Best movies like Takeshis'
Last updated March 2024
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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.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Japan
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: surreal, stylized, semi serious, mind bending, psychedelic, offbeat, non-linear, postmodern
Best tv shows and movies like Takeshis' (2005):
Similar in 83%
Getting Any? (1994)
Plot Summary:
A slapstick comedy, about a goofy middle-aged man who is obsessed with the idea of having car sex. While pursuing his 'dream', he makes all the wrong moves possible, and ends up enrolling in a number of crazy escapades.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy
Country: Japan
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: sexy, offbeat, humorous, not serious, slapstick comedy, weird, scatology, hot
Similar in 77%
The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai (2003)
Plot Summary:
The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai is a Pink Film (a Japanese softcore pornography genre). Sachiko Hanai (Emi Kuroda) is a call girl. One day she is caught up in a gunfight and is shot in the forehead. Instead of killing her, the bullet in her head gives her psychic powers. She also accidentally comes into possession of a cylinder containing George W. Bush's finger, whose fingerprint is designed to launch a nuclear missile, and international spies are soon chasing her.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 761
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Japan
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: humorous, surreal, not serious, clever, offbeat, biting, sexual, erotic, intellectual, independent film
Similar in 86%
The Last Days of the World (2011)
Plot Summary:
The life of a student named Kanou is transformed when a tiny man informs him that Earth will soon be annihilated. Kanou decides to do just as he pleases with the time he has left, leading to strange adventures that could be real -- or just a dream.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 113
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Japan
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, humorous, semi serious, road movie, mind bending, offbeat
Similar in 83%
Funky Forest: The First Contact (2005)
Plot Summary:
An outrageous collection of surreal, short attention span non-sequiturs largely revolving around Guitar Brother, his randy older sibling, and the pair's portly Caucasian brother.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Fantasy
Country: Japan
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: surreal, atmospheric, humorous, stylized, semi serious, sketch comedy, cult classic, mind blowing, psychological, mind bending
Similar in 79%
Escape from the 'Liberty' Cinema (1990)
Plot Summary:
The film is set just before Poland's communist regime came to an end, and the central character is a provincial censor (Janusz Gajos), a tired, sloppy, lonely man, whose wife has long since left him. For him, censorship is both an art and a game, but he does not enjoy it. During a screening of a sentimental Polish melodrama called "Daybreak" at the Liberty cinema across the road from the censor's office, the actors start to rebel and refuse to speak their lines. There is anarchy and when the censor is unable to control the situation, senior party officials are called in. Eventually a film critic notes that the situation reminds of "The Purple Rose of Cairo" by Woody Allen and brings a reel of the film to demonstrate. The officials watch the film with amusement until another mix-up occurs: the second projector is turned on accidentally and superimposes "Daybreak" over "Purple Rose".
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Poland
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: surreal, mind bending, psychedelic, intellectual
Similar in 79%
Achilles and the Tortoise (2008)
Plot Summary:
Machisu is a painter. He never had the success he thinks he is entitled to. Regardless of this, he always remains trying to be successful. His wife Sachiko keeps supporting him, despite all setbacks. Machisu, the only son of a rich collector, has a childs love for painting. Praise from a famous artist friend of his father inspires the young boy to dream of becoming a painter himself. s a young man, poor loner Machisu manages to attend art school with money earned from working. He is introduced to an unconventional world of bold creativity but he also gets his first bitter taste of harsh criticism from a dealer. Encouragement comes in the form of attractive clerk Sachiko who is convinced that she alone understands him. Marriage is soon followed by a daughter, as love and hope drive Machisu to commit even more deeply to his art.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: philosophical, thought provoking, emotional, art house, sad, cult classic, tragicomedy, offbeat, humorous, realistic
Similar in 89%
Glory to the Filmmaker! (2007)
Plot Summary:
Takeshi Kitano plays a version of himself in which he's a struggling director cycling through a number of different genres in an effort to complete his latest project.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, exciting, captivating, surreal, offbeat, weird
Similar in 80%
Sweet Rain: Accuracy of Death (2008)
Plot Summary:
Chiba appears seven days before a person dies an unexpected death. His job is to observe the person for seven days then decide either to ‘execute’ or ‘pass over’. Today, again, in the rain, he waits. His subject, her death due in seven days, is Kazue Fujiki. She works for a manufacturing company in the complaints department. Exhausted after her day, she emerges from her office. It’s time for the Reaper to go to work.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Japan
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, captivating, stylized, offbeat
Similar in 89%
Friction (2010)
Plot Summary:
Filmmaker Cullen Hoback travels to a private high school where he writes a script about a real couple and the student who comes between them.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 68
