Best movies like The Blue Kite
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The lives of a Beijing family throughout the 1950s and 1960s, as they experience the impact of the Hundred Flowers Campaign, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: depressing, political, realistic, controversial, sincere, thought provoking, serious, contemplative, gloomy, tense
Best tv shows and movies like The Blue Kite (1993):
Similar in 83%
Pickpocket (1997)
Plot Summary:
Little pocket thief Wu never got away from the streets like his friends did. He realises that he is alone, as his old buddy doesn't invite him for his wedding. When he falls in love with a hooker he is forced to think about his future. Can he break with his criminal past?.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: contemplative, neo noir, independent film, psychological, serious, captivating, realistic, biting, suspense
Similar in 76%
Film socialisme (2010)
Plot Summary:
A symphony in three movements. Things such as a Mediterranean cruise, numerous conversations, in numerous languages, between the passengers, almost all of whom are on holiday... Our Europe. At night, a sister and her younger brother have summoned their parents to appear before the court of their childhood. The children demand serious explanations of the themes of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. Our humanities. Visits to six sites of true or false myths: Egypt, Palestine, Odessa, Hellas, Naples and Barcelona.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Switzerland, France
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: serious, atmospheric, realistic, contemplative, avant garde, philosophical, political, offbeat, gloomy
Similar in 78%
Vanished Empire (2008)
Plot Summary:
This story take place in Moscow during the 1970s and unfolds around the love triangle between two young men and a girl who study at the same university. They argue, make up, and face their first disappointments and victories. While busy with personal lives and loves, they miss foreseeing that the country in which they were born and live will soon disappear from the map.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 583
Genere: Drama
Country: Russia
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sentimental, atmospheric, serious, realistic, gloomy, period piece
Similar in 77%
The Big Dream (2009)
Plot Summary:
Italian Revolution, 1968. Police officer, Nicolas, wants to become an actor. He goes out in plain clothes and meets Laura who is among students against the government, Vietnam War and who seek sexual freedom. One day, his identity gets exposed and she leaves him.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 908
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, realistic, tense, suspense, touching, contemplative, hot
Similar in 81%
In the Heat of the Sun (1994)
Plot Summary:
The film is set in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution. It is told from the perspective of Ma Xiaojun nicknamed Monkey, a teenage boy. Monkey and his friends are free to roam the streets of Beijing day and night because the Cultural Revolution has caused their parents and most adults to be either busy or away. The story revolves around Monkey's dalliances with his roguish male friends and his subsequent angst-filled crush with Mi Lan.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: sincere, epic, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, contemplative, sexual, semi autobiographical, freeze frame
Similar in 79%
1921 (2021)
Plot Summary:
Tells the story of a Communist Party's early history during the turbulent era, examining the remarkable Chinese revolutionary leaders' zeal and contrition for the ascension of the Chinese people.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 375
Genere: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 80%
The Story of Qiu Ju (1992)
Plot Summary:
The Story of Qiu Ju is a 1992 Chinese comedy-drama film. The film was directed by Zhang Yimou and, as in many of his films, stars Gong Li in the title role. The screenplay is an adaption of Chen Yuanbin's novella The Wan Family's Lawsuit. The film tells the story of a peasant woman, Qiu Ju, who lives in a rural area of China. When her husband is kicked in the groin by the village head, Qiu Ju, despite her pregnancy, travels to a nearby town, and later a big city to deal with its bureaucrats and find justice.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: realistic, sincere, clever, touching, serious, surprise ending, tense, light, road movie, atmospheric
Similar in 82%
Song of the Exile (1990)
Plot Summary:
Set in the early 1970s, it tells the story of a Chinese-Japanese student who returns to her native Hong Kong after graduating from a university in London. Once she arrives back home, she and her family begins to fight, largely due to cultural and societal conflicts between her mother and herself.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 542
Genere: Drama
Country: Hong Kong, Taiwan
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, thought provoking, touching, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 88%
A Minor Leap Down (2015)
Plot Summary:
Nahal is around thirty and in her fourth month of pregnancy. During a routine check-up she learns that her baby has died and she now faces a curettage abortion in two days’ time. When she tries to address the subject, neither her mother nor her husband give her a chance to speak.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 228
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran, France
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 82%
Communists (2014)
Plot Summary:
Jean-Marie Straub pushes this musicality of blocks to a paroxysmal extreme, mixing blocks of time (40 years separate the various extracts that are going to be used, and what is to be filmed), blocks of text (Malraux, Fortini, Vittorini, Hölderlin) and blocks of language (French, Italian, German), and from this ruckus emerges the history of the world, yes, History with a capital H, and from the same movement, the political hope of its being overtaken. So this is an adventure film, about the Human adventure, still one that is always, in the end, overtaken by Nature. (Arnaud Dommerc).
