Best movies like Sayonara
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The world's first human-android acting duo, called Android Theater Project, is the collaborative brainchild of noted Japanese playwright Oriza Hirata and the leading robotics scientist Hiroshi Ishiguro. "Sayonara" is a remakable android play and has been adapted to feature film by the acclaimed filmmaker Koji Fukada (Hospitalité, Au revoir l’été). In this film project the setting of the story is largely expanded, depicting time and space in a way which can only be achieved in film, examining life and death though the communication between dying human and immortal android.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 187
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan, France
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like Sayonara (2015):
Similar in 77%
The Egoists (2011)
Plot Summary:
Kazu attacks a bar in Kabukicho, a Tokyo red-light district, and flees to his hometown with abducts Machiko, a pole dancer he's been stuck on. They begin living together, but their happiness is short lived as their pasts torment them both.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 96
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 136 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
Delight (2013)
Plot Summary:
The film's main theme is obsession. An obsession with love, with art, originality, copying, with success, money and... with oneself. Sooner or later, if we lose our rational upper hand over it and let ourselves be dragged down by it, every obsession leads to destruction. But it is only when being dragged down, in spite of all the cuts and bruises, that we find a unique DELIGHT, if only for a few short moments - and what else is life really about? It is like a drug. What at first seems to be weak and trivial is capable of expanding and growing into a serious problem that can appear to be absolutely incomprehensible and absurd to those who have never experienced anything like it.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 68
Genere: Drama
Country: Czech Republic
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, unusual plot structure, captivating
Similar in 85%
Hold Me Tight (2021)
Plot Summary:
She is gone, she left husband and children… Or on the contrary.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Love & Loathing & Lulu & Ayano (2010)
Plot Summary:
A timid young woman who lives with her domineering mother accepts an Adult Video scout's offer to "become somebody else" by performing in porn videos. As she rises in popularity, the boundaries between her two lives begin to disintegrate.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 135
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: psychological, realistic, atmospheric, captivating, erotic, anime
Similar in 79%
Soleil battant (2017)
Plot Summary:
Gabriel and Iris head back to their family holiday home in Portugal with their daughters Emma and Zoé, a couple of adorable six-year-old twins, for a vacation. In the heart of the sun-drenched countryside, as the little ones swim and laugh, the couple’s past begins to rear its head. Emma is overwhelmed by a secret that is simply too big for her to keep, and which she has no right to share with her twin sister.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 232
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Portugal
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
The Messenger (2012)
Plot Summary:
Petr is a courier, a messenger as a matter of fact. He is one of those young men who believe that on their bikes they have become part and parcel of the atmosphere of modern cities. He is a non-conformist who refuses to settle into today‘s deformed society, he abhors its indolence, consumerism and lies, as well as its pseudo-truths, pseudo-feelings, pseudo-loves and pseudo-values. Petr’s untrammelled personality keeps causing more and more serious problems. And Petr is also one of those who will never admit to themselves that they might be at the end of their tether.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 42
Genere: Drama
Country: Czech Republic
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
The Eyes, the Mouth (1982)
Plot Summary:
A rich Italian's shocking suicide means different things to his twin brother (Lou Castel), mother (Emmanuelle Riva) and pregnant lover (Angela Molina).
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 300
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: semi autobiographical
Similar in 86%
Three Stories About Sleeplessness (2008)
Plot Summary:
It is nighttime. In Croatia, a young woman cannot sleep because her baby keeps crying. Her mother-in-law is also being kept awake by the baby's crying and she is not shy about offering unwanted child-rearing advice to her daughter-in-law. In Spain, a young husband and wife are also wide awake in the dead of night: they are in the middle of a turbulent argument. She is Spanish, he is Croatian and their marriage is in crisis because they simply do not understand one another. Back in Croatia, the young man's elderly mother is also awake, plagued with indigestion pains. The old woman is also worried about her lodger, a young Spanish girl who happens to be the sister of the old woman's daughter-in-law in Spain. The young girl comes home with her new lover. He is a taxi driver who drifts aimlessly through the night while his own wife endures a sleepless night with a crying baby and a nagging mother-in-law.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 67
Genere: Drama
Country: Croatia
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
Intimidades en un cuarto de baño (1991)
Plot Summary:
A family crisis revealed through each member's bathroom intimacy.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 101
Genere: Drama
Country: Mexico
Duration: 78 min
Plot tags: avant garde
Similar in 85%
Harmonium (2016)
Plot Summary:
Toshio hires Yasaka to work in his workshop. But then this old acquaintance, who has just been released from prison, begins to meddle in Toshio’s family life….
