Best movies like Sweet Bean
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Sentaro runs a small bakery that serves dorayaki pastries filled with sweet red bean paste (“an”). When an old lady, Tokue, offers to help in the kitchen he reluctantly accepts. She will soon prove to have magic in her hands….
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan, France, Germany
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: culinary, sincere, thought provoking, touching, melancholic, motivational, sad, tear jerker, poignant, art house
Best tv shows and movies like Sweet Bean (2015):
Similar in 77%
Radiance (2017)
Plot Summary:
The story follows the social intercourse between a cameraman, Masaya, with a lazy eye, and Misako who disconnects from the world.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Japan, France
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: sincere, art house, sentimental, thought provoking, captivating, disturbing, romantic drama, crying
Similar in 78%
Door To Door (2009)
Plot Summary:
Based on a true story about about a man who was told for many years that he was not employable, but threw all of his effort into working as a door-to-door salesman. Despite the pain attributed to his cerebral palsy, he walked eight to ten miles a day to meet his customers and achieved the highest sales for his company.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 123
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, touching, sentimental, suspense, suspenseful
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Similar in 85%
Voices in the Wind (2020)
Plot Summary:
In her search for answers, 17-year-old Haru sets out on a long journey across the country to the town where, in 2011, the devastating tsunami swept away her brother and parents. This road trip takes the young woman, who is still haunted by her loss, from Hiroshima to Tokyo and Fukushima and all the way to Ōtsuchi, where her family home once stood. On the way she encounters other people, other stories, other lives and other losses. Landscapes and faces. The journey ends in the middle of a garden in full bloom among the scarred surroundings of her coastal hometown.. In it stands a telephone box which, even though it is no longer connected, is used to speak to those who cannot be reached any other way.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 428
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: independent film, road movie, crying, intercultural, inter cultural
Similar in 77%
Every Day a Good Day (2018)
Plot Summary:
A university student attends a Japanese tea ceremony near her house with her cousin. There she has the Japanese tea ceremony in her life and it's there for her during moments when she is sad or happy.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, captivating
Similar in 85%
Life Back Then (2011)
Plot Summary:
Kyohei Nagashima (Masaki Okada) has shut away the world. During his high school days he was the target of bullying and experienced horrifying moments. Now as a young adult Kyohei takes a new job. He works for a company that specializes in cleaning out the homes of recently deceased individuals. With his new job Kyohei meets co-worker Yuki (Nana Eikura). Yuki has also experienced a traumatizing event as a teen and has also shut herself away from the world. These two young people form a bond as they go through the homes of the recently departed people. They gradually open up to each other and in the process to the world. Yet, their fragile psyches may or may not be ready for such changes.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 142
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: sincere, captivating, road movie, crying, learning
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Similar in 79%
Vision (2018)
Plot Summary:
Centres on Jeanne, a journalist tracking a mysterious rare herb that appears only once every 997 years.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 843
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan, France
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: inspirational
Similar in 88%
Chronicle of My Mother (2011)
Plot Summary:
Best-selling novelist Kosaku Igami has made a career out of using his family as fodder for his novels, much to their dismay. When his mother, the spirited family matriarch, is diagnosed with dementia, Igami must come to terms with the toll his own behavior has taken on his increasingly distant family and resolve his own long-simmering resentments. Evocative of classic Ozu, this gorgeously wrought epic family portrait explores the tenderness and trappings of familial bonds. (Chicago International Film Festival).