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 192
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Switzerland
Duration: 70 min
Plot tags: experimental, thought provoking, atmospheric, serious, realistic, political
Similar in 81%
The Ditch (2010)
Plot Summary:
The film focuses on the suffering of Chinese who were imprisoned in a forced labor camp called Jiabiangou in the Gobi Desert in winter 1960 under Mao Zedong on the grounds that they were "rightist elements". The film tells of the harsh life of these men, who coped with physical exhaustion, extreme cold, starvation and death on a daily basis.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 526
Genere: Drama
Country: Hong Kong, France, Belgium, South Korea, Netherlands
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, disturbing, bleak, contemplative, slow cinema, aesthetic, captivating, realistic, crying
Similar in 77%
Goodbye (2011)
Plot Summary:
Without her husband and without her lawyer’s licence, which has been withdrawn, Noora is left pregnant and alone in her apartment. Her attempt to leave Iran turns into a fight with male chauvinism. A personal, nerve-wracking and infuriating film by Rasoulof, who was himself convicted for his films in Iran. Goodbye is a sober, frightening portrait of a society that is stooping under the continual control and threats of its religious regime. Noora, a young, pregnant lawyer in Tehran whose husband has been sent to work in the desert because of his critical journalistic activities, continually faces opposition from the regime and decides to leave the country. That turns out to be very difficult. Because Rasoulof was already banned from making films, Goodbye was shot partly in secret in the winter of 2010/2011. The result is a disquieting film that makes impotence and the desire for freedom painfully tangible in all its simplicity.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 814
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, thought provoking, contemplative, islamic, bleak, interesting
Similar in 90%
Fly with the Crane (2012)
Plot Summary:
Serenely resigned to his impending death but deeply afraid at the prospect of being cremated, an elderly carpenter seeks to have his last wishes carried out in this gentle, beautifully realized drama from director Li Ruijin. (TIFF).
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 106
Genere: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 81%
Kamchatka (2002)
Plot Summary:
The movie show us how life was in Argentina for dissident people, in the seventies, under the military government.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina, Spain, Italy
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, serious, realistic, political, touching
Similar in 82%
Our Homeland (2012)
Plot Summary:
From the late 1950s through the '70s, more than 90,000 of the ethnic Koreans in Japan emigrated to North Korea, a country that promised them affluence, justice, and an end to discrimination. KAZOKU NO KUNI tells the story of one of their number, who returns for just a short period. For the first time in 25 years, Sonho is reunited with his family in Tokyo after being allowed to undergo an operation there. Sonho’s younger sister Rie is at the centre of the film, and is not hard to recognise as the director’s alter-ego. In her documentaries DEAR PYONGYANG and SONA, THE OTHER MYSELF, Yang Yonghi told the story of her own life, and how, at age six, she experienced the departure of her three older brothers, who left their family for Pyongyang.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 285
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 88%
Mina Walking (2015)
Plot Summary:
Saddled by a senile grandfather and a neglectful father, Mina, an impulsive twelve-year-old Afghan street seller sees her future slipping away when she is forced to neglect her education and walk the streets of Kabul to support her fragmented family. In the seven days that follow her life, Mina’s quest to emancipate her father from the claws of a local drug dealer and her attempt to secretly attend school underlines the current struggle of a young generation of Afghans trying to shake off the echoes of oppression from the Taliban era that continues to haunt those who bore witness to it.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 90
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, Afghanistan
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, realistic, rough, social, bleak, serious
Similar in 88%
The Piano in a Factory (2010)
Plot Summary:
Steelworker Chen has a passion for music and plays the accordion in a local band with a close group of friends. When his estranged wife returns one day after years of absence, she demands a divorce and sole custody of their daughter. Chen is at a loss. He doesn't mind divorcing a woman who has become a stranger, but he can't bear to part with his daughter. Chen has worked hard to give her a respectable life and has taught her his love of music. When asked if she'd rather stay with her father or go with her mother, the girl gives a practical, devastating answer: she'll go with whomever can provide her with a piano. Chen cannot afford such a luxury item, but the piano becomes his last hope to save what little is left of his family. With the help of his loyal friends and the support of his lover - the singer in his band - Chen concocts several plans to fulfill his daughter's wish.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: China
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: serious, sincere, touching, realistic, artsy, art film
Similar in 78%
Ocean Heaven (2010)
Plot Summary:
The story of a father's tireless love for his autistic son. A terminally ill father's attempt to teach his autistic son the necessary life skills to survive on his own before he passes away. It is also a poignant tribute to the infinite love that parents have for their children and their unending desire to take care and look after them to their best abilities, no matter the struggle, no matter the effort.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, sentimental, realistic, thought provoking, touching, depressing, cult classic, gloomy, beautiful
Similar in 86%
Blame It on Mum (2009)
Plot Summary:
Mady Celliers, an attractive housewife of 60, he spends his life speaking ill of her two daughters and her husband, a man who shows a strange behavior since has retired. Antoine, the eldest son, company director, is unable to make a success of a business: out of a bankruptcy to get into another, her sister Alice madonnas obsessively paints sad. Annabelle, a nurse in an intensive care unit, tries desperately to save his family pronosticándole the future. When Alice meets by chance Jacques, a lonely police pessimistic explode all family neurosis.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 417
