Best movies like The Cowards who Looked to the Sky
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Based on the award-winning novel of the same name, this boldly erotic yet movingly tender portrait of a group of vulnerable, variously wounded people — a depressed housewife, her high-school-aged lover, and his best friend, who is struggling to provide for himself and his senile grandmother — whose intersecting lives yield both sorrow and a fragile, yet enduring, hope for a brighter future. (TIFF).
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 229
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 141 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy, sexual, sexy
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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%
Moon and Thunder (2017)
Plot Summary:
When Yasuko (Eriko Hatsune) was a child, her mother left their home. She grew up not knowing what an ordinary family is. Satoshi's (Kengo Kora) mother was the girlfriend of Yasuko's late father. One day, Satoshi appears in front of Yasuko. Since that moment, Yasuko's monotonous life begins to change.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 39
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, serious, melancholic
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The Light Shines Only There (2014)
Plot Summary:
A man has thrown away love and a woman has given up on love. The two souls meet in a brief summer in the northern city of Hakodate.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 663
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: rough, touching, serious, realistic, romantic, anthology, bleak
Similar in 80%
Anna Karenina (2000)
Plot Summary:
To help her brother mend his failing marriage, young Russian beauty Anna Karenina - who's married to eminent nobleman Alexei Karenin - leaves St. Petersburg for Moscow, where she meets the dashing Count Vronsky. They soon fall madly in love, but the scandal of their illicit affair and Alexei's vengeance give rise to tragedy in this faithful adaptation of author Leo Tolstoy's immortal novel.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 598
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 360 min
Plot tags: touching, captivating, emotional, realistic, serious, historical romance, epic, gloomy, period drama
Similar in 76%
Life in a Fishbowl (2014)
Plot Summary:
Three tales of three people who have a lasting effect on one another. A young writer whose career is skyrocketing finds himself in a stormy marriage. He divorces his wife after the death of their daughter, shuts himself from the outside world and drinks himself to death over a twenty-year period.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iceland
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, psychological, captivating, sexy, anthology, gloomy
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The End of Summer (1961)
Plot Summary:
The Kohayakawa family is thrown into distress when childlike father Manbei takes up with his old mistress, in one of Ozu’s most deftly modulated blendings of comedy and tragedy.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, emotional, serious, realistic, social, witty, stylized, gloomy
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July Rhapsody (2002)
Plot Summary:
Lam Yiu Kwok, a Hong Kong secondary school teacher is facing a mid-life crisis. While he has only his pride and Chinese poetry to fall back on, his peers are successful businessmen and professionals who flaunt their extravagant lifestyles at reunion dinners. After many years, Lam is still living in a modest apartment with his wife, Man Ching and two teenage sons. However financial stagnancy is not his only problem. An old flame of Man Ching (who was the couple's former schoolteacher) returns to Hong Kong and uncovers old wounds. Man Ching feels obliged to help her ex-lover. Meanwhile, Yiu Kwok faces another dilemma: Choy Lam, a precocious student, has a crush on him and the 'forbidden fruit' looks more and more tempting in the light of his wife's 'infidelity'. Will he succumb to young charms and let history repeat itself?.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, sentimental, realistic, gloomy, masterpiece
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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
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God's Sandbox (2002)
Plot Summary:
A successful author, Liz, searches for her daughter, Rachel, in the Sinai Desert. There she meets a Bedouin storyteller who relays the unusual love story of a Western tourist and the son of a Bedouin Sheik named Najim. Their relationship is torn apart when the American is exposed to a tribal ritual.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 180
Genere: Drama
Country: Israel
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, serious, emotional, sexy, bleak, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, sexual
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Memories of Tomorrow (2006)
Plot Summary:
After being stricken with Alzheimer's disease in the prime of his life, a successful young businessman slips slowly away from his loving family.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 912
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, psychological, emotional, captivating, independent film, serious
Similar in 75%
The Law of Enclosures (2000)
Plot Summary:
Story of the same couple, first in their teenage years and then in their twilight years, paradoxically set in the same time during the backdrop of the Gulf War in the Middle East.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 276
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, touching, emotional, erotic, mind bending, offbeat, serious, realistic, contemplative
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About Her Brother (2010)
Plot Summary:
Ginko’s younger brother Tetsuro, a failed comedian, is the oddball of the family. Embarrassing, loud and plain inappropriate at times causes Ginko to disown him. The two reunite when she discovers Tetsuro is terminally ill. Tetsuro’s impending death marks the beginning of love and toleration.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 843
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, emotional, captivating, independent film, sincere, touching, serious, entertaining
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An Italian Romance (2004)
Plot Summary:
Giovanni, a married man with a child, meets on a train Maria, a former lover.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 360
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, captivating, historical drama, sentimental
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Exchange (2012)
Plot Summary:
An erotic, psychological drama-thriller set on the gritty streets of Raon, Quiapo, Manila - a third world commercial avenue where everything from dildos, car parts and home accessories is available for a price. It is against this backdrop that the shrewd Ramiro, owner of an electronics shop, through a process of bartering and bargaining, convinceshis ill-tempered and non-too-bright employee Nestor to give him videos of his naked wife in exchange for the erasure of his debts.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 181
Genere: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: captivating, erotic
Similar in 75%
Heaven's Heart (2008)
Plot Summary:
Two couples, old friends, end up in a heated debate over adultery at a dinner party.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 691
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden, Denmark
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: psychological, contemplative, realistic, talky, captivating, minimal cast, clever, serious
Similar in 78%
Webdultery (2010)
Plot Summary:
A couple in a failing marriage begin to cheat on each other using the power of the internet.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 111
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sexy, emotional, realistic, psychological, captivating, sincere, touching, serious, gloomy
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Bitter Sweet (2004)
Plot Summary:
A young couple in love prepares to marry, but--contrary to the popular stereotype--the woman develops a classic case of "cold feet" and seeks the advice of an older man. In no position to offer solid counsel since his own marriage is failing, he instead allows her to seduce him.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 78
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan, France
Duration: 64 min
Plot tags: erotic, sexy, touching, realistic, semi serious, sexual
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Expecting Amish (2014)
Plot Summary:
18-year-old Hannah Yoder is ready to become an Amish adult - which means baptism into the Church and marriage to her boyfriend, Samuel. However, her friends convince her to visit Hollywood for Rumspringa where she meets Josh and the two hit it off instantly. When she returns to Amish country, Hannah must make the painful choice of staying with Samuel or return to Josh and risk being shunned forever.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 845
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: serious, touching, emotional, realistic
Similar in 86%
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 75%
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
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Séraphin: Heart of Stone (2002)
Plot Summary:
Séraphin unfolds against the severe and achingly beautiful landscape of rural Quebec in 1889, where young lovers are torn from each other when a bankrupt shopkeeper forces his daughter into an arranged marriage to save his business. But true love cannot be denied.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: sentimental, serious, emotional, realistic, captivating, gloomy, entertaining
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High Resolution (2018)
Plot Summary:
An adaptation of Tao Lin’s beloved cult novel "Taipei". As one relationship collapses, another blooms for Erin, swept into the world of Paul Chen, a mysterious, charismatic author. When he proposes documenting every aspect of their courtship in an epic laptop-filmed “documentary”, the couple enter into a performative bad romance, fueled by substances and sleepless nights.