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 482
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: sincere, captivating, semi autobiographical, crying, entertaining
Similar in 84%
Still the Water (2014)
Plot Summary:
Taking place during the full-moon night of traditional dances in August and set on the Japanese island of Amami-Oshima, the drama centers on a 14-year-old boy who finds a dead body floating in the sea. The young man enlists the help of his girlfriend to solve the mystery. The pair “will learn to become adults by experiencing the interwoven cycles of life, death and love.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Japan, Spain
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, touching, serious, light, sincere, romantic, uplifting, art house, realistic
Similar in 78%
Happy Hour (2015)
Plot Summary:
Jun, Akari, Sakurako and Fumi truly believe that they can confide in each other. But one day, at a party, Jun confesses that she is seeking a divorce from her husband and this information seems to upset the other three. They follow her trial as she attempts to win her case against her husband’s will.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 317 min
Plot tags: exciting, sentimental, sexy, feel good, captivating, melancholic, independent film, romantic drama, sexual, psychotronic
Similar in 83%
The Mourning Forest (2007)
Plot Summary:
A caregiver at a small retirement home takes one of her patients for a drive to the country, but the two wind up stranded in a forest where they embark on an exhausting and enlightening two-day journey.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan, France
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, captivating, spiritual, independent film, slow cinema, aesthetic
Similar in 83%
A Story of Yonosuke (2012)
Plot Summary:
The year is 1987 and Japan is just reaching the peak of its economic success. Eighteen-year old Yonosuke Yokomichi arrives in Tokyo from Nagasaki. Ordinary in every way possible, he lives in a suburb far from the excitement of the big city and commutes to a university in the center of Tokyo.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 160 min
Plot tags: psychological, realistic, tense, captivating, independent film, crying
Similar in 84%
Midnight Diner 2 (2016)
Plot Summary:
When people finish their day and hurry home, his day starts. His diner is open from midnight to seven in the morning. Pork, miso soup combo, beer, sake and shochu is all that he has on his menu. Nevertheless, he makes whatever his customers request as long as he has the ingredients for it.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, melancholic, anthology
Similar in 82%
Midnight Diner (2009)
Plot Summary:
Set in a small restaurant in the corner of a shopping district. The unusual eatery is only open after midnight, and its standard menu consists of just a single choice. However, the customers still come for the amusing chatter and the proprietor's willingness to cook any dish that they request. This drama depicts the lives of the restaurant's patrons, including a yakuza, an unsuccessful actor, a group of office ladies, a newspaper delivery boy, and a stripper.
IMDB Rating: 8.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 24 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, touching, melancholic, contemplative, anthology
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Similar in 75%
Ramen Shop (2018)
Plot Summary:
Masato is a young ramen chef in the city of Takasaki in Japan. After the sudden death of his emotionally distant father, he chances upon a suitcase of memorabilia and a red notebook – filled with musings and old photos – left behind by his Singaporean mother who died when he was just ten years old. Acting on a hunch, he takes off for Singapore with the notebook, hoping to piece together the story of his life, as well as that of his parents.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Singapore, Japan, France
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: realistic, captivating, emotional, contemplative
Similar in 85%
Little Forest: Summer/Autumn (2014)
Plot Summary:
Abandoned by her mother, young Ichiko leaves her life in the city to live off the land in Komori, a small town nestled among the mountains in rural Japan. Despite the void left by her mother’s disappearance, Ichiko comes to enjoy her independence and revels in her new-found connection with food and the elements. Visually luxuriant, this film follows Ichiko through one summer and autumn, as she learns to use and respect the time-honoured wisdom of rural folk and read the cycle of life and connectedness in the environment around her.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, captivating, melancholic, contemplative, visually appealing, epic, aesthetic
Similar in 85%
Little Forest: Winter/Spring (2015)
Plot Summary:
Ichiko (Ai Hashimoto) lived in a big city, but goes back to her small hometown Komori, located on a mountain in the Tohoku region. She is self-sufficient. Ichiko gains energy living among nature and eating foods she makes from seasonal ingredients.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, sincere, captivating, realistic, epic, poignant, aesthetic
Similar in 78%
Until the Break of Dawn (2012)
Plot Summary:
High school student Ayumi is trained by his grandmother to act as a "tsunagu," an intermediary for people who want to reach the dead.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 266
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Love & Pop (1998)
Plot Summary:
