Best movies like Red Beard
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Aspiring to an easy job as personal physician to a wealthy family, Noboru Yasumoto is disappointed when his first post after medical school takes him to a small country clinic under the gruff doctor Red Beard. Yasumoto rebels in numerous ways, but Red Beard proves a wise and patient teacher. He gradually introduces his student to the unglamorous side of the profession, ultimately assigning him to care for a prostitute rescued from a local brothel.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 21000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 185 min
Plot tags: black and white, cerebral, emotional, realistic, touching, existential, philosophical, psychedelic, spiritual, epic
Best tv shows and movies like Red Beard (1965):
Similar in 79%
Why Not? (1981)
Plot Summary:
The film depicts carnivalesque atmosphere summed up by the cry "Ee ja nai ka" ("Why not?") in Japan in 1867 and 1868 in the days leading to the Meiji Restoration. It examines the effects of the political and social upheaval of the time, and culminates in a revelrous march on the Kokyo, which turns into a massacre. Characteristically, Imamura focuses not on the leaders of the country, but on characters in the lower classes and on the fringes of society.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 681
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 151 min
Plot tags: clever, serious, realistic, witty, cynical, bilingual
Similar in 76%
Not Yet (1993)
Plot Summary:
This film tells the story of professor Uehida Hyakken-sama (1889-1971), in Gotemba, around the forties. He was a university professor until an air raid, when he left to become a writer and has to live in a hut. His mood has hardly changed, not by the change nor by time.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: emotional, epic, independent film, psychological, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, sentimental
Similar in 80%
Ran (1985)
Plot Summary:
In Medieval Japan, an elderly warlord retires, handing over his empire to his three sons. However, he vastly underestimates how their new-found power will corrupt them.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 134000
Genere: Action, Drama, War
Country: Japan, France
Duration: 160 min
Plot tags: visual, visually stunning, visually appealing, atmospheric, breathtaking, intense, poignant, black and white, cerebral, epic
Similar in 81%
After the Rain (1999)
Plot Summary:
A group of travelers is stranded in a small country inn when the river floods during heavy rains. As the bad weather continues, tensions rise amongst the travelers trapped at the inn. Ihei Misawa is a ronin, a samurai without a master, whose skills with a sword make him a valuable employee but whose brutal honesty and lack of social graces prevent him from staying with one master for too long. One night, Ihei impulsively offers to buy food and drink for the guests at a hotel; he doesn't have the money to pay, and to raise cash he concocts a scheme to take on anyone brave enough to fight him for a prize. Ihei's fighting skills impress Lord Shigeaki, who offers him a position as fencing master in his court. Ihei gratefully accepts, but when Shigeaki challenges him to a fight, Ihei beats the Lord decisively. Ihea is certain that he's managed to throw another opportunity away when a band of mercenaries attacks him, and his skills as a swordsman are put to the ultimate test.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan, France
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: spiritual, jidai geki, atmospheric, serious, captivating, stylized
Similar in 83%
The Sword of Doom (1966)
Plot Summary:
Through his unconscionable actions against others, a sociopathic samurai builds a trail of vendettas that follow him closely.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: black and white, cerebral, visual, tense, bleak, stylized, jidai geki, rough, epic, serious
Similar in 81%
Sanjuro (1962)
Plot Summary:
Toshiro Mifune swaggers and snarls to brilliant comic effect in Kurosawa's tightly paced, beautifully composed "Sanjuro." In this companion piece and sequel to "Yojimbo," jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan's evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a proper samurai on its ear.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 40000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: black and white, atmospheric, tense, witty, stylized, exciting, serious, realistic, touching, epic
Similar in 85%
Samurai Rebellion (1967)
Plot Summary:
The mother of a feudal lord's only heir is kidnapped away from her husband by the lord. The husband and his samurai father must decide whether to accept the unjust decision, or risk death to get her back.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: tense, emotional, stylized, black and white, sincere, atmospheric, jidai geki, serious, captivating, suspenseful
Similar in 84%
Incident at Blood Island (1970)
Plot Summary:
In the Edo period, a nameless ronin accepts an assignment to go to a mountain pass and wait. Near the pass he stops at an inn where a collection of characters gather, including a gang set on stealing shogunate gold that's soon to come over the pass. When the Ronin's assignment becomes clear, to help the gang, he's ordered to kill the inn's residents, including a woman he's rescued from an abusive husband. He's reluctant to murder innocent people; then he learns that the gold shipment is a trap and he's part of a double cross. How he sorts through these divided loyalties tests of his samurai honor, and perhaps of his love for a woman.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 889
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, jidai geki
Similar in 82%
Dodes'ka-den (1970)
Plot Summary:
By turns tragic and transcendent, Akira Kurosawa’s film follows the daily lives of a group of people barely scraping by in a slum on the outskirts of Tokyo. Yet as desperate as their circumstances are, each of them—the homeless father and son envisioning their dream house; the young woman abused by her uncle; the boy who imagines himself a trolley conductor—finds reasons to carry on. The unforgettable Dodes’ka-den was made at a tumultuous moment in Kurosawa’s life. And all of his hopes, fears, and artistic passion are on fervent display in this, his gloriously shot first color film.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: touching, meditative, compassionate, atmospheric, depressing, surreal, emotional, mind bending, psychedelic, anthology
