Best movies like Tale of Cinema
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
In Seoul, the paths of two men and one woman intersect and move apart from one another, centering around their love for cinema. A suicidal student meets a young woman who decides to follow him in his fatal gesture. Coming out of a cinema, Tongsu, an unsuccessful filmmaker, spots a beautiful young woman, and recognizes her : she is the main actress in the film he has just seen. The life of this wavering and distressed young man strangely echoes the one of the young man from the beginning.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, South Korea
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, stylized, independent film, gloomy
Best tv shows and movies like Tale of Cinema (2005):
Similar in 75%
Visitors (2009)
Plot Summary:
Hong Sang-Soo’s Lost in the Mountains (South Korea, 32min) the visitor is the supremely self-centred Mi-Sook, who drives to Jeonju on impulse to see her classmate Jin-Young – only to discover that her friend is having an affair with their married professor, who Mi-Sook once dated herself. The level of social embarrassment goes off the scale. In Naomi Kawase’s Koma (Japan, 34min), Kang Jun-Il travels to a village in rural Japan to honour his grandfather’s dying wish by returning a Buddhist scroll to its ancestral home. Amid ancient superstitions, a new relationship forms. And in Lav Diaz’ Butterflies Have No Memories (Philippines, 42min) ‘homecoming queen’ Carol returns to the economically depressed former mining town she came from – and becomes the target of an absurd kidnapping plot hatched by resentful locals. Serving as his own writer, cameraman and editor, Diaz casts the film entirely from members of his crew and delivers a well-seasoned mix of social realism and fantasy. —bfi.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 227
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: serious, tense, realistic, stylized
Similar in 83%
Night and Day (2008)
Plot Summary:
Kim Seong-nam travels to Paris to escape an arrest, leaving his wife behind in Korea. After he arrives, he meets an ex-girlfriend and is introduced to a small community of Korean artists.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 144 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, touching, captivating
Similar in 89%
The Dancer and the Thief (2009)
Plot Summary:
Present day. Chile. Legendary bank robber Vergara Grey is getting out of prison after 5 long years and is looking forward to a quiet, uneventful life together with his wife and son whom oddly he hasn't heard from in years. But soon his resolve is tested when he meets 19 year old Angel a young thief who insists the two join up to score the biggest heist of all time. Though tempted, he resists until he finds out that his beloved wife has gone off with a millionaire and his son wants to change his last name. Then Victoria, a graceful and mysteriously mute dancer living in a conservatory, steps into the picture. She captivates Vergara and Angel, as well as all others that cross her path, drastically changing their lives.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, serious, emotional, gloomy
Similar in 88%
In Another Country (2012)
Plot Summary:
A three-tiered story centered on a trio of French tourists visiting the same seaside resort.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: contemplative, semi serious, clever, humorous, realistic, anthology, eros, offbeat, student film
Similar in 75%
The Power of Kangwon Province (1998)
Plot Summary:
Recently separated lovers (Baek Jong-hak, Oh Yun-hong) have a series of close encounters at a popular mountain retreat.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 997
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, experimental, sexual, crying, sexy
Similar in 86%
On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate (2002)
Plot Summary:
Actor Gyung-soo (Kim Sang-kyung) is passed over for a part and decides to leave Seoul and visit a friend. His friend tells him the legend of the "Turning Gate," which foreshadows future events. During his visit, Gyung-soo meets Myung-sook (Ye Ji-won), a girl who quickly falls for him. After a night of passion, he boards the train back for Seoul and meets a married woman who claims to know him. Gyung-soo thinks he may be in love with her, but perhaps he's chosen the wrong woman.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, humorous, semi serious, poetic, sexual, sexy
Similar in 88%
Hill of Freedom (2014)
Plot Summary:
A Japanese man arrives in Korea to find his old lover. While he stays at a guest house, he encounters various people.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 66 min
Plot tags: sentimental, serious, realistic, non-linear, cerebral
Similar in 79%
Vegetarian (2009)
Plot Summary:
An ordinary housewife, Yeong-hye, who has nightmares every night, finally becomes a vegetarian, throwing away all the meats in her refrigerator. Her husband Kil-soo starts to complain about her actions. Her family also worries about her health. During a family lunch, Yeong-hye tries to kill herself due to her father's abrupt violence. Observing all the happenings, Yeong-hye's brother-in-law, Min-ho, a videoartist, hears from his wife that Yeong-hye has a Mongolian spot on her hips. Min-ho gets inspiration from this and starts to sketch.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 208
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, serious, realistic, sexy, disturbing, gloomy, contemplative
Similar in 85%
Little White Lie (2008)
Plot Summary:
Little White Lie follows the story of a luckless actor named Barry who has recently split from his girlfriend. He is seen wallowing at home in his pyjamas, where he becomes fixated on a children's television presenter who he sees on daytime television. The two accidentally collide at an awards ceremony and Barry sets out to impress the presenter. However, he inadvertently lies about his profession, ignoring his actorial status for a career in psychiatry.[5][6].