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan, France
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing, crying, detective
Similar in 77%
Slave Widow (1967)
Plot Summary:
After her husband's suicide, young and beautiful Mitsuko Fuji feels alone and helpless -- until one of her husband's major creditors, Mr. Kito, offers a sympathetic ear and a cancellation of all debts. However, Mitsuko soon learns that Kito's intentions are anything but pure, as she's forced to become his personal concubine. Her only, improbable hope for redemption lies with her one true admirer: Kito's very own son.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 86
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 73 min
Plot tags: erotic
Similar in 88%
Female Teacher: Dirty Afternoon (1981)
Plot Summary:
A teacher, Sakiko Kurata (Yuki Kazamatsuri), receives a phone call regarding one of her former students. Young Sueko (Ayako Ôta) is accused of being a prostitute and has requested Sakiko’s help. This minx seduces random strangers for sex, but does not ask for payment. Sakiko has moved to another town and barely remembers Sueko, but there’s something about her that awakens painful memories of her own secretive past. What is that strange paint thinner smell on Sueko? Who is the man in the nylon ski mask that violently assaulted Sakiko many years ago? In her search for answers, Sakiko discovers that her past may have inadvertently destroyed another family’s future.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 94
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 66 min
Plot tags: erotic, sexploitation film, pink cinema
Similar in 79%
Who's Child Am I? (1976)
Plot Summary:
Paul Freeman (of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK fame) and Kate O'Mara plays a couple who can't have a baby, so they go to the doctor to have an artificial insemination...blackmail, dark secrets and drama ensue.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 43
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 83%
The Ravine of Goodbye (2013)
Plot Summary:
In a valley, with a dense growth of trees, a baby is killed. The baby's mother Satomi is arrested as the prime suspect. The police also learn that Satomi is involved in a romantic relationship with her next door neighbor Ozaki. The information was provided by the neighbor's lover Kanako. Meanwhile, magazine reporter Watanabe, who is covering the story, discovers the shocking fact that Ozaki was involved in a rape case 15 years ago. Even more shocking, the victim in the rape case is Kanako.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 496
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, captivating, realistic, romantic, sexy, crying, detective, juvenile
Similar in 78%
Mandara (1971)
Plot Summary:
About two student couples who become members of an obscure sect. The cult seeks a prehistoric utopia with free sex and without society's norms and values. The students are torn between ambient pressure and the sect leader's authority to organ music in the creative camera angles.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 498
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: independent film, weird
Similar in 78%
Neighboring Sakuko (2013)
Plot Summary:
3 years on from hospitalité, Kiki Sugino and Koji Fukada are back again with this socially-conscious film about a 18-year-old girl in-between adolescence and adulthood who spends a summer in a valley and enjoys romance. Sakuko, a 18-year-old girl studying for her university entrance exams, decides to accompany her aunt Mikie on a trip to a seaside town. There she befriends Takashi, a refugee from Fukushima who has dropped out of high school and works at a motel run by Ukichi, a friend of Mikie. In-between childhood and adulthood, Sakuko starts to understand the difficulties of becoming an adult.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 449
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan, USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, realistic, captivating, sincere, sentimental, feel good, serious
Similar in 82%
Blood and Bones (2004)
Plot Summary:
In 1923, the young Kim Shun-Pei moves from Cheju Island (South Korea), to Osaka (Japan). Through the years, he becomes a cruel, greedy and violent man and builds a factory of kamaboko (processed seafood products) in his poor Korean-Japanese community exploiting his employees. He makes a fortune, abuses and destroys the lives of his wife and family, has many mistresses and children and shows no respect to anyone. Later he closes the factory, lending out the money with high interest and becomes a loan shark. His hateful behavior remains unchanged to his last breath, alone in North Korea. The film is told from the perspective of Masao, his legitimate son by his abused and degraded wife, who knows nothing about his father other than to fear him.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: psychological, rough, serious, realistic, bleak
Similar in 77%
M (2017)
Plot Summary:
Lila and Mo meet at a bus stop. Lila has a paralyzing speech impediment. Mo is chatty and exuberant. Lila is preparing for her exams. Mo illegally races cars for a living. Opposites attract, and they fall in love. But Mo carries a secret burden….