Similar in 86%
The End of Summer (1961)
Plot Summary:
The Kohayakawa family is thrown into distress when childlike father Manbei takes up with his old mistress, in one of Ozu’s most deftly modulated blendings of comedy and tragedy.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, emotional, serious, realistic, social, witty, stylized, gloomy
Similar in 82%
Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai (2011)
Plot Summary:
An tale of revenge, honor and disgrace, centering on a poverty-stricken samurai who discovers the fate of his ronin son-in-law, setting in motion a tense showdown of vengeance against the house of a feudal lord.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan, UK
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: tense, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, erotic, intense, jidai geki, atmospheric, contemplative
Similar in 85%
The Ballad of Narayama (1983)
Plot Summary:
In a small village in a valley everyone who reaches the age of 70 must leave the village and go to a certain mountain top to die. If anyone should refuse he/she would disgrace their family. Old Orin is 69. This winter it is her turn to go to the mountain. But first she must make sure that her eldest son Tatsuhei finds a wife.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: depressing, bleak, erotic, philosophical, neo noir, political, cerebral, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 79%
Maborosi (1995)
Plot Summary:
A young woman's husband apparently commits suicide without warning or reason, leaving behind his wife and infant. Yumiko remarries and moves from Osaka to a small fishing village, yet continues to search for meaning in a lonely world.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: art house, atmospheric, contemplative, slow cinema, retro, aesthetic, psychological, serious, realistic, light
Similar in 87%
Memories of Tomorrow (2006)
Plot Summary:
After being stricken with Alzheimer's disease in the prime of his life, a successful young businessman slips slowly away from his loving family.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 912
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, psychological, emotional, captivating, independent film, serious
Similar in 81%
Tokyo Tower: Mom and Me, and Sometimes Dad (2007)
Plot Summary:
Adapted from the bestselling Japanese autobiography of the same title, this gentle coming-of-age drama concerns an adolescent boy, Boku - Masaya, torn between the inherited recklessness of his father Oton and the inherited responsibility, wisdom and emotional strength of his mother Okan. Following a period of intensely rebellious behavior, Boku learns that his mom has contracted cancer; suddenly, his mother comes to live with him in Tokyo the entire emotional landscape of his life is altered.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 142 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, emotional, captivating, independent film, realistic
Similar in 90%
Double Suicide (1969)
Plot Summary:
Successful and married with children, paper-mill owner Jihei knows better than to contradict the strict social and moral codes of 18th-century Japan. But when he meets the lovely courtesan Koharu, he becomes a man obsessed. Koharu returns his love, even foregoing other customers while Jihei schemes to somehow buy her freedom. His efforts yield ruinous consequences for his business and his family life, and Koharu is meanwhile purchased by another client.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 142 min
Plot tags: surreal, romantic, mind bending, psychedelic, spiritual, serious, emotional, realistic, stylized, jidai geki
Similar in 83%
The Eel (1997)
Plot Summary:
White-collar worker Yamashita finds out that his wife has a lover visiting her when he's away, suddenly returns home and kills her. After eight years in prison, he returns to live in a small village, opens a barber shop (he was trained as a barber in prison) and talks almost to no-one except for the eel he "befriended" in prison. One day he finds the unconscious body of Keiko, who attempted suicide and reminds him of his wife. She starts to work at his shop, but he doesn't let her become close to him.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: enigmatic, captivating, psychological, touching, independent film, atmospheric, offbeat, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 77%
The Twilight Samurai (2002)
Plot Summary:
Seibei Iguchi leads a difficult life as a low ranking samurai at the turn of the nineteenth century. A widower with a meager income, Seibei struggles to take care of his two daughters and senile mother. New prospects seem to open up when the beautiful Tomoe, a childhood friend, comes back into he and his daughters' life, but as the Japanese feudal system unravels, Seibei is still bound by the code of honor of the samurai and by his own sense of social precedence. How can he find a way to do what is best for those he loves?.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 25000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: tense, emotional, sincere, atmospheric, realistic, touching, talky, lyrical, sentimental, jidai geki
Similar in 89%
Wit (2001)
Plot Summary:
A renowned professor is forced to reassess her life when she is diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: depressing, sincere, emotional, touching, sentimental, thought provoking, contemplative, sad, christian film, clever
Similar in 89%
Rhapsody in August (1991)
Plot Summary:
The story centers on an elderly hibakusha, who lost her husband in the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki, caring for her four grandchildren over the summer. She learns of a long-lost brother, Suzujiro, living in Hawaii who wants her to visit him before he dies.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: emotional, melancholic, lyrical, psychological, sincere, atmospheric, serious, talky, philosophical, meditative