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: humorous, surreal, semi serious, captivating, psychological, enigmatic, teen, independent film, mind bending, offbeat
Similar in 87%
Interview (1987)
Plot Summary:
Federico Fellini welcomes us into his world of film making with a mockumentary about his life in film, as a Japanese film crew follows him around.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Italy
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: art house, neorealism, mockumentary, sentimental, humorous, realistic, surreal, stylized, semi serious, meta
Similar in 84%
Showboy (2002)
Plot Summary:
Christian Taylor, a writer on hit TV series Six Feet Under, is being profiled by a British documentary crew when he's sacked, though he doesn't know they've overheard the firing. They follow him to Las Vegas, where he is ostensibly doing "research" for the next season, but is actually pursuing a dream to become a dancer in a Vegas show.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 347
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious, independent film, clever, offbeat, cynical, crying, mockumentary
Similar in 76%
Face (2009)
Plot Summary:
Hsiao-Kang, a Taiwanese film director, travels to the Louvre in Paris, France, to shoot a film that explores the Salomé myth.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 990
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Musical
Country: France, Taiwan, Belgium, Netherlands
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: surreal, humorous, stylized, semi serious, contemplative, slow cinema, aesthetic, offbeat
Similar in 82%
Static (1985)
Plot Summary:
Ernie Blick has just lost his job at a crucifix factory. Luckily, for Ernie, this allows him more time to devote to his invention. Yes, Ernie is an inventor -- and he's come up with something big. So big, in fact, Ernie's convinced it will change the way people look at life and death. With the support of his drummer friend Julia and his ex-Green Beret-evangelist cousin, Ernie unveils it to the world. But even he isn't prepared for the public's reaction.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 724
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: surreal, philosophical, mind bending, psychedelic, depressing, avant garde, esoteric, independent film, atmospheric, humorous
Similar in 89%
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.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Action, Comedy, Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: bloody, neo noir, art house, stylized, sincere, dark, controversial, hood, crime drama, rough
Similar in 75%
To Each His Own Cinema (2007)
Plot Summary:
A collective film of 33 shorts directed by different directors about their feeling about cinema.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: anthology, thought provoking, humorous, realistic, contemplative, stylized, semi serious, art house, cult classic, experimental
Similar in 87%
Pauly Shore Is Dead (2003)
Plot Summary:
Hollywood comedian/actor Pauly Shore loses everything: his house, nobody in Hollywood wants to represent him, he moves back home with his mom and is now parking cars at the Comedy Store. Then one night when he's up in his mom's loft, a dead famous comedian appears who tells Pauly to kill himself cause he'll go down as a comedic genius who died before his time. Pauly then fakes his own death, and the media goes crazy. Celebrities are talking about him on MTV and girls are fighting over him on Jerry Springer. It's everything that he wanted...his plan worked. A week or so later the LAPD is tipped off about his whereabouts and they break down the door of the seedy motel room that he's hiding out in and throw him in LA County's celebrity wing.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy
Country: USA
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: humorous, satirical, absurd, surreal, stylized, dark comedy, realistic, witty, cynical, not serious
Similar in 86%
Free Fall (2014)
Plot Summary:
An old woman flies past six floors after jumping from the roof of her apartment block. Six stories on the poor state of humanity, told with humour and rare imagination to the accompaniment of a pulsating soundtrack from Amon Tobin. A woeful burlesque set in the present by one of Europe’s most original contemporary filmmakers.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Hungary, South Korea, France
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: anthology, humorous, surreal, semi serious, suspense, intellectual, art house, offbeat, biting, experimental
Similar in 82%
Childstar (2004)
Plot Summary:
Childstar is about an egotistical 12-year-old named Taylor Brandon Burns who has skyrocketed to fame at that young age. His relationship with his driver, Rick, takes a turn when Taylor confides in him about the problems of celebrity and the fears of his impending teenage years. When Taylor disappears with his new girlfriend, Rick attempts to find the boy and help him through this troubling period.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, light, captivating, thought provoking, clever, offbeat, realistic, witty, independent film
Similar in 89%
Tokyo! (2008)
Plot Summary:
Tokyo! is an anthology of three short films by directors Michel Gondry (France), Leos Carax (France) and Joon-ho Bong (Korea), each of whom offers an imaginative and transnatural/supernatural glimpse into the Tokyo Megapolis.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: France, Japan, South Korea, Germany
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: surreal, anthology, art house, melancholic, absurd, dark comedy, sentimental, cerebral, visual, cult classic
Similar in 82%
The Taste of Tea (2004)
Plot Summary:
A spell of time in the life of a family living in rural Tochigi prefecture, north of Tokyo. Though her husband is busy working at an office, Yoshiko is not an ordinary housewife, instead working on an animated film project at home. Uncle Ayano has recently arrived, looking to get his head together after living in Tokyo for several years. Meanwhile, Yoshiko's daughter Sachiko is mainly concerned with why she seems to be followed around everywhere by a giant version of herself.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Comedy, Fantasy
Country: Japan
