animals they feed. Fathers always prefer one of their sons. Mothers command their daughters ruthlessly. Ömer, the son of the imam, wishes hopelessly for the death of his father. When he understands that wishful thinking does not have any concrete results, he begins to search for childish ways to kill his father. Yakup is in love with his teacher, and one day after seeing his father spying on the teacher he dreams too, like Ömer, of killing his father. Yıldız studies and tries to manage the household chores imposed by her mother. She learns with irritation about the secrets of the relationship between men and women.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, rough, serious, art house, bleak, realistic, neorealism, crying
Similar in 87%
Mirage (2004)
Plot Summary:
As Macedonia faces its difficult transition, a boy escapes into a world of his own creation.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country:
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, psychological, captivating, art house, bleak
Similar in 88%
The Italian (2005)
Plot Summary:
Set in 2002, an abandoned 5-year-old boy living in a rundown orphanage in a small Russian village is adopted by an Italian family.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Russia
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, realistic, breathtaking, inspirational, talky, emotional, disturbing, intense, sincere
Similar in 90%
Stella (2008)
Plot Summary:
1977. Stella entre en sixième, dans un grand lycée parisien. Stella entre dans le monde... Un nouveau monde, à l'opposé de celui qu'elle connaît. Presque un miracle. Elle, elle vit dans un café, un café d'ouvrier, à la frontière de Paris. Cette rentrée va changer sa vie.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: sentimental, semi serious, touching, humorous, realistic, teen
Similar in 76%
The Way Home (2002)
Plot Summary:
The story begins on a fine summers morning, when San-woo and his mother board a bus to the country. It is soon clear that the unsophisticated rural passengers annoy the seven-year-old urban boy. His mother is taking him to live with his 78-year-old mute, but not deaf, grandmother while she looks for a new job after a business venture failed in Seoul.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, stylized, inspirational, rough, thought provoking, sincere, sad, independent film, warmhearted
Similar in 87%
Central Station (1998)
Plot Summary:
An emotive journey of a former school teacher, who writes letters for illiterate people, and a young boy, whose mother has just died, as they search for the father he never knew.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 42000
Genere: Drama
Country: Brazil, France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: touching, feel good, emotional, road movie, realistic, art house, art film, crying, spiritual, mesmerizing
Similar in 80%
A Child Is Waiting (1963)
Plot Summary:
Dr. Matthew Clark is the head of a state institution for mentally retarded children. Jean Hansen, a former music teacher anxious to give her life some meaning, joins the staff of the hospital. Jean, who tries to shelter the children with her love, suspiciously regards Clark's stern training methods. She becomes emotionally involved with 12-year-old Reuben Widdicombe, who has been abandoned by his divorced parents.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: sincere, uplifting, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, intellectual, social, sad, sentimental
Similar in 80%
The Kite Runner (2007)
Plot Summary:
After spending years in California, Amir returns to his homeland in Afghanistan to help his old friend Hassan, whose son is in trouble.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 82000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, China, USA
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: emotional, disturbing, inspirational, sincere, psychological, touching, realistic, educational, sad, motivational
Similar in 80%
An American Rhapsody (2001)
Plot Summary:
A Hungarian family forced to flee the Communist country for the United States, must leave a young daughter behind. Six years later the family arranges to bring the absent daughter to the United States where she has trouble adjusting. The daughter then decides to travel to Budapest to discover her identity.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Hungary
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, emotional, melancholic, heartbreaking, stylized, sincere, realistic, contemplative, serious
Similar in 83%
The Class (2008)
Plot Summary:
Teacher and novelist François Bégaudeau plays a version of himself as he negotiates a year with his racially mixed students from a tough Parisian neighborhood.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 36000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: sincere, melancholic, psychological, realistic, talky, independent film, political, art house, mesmerizing, intellectual
Similar in 79%
Won't Back Down (2012)
Plot Summary:
Two determined mothers, one a teacher, look to transform their children's failing inner city school. Facing a powerful and entrenched bureaucracy, they risk everything to make a difference in the education and future of their children.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: touching, uplifting, realistic, serious, emotional, inspirational
Similar in 79%
To Sir, with Love (1967)
Plot Summary:
Idealistic engineer-trainee and his experiences in teaching a group of rambunctious white high school students from the slums of London's East End.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 20000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: touching, inspirational, educational, sentimental, realistic, social, retro, political, hood, black and white
Similar in 88%
Half Nelson (2006)
Plot Summary:
Despite his dedication to the junior-high students who fill his classroom, idealistic teacher Dan Dunne leads a secret life of addiction that the majority of his students will never know. But things change when a troubled student Drey makes a startling discovery of his secret life, causing a tenuous bond between the two that could either end disastrously or provide a catalyst of hope.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 91000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: depressing, independent film, talky, emotional, serious, inspirational, feel good, melancholic, intense, indie film