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, sincere, touching
Similar in 75%
Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998)
Plot Summary:
Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: China, USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: depressing, emotional, disturbing, erotic, sincere, atmospheric, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 75%
Let the Wind Blow (2004)
Plot Summary:
A collegian in turbulent Mumbai attempts to improve his lifestyle.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 127
Genere: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, captivating, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, independent film, banned
Similar in 86%
Strike (2006)
Plot Summary:
In poverty, she found strength. In oppression, she found courage. In solidarity, she found a reason to believe again. Acclaimed German actress Katharina Thalbach (THE TIN DRUM, SOPHIES CHOICE) stars in this hard-hitting historical drama set during the rise of Polands Solidarity movement. An illiterate single mother, Agnieszka Kowalska is a Socialist "heroine of labor" for working long hours as a shipyard welder until her superiors deny compensation to the widows of 21 workers killed in an industrial disaster. Risking her job, her life, and the love of her son to defy the bureacracy, Agnieszka inspires the largest labor strike in world history and becomes a national hero. Volker Schlöndorff adapted this "ballad based on historical events" from the biography of Anna Walentynowicz, the free trade activist who mobilized a million Poles for Solidarity and helped hasten the fall of Communism. Filmed entirely on location at Polands Lenin Shipyard, where history was made.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 490
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, Poland
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, sincere, captivating
Similar in 78%
The Domino Effect (2012)
Plot Summary:
If global economy came to a sudden stop what would be the effect on families worldwide? People in different countries or continents might not seem to be interrelated but there is more than meets the eye and we might be more connected than we sometimes like to think.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 276
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, Netherlands
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, psychological, captivating, emotional, gloomy
Similar in 78%
The Bridges of Sarajevo (2014)
Plot Summary:
Thirteen European directors explore the theme of Sarajevo; what this city has represented in European history over the past hundred years, and what Sarajevo stands for today in Europe. These eminent filmmakers of different generations and origins offer exceptional singular styles and visions.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 387
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, Bulgaria, Germany
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, realistic, disturbing, anthology, bleak
Similar in 86%
Good Morning, Night (2003)
Plot Summary:
The 1978 kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro, president of the most important political party in Italy at the time, Democrazia Cristiana, as seen from the perspective of one of his assailants -- a conflicted young woman in the ranks of the Red Brigade.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, disturbing, bleak, realistic, suspenseful, political, sincere, controversial, crying
Similar in 87%
Beginning of the Great Revival (2011)
Plot Summary:
A chronicle of the events that led to the founding of the Chinese Communist Party.
IMDB Rating: 3.1
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: China
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, factual, banned
Similar in 81%
Stopped on Track (2011)
Plot Summary:
Frank and Simone have fulfilled a dream and live with their two children in a row house in the suburbs. They are a happy couple, until the day Frank is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. The family is suddenly confronted with death.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, serious, captivating, emotional, contemplative, sincere, gloomy
Similar in 85%
Back to 1942 (2012)
Plot Summary:
In 1942, Henan Province was devastated by the most tragic famine in modern Chinese history, resulting in the deaths of at least three million men, women and children. Although the primary cause of the famine was a severe drought, it was exacerbated by locusts, windstorms, earthquakes, epidemic disease and the corruption of the ruling Kuomintang government.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 145 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, captivating, bleak, realistic, intense
Similar in 75%
Freedom Song (2000)
Plot Summary:
Freedom Song (2000) is a made-for-TV film based on true stories of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi in the 1960s. It tells the story of the struggle of African Americans to register to vote in the fictional town of Quinlan. In the midst of the Freedom Summer, a group of high school students in the small town are eager to make grassroots changes in their own community. The young activists meet resistance not only from white southerners, but from their parents, who have experienced firsthand the violence that can result from speaking out.[1] As high school students band together with the support of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, they make strides in registering African-American voters and gaining awareness for their cause.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 891
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, captivating, emotional, political, tense, serious, realistic
Similar in 84%
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (2007)
Plot Summary:
The film follows Mr. Shi, a retired widower from Beijing. When his only daughter, Yilan, who lives in Spokane, Washington and works as a librarian, gets divorced, he decides to visit her to help her heal. However, Yilan is not interested. She tries keeping an emotional distance but when this finally fails she begins physically avoiding her father. He confronts her about an affair with a married Russian man and she, in turn, lets loose about all the gossip she'd heard as a young girl about his alleged affair with a female colleague back in China.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: serious, thought provoking, touching, realistic, emotional, contemplative