Duration: 143 min
Plot tags: surreal, touching, semi serious, mind bending, psychedelic, disturbing, contemplative, poignant, independent film, black comedy
Similar in 87%
The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz (2000)
Plot Summary:
The last day of creation. A stranger arrives in London. No one knows who he is or where he has come from. By the time he leaves, the entire universe will have been erased.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
Country: UK, Germany
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: surreal, exciting, mind bending, humorous, futuristic, suspenseful, semi serious, disturbing, clever, offbeat
Similar in 82%
The Pornographers (1966)
Plot Summary:
Subu makes pornographic films. He sees nothing wrong with it. They are an aid to a repressed society, and he uses the money to support his landlady, Haru, and her family. From time to time, Haru shares her bed with Subu, though she believes her dead husband, reincarnated as a carp, disapproves. Director Shohei Imamura has always delighted in the kinky exploits of lowlifes, and in this 1966 classic, he finds subversive humor in the bizarre dynamics of Haru, her Oedipal son, and her daughter, the true object of her pornographer-boyfriend’s obsession. Imamura’s comic treatment of such taboos as voyeurism and incest sparked controversy when the film was released, but The Pornographers has outlasted its critics, and now seems frankly ahead of its time.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: surreal, dark comedy, erotic, mind bending, psychedelic, cult classic, erotic drama, clever, offbeat, humorous
Similar in 75%
Cremaster 3 (2002)
Plot Summary:
CREMASTER 3 (2002) is set in New York City and narrates the construction of the Chrysler Building, which is in itself a character - host to inner, antagonistic forces at play for access to the process of (spiritual) transcendence. These factions find form in the struggle between Hiram Abiff or the Architect.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: USA
Duration: 182 min
Plot tags: surreal, mind bending, atmospheric, stylized, serious, thought provoking, psychedelic, disturbing, independent film, avant garde
Similar in 89%
Kikujiro (1999)
Plot Summary:
Brash, loudmouthed and opportunistic, Kikujiro is the unlikely companion for Masao who is determined to see the mother he has never met. The two begin a series of adventures which soon turns out to be a whimsical journey of laughter and tears with a wide array of surprises and unique characters along the way.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 22000
Genere: Drama, Comedy
Country: Japan
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: road movie, sad, uplifting, touching, surreal, stylized, emotional, social, contemplative, art house
Similar in 83%
Reality (2012)
Plot Summary:
A dark comedy centering on the lives of a Neapolitan based family whose father, a fish merchant, is so infatuated with the reality TV show "Grande Fratello" (the Italian version of "Big Brother") he starts living his life as if he were on it.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, humorous, cynical, semi serious, social, surreal, cult classic, clever, bleak, realistic
Similar in 87%
Lisa Picard Is Famous (2000)
Plot Summary:
A documentarian decides to follow the career of New York actress Lisa Picard, believing she is on the brink of fame. Instead, he bears witness to Lisa's continued, humorous, struggles as an actress, as well as the conflict that arises when Lisa's best friend Tate hits it big with an off-Broadway one-man show.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 620
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, witty, cynical, semi serious, mockumentary, independent film, clever, offbeat, talky
Similar in 88%
Who Are You, Polly Maggoo? (1966)
Plot Summary:
In this excoriating satire of the fashion industry, Polly Maggoo is a 20-year-old Brooklyn-born fashion model in Paris, on the runway at the big shows where magazine editor Ms. Maxwell is the reigning opinion maker. The ridiculous passes for sublime. Polly becomes the subject of an episode of a vapid TV news documentary series called "Qui êtes-vous?" and is pursued by the filmmaker and by the prince of Borodine, a small country in the Soviet bloc.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: surreal, mind bending, psychedelic, offbeat, humorous, realistic, contemplative, semi serious, biting, avant garde
Similar in 85%
Cold Souls (2009)
Plot Summary:
Paul Giamatti stars as himself, agonizing over his interpretation of "Uncle Vanya." Paralyzed by anxiety, he stumbles upon a solution via a New Yorker article about a high-tech company promising to alleviate suffering by extracting souls. Giamatti enlists their service -- only to discover that his soul is the shape and size of a chickpea.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Country: USA, France
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: clever, surreal, bleak, dark comedy, stylized, cerebral, cult classic, psychological, futuristic, depressing
Similar in 78%
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2014)
Plot Summary:
An absurdist, surrealistic and shocking pitch-black comedy, which moves freely from nightmare to fantasy to hilariously deadpan humour as it muses on man’s perpetual inhumanity to man.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Sweden, Germany, Norway, France, Denmark
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: surreal, realistic, talky, lyrical, dark comedy, humorous, philosophical, semi serious, absurd, art house
Similar in 89%
Being John Malkovich (1999)
Plot Summary:
Spike Jonze’s debut feature film is a love story mix of comedy and fantasy. The story is about an unsuccessful puppeteer named Craig, who one day at work finds a portal into the head of actor John Malkovich. The portal soon becomes a passion for anybody who enters it’s mad and controlling world of overtaking another human body.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 349000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: surreal, psychological, cerebral, mind bending, offbeat, mindfuck, philosophical, dark comedy, disturbing, black comedy