Similar in 85%
Tom Brown's Schooldays (2005)
Plot Summary:
The determined new headmaster of an English prep school attempts to reform the frequently unruly students, who are tormented by a ruthless bully.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, serious, exciting, tense, suspenseful, crying, period drama
Similar in 83%
Lean on Me (1989)
Plot Summary:
When principal Joe Clark takes over decaying Eastside High School, he's faced with students wearing gang colors and graffiti-covered walls. Determined to do anything he must to turn the school around, he expels suspected drug dealers, padlocks doors and demands effort and results from students, staff and parents. Autocratic to a fault, this real-life educator put it all on the lin.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: inspirational, feel good, hood, realistic, motivational, political, non fiction, sincere, atmospheric, rough
Similar in 79%
Evil (2003)
Plot Summary:
Stockholm, the fifties. Though academically bright, violent pupil Erik Ponti is expelled from his state school with the headmaster’s words “there’s only one word for people like you – evil… what you need is a good thrashing, and more”. In fact already Erik frequently receives a ‘good’ thrashing at the hands of his sadistic stepfather – so he is packed off by his mother to boardingschool.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 41000
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden, Denmark
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: psychological, disturbing, touching, rough, emotional, bleak, harsh, teen, realistic, serious
Similar in 78%
The Keys to the House (2004)
Plot Summary:
Meeting his handicapped son for the first time, a young father attempts to forge a relationship with the teenager.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, Germany, France, USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, touching, emotional, sincere, bleak, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, crying
Similar in 86%
Pellet (2000)
Plot Summary:
El Bola, a 12 year old boy a.k.a. "Pellet" is a 12 year old boy raised in a violent and sordid environment. Embarrassed by his family life, he avoids becoming close to classmates. The arrival of a new boy at school changes his attitude towards his classmates, and friendship. The heart of the story is the change in El Bola's life, at almost all levels, after befriending this new classmate. Written by ElianaM.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, disturbing, touching, social, sincere, depressing, controversial, hispanic
Similar in 83%
The Road Home (1999)
Plot Summary:
Prompted by the death of his father and the grief of his mother, a man recalls the story of how they met in flashback.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: China
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: emotional, romantic, road movie, sentimental, atmospheric, stylized, sad, psychedelic, feel good, epic
Similar in 77%
Children of Heaven (1997)
Plot Summary:
Zohre's shoes are gone; her older brother Ali lost them. They are poor, there are no shoes for Zohre until they come up with an idea: they will share one pair of shoes, Ali's. School awaits.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 79000
Genere: Drama, Family, Sport
Country: Iran
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, emotional, sincere, sentimental, compassionate, sad, inspirational, feel good, dramatic
Similar in 89%
Conrack (1974)
Plot Summary:
A young, white teacher is assigned to an isolated island off the coast of South Carolina populated mostly by poor black families. He finds that the basically illiterate, neglected children there know so little of the world outside their island.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: deep, sincere, uplifting, thought provoking, touching, feel good, serious, realistic
Similar in 88%
Pay It Forward (2000)
Plot Summary:
Like some other kids, 12-year-old Trevor McKinney believed in the goodness of human nature. Like many other kids, he was determined to change the world for the better. Unlike most other kids, he succeeded.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 123000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, inspirational, motivational, sentimental, sincere, uplifting, tear jerker, sad, thought provoking
Similar in 78%
Detachment (2011)
Plot Summary:
A chronicle of three weeks in the lives of several high school teachers, administrators and students through the eyes of substitute teacher, Henry Barthes. Henry roams from school to school, imparting modes of knowledge, but never staying long enough to form any semblance of sentient attachment.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 96000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: depressing, psychological, bleak, thought provoking, touching, sad, independent film, serious, inspirational, emotional
Similar in 77%
The Emperor's Club (2002)
Plot Summary:
William Hundert is a passionate and principled Classics professor who finds his tightly-controlled world shaken and inexorably altered when a new student, Sedgewick Bell, walks into his classroom. What begins as a fierce battle of wills gives way to a close student-teacher relationship, but results in a life lesson for Hundert that will still haunt him a quarter of a century later.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, inspirational, emotional, contemplative, sincere, serious, educational, philosophical, feel good
Similar in 83%
Mona Lisa Smile (2003)
Plot Summary:
The story of Katherine Ann Watson, a feminist teacher who studied at UCLA graduate school and in 1953 left her boyfriend behind in Los Angeles, California to teach at Wellesley College, a conservative women's private liberal arts college in Massachusetts, United States.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 89000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: inspirational, touching, romantic, sentimental, period piece, sweet, educational, thought provoking, independent film, deep