Pretty Tokyo teen Hiromi Yoshii (Asumi Miwa) and her girlfriends struggle with rivalries, clothes and boyfriends, just like any other high school clique. But out for kicks and blind to the consequences, the girls of Love & Pop hide a dirty little secret. From phone booths and street corners, in department stores and restaurants, the girls practice enjo-kosai or "compensated dating" -- arranging liaisons with older men drawn to their evident nubile charms and schoolgirl uniform innocence.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: disturbing, offbeat, serious, realistic, witty, sexual, sexy
Similar in 87%
About the Pink Sky (2011)
Plot Summary:
High school student Izumi Kawashima, whose daily routine is rating newspaper articles, finds a wallet containing a large sum of cash. Instead of returning the wallet to its owner, Izumi decides to lend a substantial portion of the money to a middle-aged male acquaintance. She eventually returns the wallet to its owner, a wealthy high-school boy named Koki, who notices the missing money, and as compensation, asks Izumi to do something for his friend - to create a newspaper that brings happiness to its reader.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 198
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: sincere, atmospheric, serious, realistic, offbeat, sexy, hot
Similar in 75%
Suzaku (1997)
Plot Summary:
Depicts the life of a family in a remote Japanese timber village. Family head Tahara Kozo lives with his mother Sachiko, wife Yasuyo, nephew Eisuke and young daughter Michiru. Economic recession and failed development plans cause tragedy in the family.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: slow cinema, independent film, aesthetic
Similar in 79%
After the Storm (2016)
Plot Summary:
Ryota is an unpopular writer although he won a literary award 15 years ago. Now, Ryota works as a private detective. He is divorced from his ex-wife Kyoko and he has an 11-year-old son Shingo. His mother Yoshiko lives alone at her apartment. One day, Ryota, his ex-wife Kyoko, and son Shingo gather at Yoshiko's apartment. A typhoon passes and the family must stay there all night long.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, semi serious, sincere, touching, melancholic, art house, independent film, weird, cult film
Similar in 83%
Shoplifters (2018)
Plot Summary:
After one of their shoplifting sessions, Osamu and his son come across a little girl in the freezing cold. At first reluctant to shelter the girl, Osamu’s wife agrees to take care of her after learning of the hardships she faces. Although the family is poor, barely making enough money to survive through petty crime, they seem to live happily together until an unforeseen incident reveals hidden secrets, testing the bonds that unite them….
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 84000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: independent film, sexual, art house, thought provoking, art film, rough, enigmatic, suspenseful, disturbing, compassionate
Similar in 86%
Two Days, One Night (2014)
Plot Summary:
Sandra is a young woman who has only one weekend to convince her colleagues they must give up their bonuses in order for her to keep her job — not an easy task in this economy.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 50000
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium, France, Italy
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: depressing, independent film, sincere, serious, compassionate, atmospheric, emotional, thought provoking, bleak, cerebral
Similar in 83%
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 83%
Tokyo Family (2013)
Plot Summary:
In this film director Yoji Yamada bows down before his teacher and role model. Yamada was assistant director on Yazujirō Ozu’s Tōkyō monogatari, a moving family portrait set after the Second World War. In his remake, Yamada has made very few departures from Ozu’s masterpiece in order to update the story of ageing couple Shukichi and Tomiko to present day Japan. Once again, the pair decides to leave their quiet lives in the country to pay a visit to their children and grandchildren in Tokyo. Once there, they discover that neither their oldest son, a doctor named Koichi, nor their eldest daughter Shigeko - who runs a beauty parlour - has time for them: both are too busy attending to their everyday concerns. Even the youngest son went his own way. The old couple feel lonely and bewildered in the fast-paced metropolis.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 146 min
Plot tags: realistic, sincere, touching, emotional, psychological, captivating, sentimental, serious, crying
Similar in 78%
Schoolgirl Complex (2013)
Plot Summary:
At an all female high school, a senior of the radio club becomes fascinated with the club's newest member. As graduation nears and the summer heat rises, so does the sexual tension between the girls.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 273
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sentimental, romantic, sexy, touching, unusual plot structure, melancholic, erotic
Similar in 87%
Poetry (2010)
Plot Summary:
Grandmother Mi Ja works part-time as a caretaker, and struggles to raise a teen grandson by herself. Despite her tough situation, she speaks softly, dresses fashionably, and approaches the world with child-like curiosity. Enrolling in a poetry class, she endeavors to capture life in verse form, but her simple dream of completing a poem is stalled by the early signs of Alzheimer's disease and the heavy financial and emotional burden of her grandson's shocking wrongdoing.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea, France
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, emotional, realistic, lyrical, sentimental, captivating, sad, art house, existential
Similar in 80%
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 75%
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 85%
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