IMDB Rating: 4.0
IMDB Votes: 287
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 76%
The Weekend (1999)
Plot Summary:
Marian and John Kerr are expecting an old friend, Lyle for a weekend visit to their beautiful upstate New York home. Emotions run high since it is the one-year anniversary of the death of John's brother, the handsome and charismatic Tony, who had also been Lyle`s lover. Marian, who is still inconsolable after losing Tony to AIDS, is upset when Lyle brings his new boyfriend, a young artist, Robert. Meanwhile, the situation is just as tense at the Kerr`s neighbors' house, where oft-widowed, free spirit Laura Ponti gets a surprise visit from her resentful, angry daughter, Nina, and her married lover, Thierry. Matters worsen when the battling mother-daughter duo joins the Kerr household for a dinner party, where the pain-riddled diners engage in a messy emotional showdown.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 325
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: independent film, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
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Belonging (2004)
Plot Summary:
Jess (Brenda Blethyn) and town handyman Jacob (Kevin Whately) have been happily married 20 years, recently taking in a trio of Jacob's elderly relatives, including his mother (Rosemary Harris). Though the relations are demanding, kindhearted Jess -- who selflessly quit her job -- enjoys looking after them. But when Jacob disappears one day, Jess' life falls apart, and she must learn to cope with things on her own in this touching drama.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 299
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, touching
Similar in 83%
All Around Us (2008)
Plot Summary:
Kanao, a courtroom portrait artist, observes crimes, scandals and the decline of Japanese values without passing judgement. As he and his wife endure the tragedy of their first child’s death, hope slowly unfolds and their love story flickers to life once again.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 890
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: emotional, realistic, touching, psychological, serious, gloomy
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Sweet Sex and Love (2003)
Plot Summary:
They meet and they make love. They live together and they make love. Dong-Ki has one night stand with Shin-Ah, a woman who has hardly any faith in true love but indulge herself in sex. Shacking up and making love with each other day in and day out, these two young persons, however, find themselves argue about tiny little things and soon they grow tired of each other. Separation, nevertheless, makes Dong-Ki realize that he has already found the love of his life and a marriage proposal is his next step. Shin-Ah, on the other hand, has no intention to settle down.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 631
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: sexy, serious, erotic, sincere, realistic, captivating, sexual
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Paradise (1991)
Plot Summary:
Willard Young is a 10-year-old boy who is sent by his mother to stay with her best friend Lily Reed, who lives in the Delta shrimp-fishing country in a town called Paradise. Lily and her husband Ben have been living in an unmentioned emotional vacuum since the death of their own three year old boy. Willie makes friends with the local 9-year-old tomboy Billie Pike, who teaches him to be comfortable with himself. When Willard gains a handle on his own emotions, he can now help Lily and Ben to connect, overcome grief and rediscover themselves.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, emotional, sad, cult classic, feel good, realistic, semi serious, inspirational, light
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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
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The Best Day of My Life (2002)
Plot Summary:
The Best Day of My Life is the story of a dysfunctional family as seen through the eyes of young Chiara (Maria Luisa De Crescenzo) who is about to receive her first communion. The family includes matriarch Irene (Virna Lisi) and her three grown up children.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, UK
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, realistic, sentimental, captivating, serious, emotional, gloomy, sexual, sexy
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Kakera: A Piece of Our Life (2009)
Plot Summary:
The story of the relationship between a college student whose relationship with her boyfriend is going nowhere and a bisexual medical artist who makes prosthetic body parts. Haru is a college student ignored by her boyfriend yet believes she is still in love with him. One day at a café, Haru meets Riko, a medical artist (prosthetist) who creates body parts in order to disguise clients’ missing pieces, lost due to accident or disease. Both were alone, but struck up an immediate friendship and closeness. Riko doesn't care about gender when it comes to relationships, and believes that love itself is the most important thing a human can achieve. Haru struggles in her life between friendship and a deeper relationship with Riko.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 381
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, realistic, semi serious, captivating, manga, clever