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 131
Genere: Drama
Country: Ireland
Duration: 70 min
Plot tags: serious, touching, humorous, realistic
Similar in 75%
Ha Ha Ha (2010)
Plot Summary:
Over drinks, two friends agree to swap fond memories of their recent trips to the same seaside town. As the stories unfold in flashback, we realize their accounts take place at the same time—and with the same people—in this potent swirl of chance encounters, nostalgia, heartbreak and grace from Korea’s highly regarded auteur.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: South Korea
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: emotional, light, humorous, captivating, sex comedy, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 80%
Secret Sunshine (2007)
Plot Summary:
Sin-ae moves with her son Jun to Miryang, the town where her dead husband was born. As she tries to come to herself and set out on new foundations, another tragic event overturns her life.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 142 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, inspirational, sincere, philosophical, thought provoking, independent film, cerebral, bleak
Similar in 88%
Paju (2009)
Plot Summary:
A young woman living in the South Korean town of Paju recalls the last 8 years of her life, since a young man on the lam escaped to it from Seoul and married her older sister.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 550
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, touching, serious, realistic, sexy, controversial, contemplative
Similar in 77%
Loveholic (2009)
Plot Summary:
Film examines the matters of labor and love. After losing her job, a single professional woman moves into her friend's flat -- where she develops an attraction to her friend's husband. Meanwhile, the friend finds herself falling for one of her husband's colleagues.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 96
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, captivating
Similar in 76%
Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors (2000)
Plot Summary:
Wealthy Jae-hoon meets attractive writer Soo-jung through their mutual friend, filmmaker Young-soo. While Jae-hoon tries to pursue a romance with Soo-jung, things get complicated when it becomes apparent that Young-soo also has feelings for the young woman.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, realistic, romantic comedy, clever, black and white
Similar in 81%
Dance Town (2010)
Plot Summary:
A North Korean refugee, Jung-Nim, is trying to find a new life in South Korea, with people suspecting that she is a spy.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 83
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, touching, sincere, thought provoking, bleak, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 82%
Woman on the Beach (2006)
Plot Summary:
Stymied by writer's block while crafting his latest script, director Kim Jung-rae persuades his friend Won Chang-wook to drive him to a beach resort—where he promptly becomes involved with Chang-wook's girlfriend. Abandoning her and taking up with another woman, Jung-rae winds up creating enough drama to inspire his writing.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: South Korea
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: sentimental, realistic, touching, emotional, semi serious, serious, gloomy, sexual, sexy
Similar in 85%
Like You Know It All (2009)
Plot Summary:
Delightfully comic exploration of the emotional and social geography of an art-house film director.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 836
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: touching, captivating, realistic, uplifting, emotional, semi serious, offbeat, humorous
Similar in 86%
Searching for the Elephant (2009)
Plot Summary:
A freelance photographer Hyun-woo seems to live an enviable life with a successful career. But his inside is torn apart from the sorrow of being deserted by his ex-girlfriend Mari. He even gets unclear about what’s really happening in reality and what’s delusion. One of Hyun-woo’s friend and a riding-high plastic surgeon, Min-seok is married to Soo-yeon, a sister of Hyun-woo. But he is always having affairs with the girls around him and doubts himself if he’s addicted to sex. Jin-hyuk, their longtime friend, is a financing specialist. And he is having a secret affair with Min-seok’s wife. He is willing to leave everything behind for the love. Three men, who look like the winners in life, are in fact struggling with their own sufferings that they desperately strive to keep undisclosed. The harder they try to get out of the agony, the more complicated and puzzled it gets.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 399
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 144 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, serious, realistic, erotic, dark, mind bending, contemplative, gloomy, weird
Similar in 77%
Woman Is the Future of Man (2004)
Plot Summary:
As the first snow falls in Seoul, two old friends reunite; one is a successful college professor, and the other, a struggling filmmaker recently returned from the United States. After their reminiscences, they finally decide to go in search of the young woman each had romanced years earlier.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea, France
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: psychological, sentimental, touching, emotional, romantic comedy, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 75%
Istanbul (2011)
Plot Summary:
Housewife Katalin Munk (Johanna ter Steege) has her world torn apart when her lecturer husband János (Andor Lukáts) arrives home to tell her that he’s leaving her for a younger student of his. Katalin falls into a state of shock and wanders about the streets of Budapest in just her dressing gown carrying a pair of scissors. After a series of misadventures, Katalin eventually ends up in Turkey, where suddenly Katalin is awakened and decides to start a new life after meeting local man Hilal (Yavuz Bingol). Meanwhile her son Zoli (Norbert Varga) tries to hunt Katalin down.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 225
Genere: Drama
Country: Hungary, Netherlands, Ireland, Turkey
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 82%
Little Jerusalem (2005)
Plot Summary:
An orthodox Jewish teen living with her family in France attempts to balance her religious upbringing with her increasingly complex view of the outside world.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 904
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, sexual, sexy
Similar in 87%
Hard Times (2005)
Plot Summary:
When the troubled son of an NGO worker refuses to take a test and announces that he is not leaving his room, his concerned mother asks one of her clients, a Cuban exile, for help in setting the boy straight. Gonzalo has decided to drop out of school, and his mother Ana isn't sure how to convince the boy that he's making a crucial mistake. Ana's client Carlos is a Cuban exile who makes his living selling cigars and artwork on the black market. When Carlos learns of Ana's dilemma, he calls on recently released convict Mikel to teach the boy how to play chess. Perhaps is young Gonzalo can master the game, he can learn to start living again. As the lessons get underway, each of these characters learns that in order to truly move on with their lives they much first break free of the bonds that prevent them from being who they really are.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 333
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, touching, sentimental
Similar in 82%
Five Senses of Eros (2009)
Plot Summary:
In this anthology film centered around the theme of "Eros," five seperate stories are presented by five top Korean directors. The main characters from each segment are connected with each other in one way or another.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 469
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, atmospheric, realistic, stylized, anthology, sexy, erotic, sexual
Similar in 80%
Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud (1995)
Plot Summary:
Nelly leaves her lazy, unemployed husband to work for retired judge Mr Arnaud, forty years her senior, after he offers to clear her bills for her. While she types his memoirs the two develop a close friendship, but Arnaud becomes jealous when Nelly begins dating his good-looking young publisher.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Italy, Germany
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, sexual, light, atmospheric, sexy
Similar in 83%
The Truce (2003)
Plot Summary:
Martín Santomé has been woking in an office for the last 50 years, but his life will change when he starts falling in love with a woman named Laura Avellaneda.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 134
Genere: Drama
Country: Mexico
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: emotional, stylized, sentimental, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 83%
Personal Belongings (2006)
Plot Summary:
Young Doctor Ana lives alone because she couldn't bear to leave Cuba when her family sailed away on a raft to the US. Ernesto lives in his car with his belongings in a small case, traveling from embassy to embassy trying to fulfill his dream of leaving Cuba. These Star-crossed lovers long to be together, they are pulled apart by different dreams rooted in different countries. In his directorial debut, Alejandro Brugués offers his personal view on the insistently revisited theme in Cuban art and literature - emigration and the laceration that it implies.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 105
Genere: Drama
Country: Cuba
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 77%
2nd Take (2011)
Plot Summary:
Reclusive writer takes aspiring actress under his wing.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 183
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, atmospheric, captivating, touching, serious, gloomy
Similar in 75%
When the Night (2011)
Plot Summary:
After meeting during their vacation, two young people with solitary lives suddenly come into a relationship that could benefit both of them.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 334
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 82%
Automatic (2005)
Plot Summary:
Everyone falls into self destructive habits. Automatic lets us view a small cross-section of the lives of six characters as they struggle to break free from the automatic behavior that drives their lives.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 125
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags: sincere, bleak, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, independent film, crying
Similar in 90%
Amnesty (2011)
Plot Summary:
Amnesty is a 2011 Albanian movie directed by Buyar Alimani. It’s a story about two people who meet up in jail when they come for monthly visits of their spouses. They fall in love after becoming witnesses to a wedding in jail but relationship has to end because both their spouses get amnesty from the government. What happens next is shown in usual east european movie style.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 223
Genere: Drama
Country: Albania, Greece, France
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, touching, serious, realistic, erotic, contemplative, gloomy