Similar in 87%
Kabei: Our Mother (2008)
Plot Summary:
Set in Tokyo in 1940, the peaceful life of the Nogami Family suddenly changes when the father, Shigeru, is arrested and accused of being a Communist. His wife Kayo works frantically from morning to night to maintain the household and bring up her two daughters with the support of Shigeru's sister Hisako and Shigeru's ex-student Yamazaki, but her husband does not return. WWII breaks out and casts dark shadows on the entire country, but Kayo still tries to keep her cheerful determination, and sustain the family with her love. This is an emotional drama of a mother and an eternal message for peace.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 86%
Kagemusha (1980)
Plot Summary:
When a warlord dies, a peasant thief is called upon to impersonate him, in order to protect his clan from appearing weak and vulnerable. But he finds himself haunted by the warlord’s spirit as well as his own ambitions.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 38000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Japan, USA
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: captivating, enigmatic, bleak, costume drama, epic, tense, jidai geki, political, visually appealing, cerebral
Similar in 89%
Yojimbo (1961)
Plot Summary:
A nameless ronin, or samurai with no master, enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival businessmen are struggling for control of the local gambling trade. Taking the name Sanjuro Kuwabatake, the ronin convinces both silk merchant Tazaemon and sake merchant Tokuemon to hire him as a personal bodyguard, then artfully sets in motion a full-scale gang war between the two ambitious and unscrupulous men.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 129000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: black and white, visual, visually stunning, black comedy, cynical, art house, exciting, atmospheric, bleak, realistic
Similar in 85%
Nobody Knows (2004)
Plot Summary:
In a small Tokyo apartment, twelve-year-old Akira must care for his younger siblings after their mother leaves them and shows no sign of returning.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 30000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 141 min
Plot tags: depressing, touching, serious, atmospheric, bleak, gloomy, heartbreaking, contemplative, melancholic, meditative
Similar in 90%
City of Joy (1992)
Plot Summary:
In this drama, a wealthy American doctor learns some important lessons about life in one of the poorest cities on Earth. Max Lowe (Patrick Swayze) is a Houston surgeon who has grown weary of the bureaucracy of American medicine. When he loses a patient on the operating table, Max impulsively decides to leave America and travel to India in the hope of "finding himself." Not long after he arrives in Calcutta, Max is attacked by a group of thugs and left without money or a passport.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, UK
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, philosophical, social, uplifting, serious, emotional, realistic, light, inspirational
Similar in 79%
47 Samurai (1962)
Plot Summary:
The story tells of a group of samurai who were left leaderless (becoming ronin) after their daimyo (feudal lord) was forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide) for assaulting a court official named Kira Yoshinaka, whose title was Kōzuke no suke. The ronin avenged their master's honor after patiently waiting and planning for over a year to kill Kira. In turn, the ronin were themselves forced to commit seppuku for committing the crime of murder.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Drama, History
Country: Japan
Duration: 207 min
Plot tags: epic, bleak, harsh, atmospheric, serious, intense, emotional, jidai geki, historical drama, realistic
Similar in 86%
Cries & Whispers (1972)
Plot Summary:
As Agnes slowly dies of cancer, her sisters are so deeply immersed in their own psychic pains that they can't offer her the support she needs. Maria is wracked with guilt at her husband's suicide, caused by his discovery of her extramarital affair. The self-loathing, suicidal Karin seems to regard her sister with revulsion. Only Anna, the deeply religious maid who lost her young child, seems able to offer Agnes solace and empathy.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 36000
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, depressing, psychological, serious, bleak, surreal, disturbing, art house, cerebral
Similar in 84%
Departures (2008)
Plot Summary:
Daigo, a cellist, is laid off from his orchestra and moves with his wife back to his small hometown where the living is cheaper. Thinking he’s applying for a job at a travel agency he finds he’s being interviewed for work with departures of a more permanent nature – as an undertaker’s assistant.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 54000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: sad, philosophical, psychological, touching, thought provoking, inspirational, atmospheric, emotional, contemplative, sentimental
Similar in 83%
Still Walking (2008)
Plot Summary:
Twelve years after their beloved eldest son, Junpei, drowned while saving a stranger's life, Kyohei and Toshiko welcome their surviving children home for a family reunion. Younger son Ryota still feels that his parents resent that he isn't the one who died; his new wife, Yukari, is awkwardly meeting the rest of the family for the first time. Daughter Chinami strains to fill the uncomfortable pauses with forced cheer.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: serious, contemplative, sincere, touching, realistic, philosophical, thought provoking, disturbing, poignant, art house
Similar in 86%
The Doctor (1991)
Plot Summary:
Jack McKee is a doctor with it all: he's successful, he's rich, and he has no problems.... until he is diagnosed with throat cancer. Now that he has seen medicine, hospitals, and doctors from a patient's perspective, he realises that there is more to being a doctor than surgery and prescriptions.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: psychological, sentimental, touching, emotional, uplifting, scary, depressing, sincere, serious, realistic