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 466
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: romantic, touching, serious, captivating
Similar in 89%
Don Juan (1973)
Plot Summary:
Jeanne lives in Paris and believes she is the reincarnation of Don Juan. She visits a priest and tells him she has killed a man. He comes to her elegant flat - her father has died leaving her rich - and she tells the priest stories about men she has seduced. The seduction is easy, she tells him, it's destruction that takes planning. We watch her with an upright elected official, a wealthy boor, and a folk singer. She describes herself as a spider. Her friend Léporella tries to be Jeanne's conscience. What does Jeanne want?.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: manga
Similar in 87%
Floodhouse (2004)
Plot Summary:
Two girls are sent to live in the Australian bush with their hippy father. As they gradually bond, a stranger arrives from a town called Paradise.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 60
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
Lovers Are Wet (1973)
Plot Summary:
Katsu, a fugitive youth on the run from the yakuza, returns to his birthplace and begins an affair with the cinema owner.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 244
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 76 min
Plot tags: erotic
Similar in 75%
The End (2016)
Plot Summary:
Depardieu plays an unnamed hunter and we join him and his dog as they depart for a nearby forest to snare some rabbits - or perhaps he's hunting for something far more elusive? His excursion soon progresses from carefree meandering to a palpable sense of placelessness and it doesn't take long before the hunter's dog disappears and he finds himself lost.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 314
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
MAID-DROID (2008)
Plot Summary:
The main plotline concerns retired Mr Ueno, who since a child has been cared for by his late parents’ robot maid ‘Maria’ (Akiho Yoshizawa) – a lifelike humanoid in a maid’s outfit! Over the years, Ueno has developed an unconsummated love for Maria, but although she has not ‘aged’ as such, she is now classed as an obsolete model and Ueno is finding it difficult replacing her fading battery… The secondary plotline involves Detective Yuri Akagi, who is investigating a series of rapes, which she believes may be being committed by a rogue droid… As this is a Japanese erotic ‘Pinku’ movie, it does not take itself too seriously and there’s plenty of gratuitous sex and nudity along the way! ;-).
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 217
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 65 min
Plot tags: erotic, pink cinema
Similar in 76%
The Whispering of the Gods (2005)
Plot Summary:
Rou has returned to the monastery he was raised in. As he listens to the whispering of the Gods through his germanium radio, Rou defies God in every which way and puts religion to the test.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 182
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: disturbing, psychological, suspense, scary, controversial
Similar in 76%
Honey (2013)
Plot Summary:
Irene, nicknamed 'Miele', has devote herself to people looking for help, and tries to alleviate their suffering even when they make extreme decisions. One day she has to cope with Grimaldi and his invisible malaise.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, art house, gloomy
Similar in 80%
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 90%
Young Casanova (1974)
Plot Summary:
Gerard Casanova is the man that all the rich and beautiful women call when they need a little more then the husbands to give them. He's always on call to satisfy their every sexual urge.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 65
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
The Beautiful Occasion (2017)
Plot Summary:
A fun fair, on a wasteland, on the outskirts of a small provincial town in the south of France.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 17
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
Blue Spring (2001)
Plot Summary:
Soon after being named the new leader of his high school's gang system, Kujo grows bored with the violence and hatred that surround him. He wants desperately to abandon his post… but his once-enviable position of power has a strange way of making him feel powerless.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: bleak, realistic, disturbing, serious, manga
Similar in 76%
Liar Game: Reborn (2012)
Plot Summary:
To exact revenge, the Liar Game office is revived. The target is only one person: Shin'ichi Akiyama. Because of new heroine Shinomiya, Shin'ichi, who kept refusing to take part in the game, finds himself in the game. Along with Akiyama, there's 19 other players competing for the prize of two billion yen. Omega, who revived the game, plays the game at the Liar Game office with Alice. Alice sets up the game, chooses the players, and sets the traps.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 678
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing