Best movies like The Flowers of War
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A Westerner finds refuge with a group of women in a church during Japan's rape of Nanking in 1937. Posing as a priest, he attempts to lead the women to safety.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 55000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: China
Duration: 146 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, realistic, harsh, visually stunning, brutal, sentimental, rough, bleak, serious
Best tv shows and movies like The Flowers of War (2011):
Similar in 76%
Ashes in the Snow (2018)
Plot Summary:
The coming-of-age tale of 16-year-old Lina Vilkas who is deported to Siberia amid Stalin's reign of terror in the Baltic region during WWII. An aspiring artist, she secretly documents her harrowing journey with her drawings.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: Lithuania
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, emotional, serious, suspense, sad, costume drama
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Similar in 85%
Sparrow (2016)
Plot Summary:
This drama is set during the revolutionary time in Shanghai, based on a novel of the same name of Hai Fei. During the republican revolution, Chen Shen is a secret agent under Special Operations Executive Director Bi Zhongliang, among the agents called “sparrow” (similar to the program “zero” in Japan).
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 55
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: China
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: sentimental, captivating, factual
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Similar in 79%
The Chinese Widow (2017)
Plot Summary:
It’s 1941 and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor has destroyed America’s morale. The US President Franklin D. Roosevelt then decides to risk it all by bombing Tokyo and raise more hope for his citizens. After completing its mission, a unit of the US Air Force is forced to make an emergency landing in China. Its commander Jack Turner (Emilie Hirsch) barely survives but gets rescued by Ying (Crystal Liu), a local widow who will stop at nothing to hide him from the Japanese occupant.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: History, Romance, War
Country: China
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, captivating, sentimental, suspense
Similar in 77%
The White Countess (2005)
Plot Summary:
The last movie from the team of Ismail Merchant, James Ivory, and Kazuo Ishiguro. Set in 1930s Shanghai, "The White Countess" is both Sofia (Natasha Richardson), a fallen member of the Russian aristocracy, and a nightclub created by a blind American diplomat named Jackson (Ralph Fiennes), who asks Sofia to be the centerpiece of the world he wants to create.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: UK, Germany, China, USA
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: romantic, sentimental, emotional, atmospheric, period piece, costume drama, touching, lyrical, romantic drama, sincere
Similar in 87%
Red Sorghum (1988)
Plot Summary:
An old leper who owned a remote sorghum winery dies. Jiu'er, the wife bought by the leper, and her lover, identified only as "my Grandpa" by the narrator, take over the winery and set up an idealized quasi-matriarchal community headed by Jiu'er. When the Japanese invaders subject the area to their rule and cut down the sorghum to make way for a road, the community rises up and resists as the sorghum grows anew.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: China
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: tense, depressing, manga, independent film, costume drama, mind blowing, psychological, sincere, epic, serious
Similar in 76%
A Very Long Engagement (2004)
Plot Summary:
In 1919, Mathilde was 19 years old. Two years earlier, her fiancé Manech left for the front at the Somme. Like millions of others he was "killed on the field of battle." It's written in black and white on the official notice. But Mathilde refuses to believe it. If Manech had died, she would know. She hangs on to her intuition as tightly as she would onto the last thread of hope linking her to her lover. A former sergeant tells her in vain that Manech died in the no man's land of a trench named Bingo Crepescule, in the company of four other men condemned to die for self-inflicted wounds. Her path ahead is full of obstacles but Mathilde is not frightened. Anything is possible to someone who is willing to challenge fate.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 75000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Romance, War
Country: France, USA
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: romantic, touching, atmospheric, epic, colorful, period piece, visually stunning, sentimental, dramatic, visually appealing
Similar in 90%
Nanking (2007)
Plot Summary:
The story of the rape of Nanking, one of the most tragic events in history. In 1937, the invading Japanese army murdered over 200,000 and raped tens of thousands of Chinese. In the midst of this horror, a small group of Western expatriates banded together to save 250,000. Nanking shows the tremendous impact individuals can make on the course of history.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Biography, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, depressing, suspense, touching, emotional, political, dark, black and white
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Similar in 86%
Merry Christmas (2005)
Plot Summary:
In 1914, World War I, the bloodiest war ever at that time in human history, was well under way. However on Christmas Eve, numerous sections of the Western Front called an informal, and unauthorized, truce where the various front-line soldiers of the conflict peacefully met each other in No Man's Land to share a precious pause in the carnage with a fleeting brotherhood.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 31000
Genere: Drama, History, Music, Romance, War
Country: France, Germany, UK, Belgium, Romania, Japan
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, sincere, emotional, captivating, political, christian film, realistic, educational, spiritual
Similar in 79%
Katyn (2007)
Plot Summary:
An examination of the Soviet slaughter of thousands of Polish officers and citizens in the Katyn forest in 1940.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Poland
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: disturbing, sentimental, heartbreaking, realistic, sad, sincere, touching, epic, social, controversial
Similar in 85%
The English Patient (1996)
Plot Summary:
In the 1930s, Count Almásy is a Hungarian map maker employed by the Royal Geographical Society to chart the vast expanses of the Sahara Desert along with several other prominent explorers. As World War II unfolds, Almásy enters into a world of love, betrayal, and politics.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 198000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA, UK, Italy
Duration: 162 min
Plot tags: romantic, sentimental, emotional, touching, heartbreaking, sexy, erotic, scenic, epic, captivating
Similar in 86%
Empire of the Sun (1987)
Plot Summary:
Jamie Graham, a privileged English boy, is living in Shanghai when the Japanese invade and force all foreigners into prison camps. Jamie is captured with an American sailor named Basie, who looks out for him while they are in the camp together. Even though he is separated from his parents and in a hostile environment, Jamie maintains his dignity and youthful spirits, providing a beacon of hope for the others held captive with him.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 133000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 153 min
Plot tags: sad, emotional, heartbreaking, period piece, touching, realistic, inspirational, historical drama, sincere, philosophical
Similar in 78%
City of Life and Death (2009)
Plot Summary:
City of Life and Death takes place in 1937, during the height of the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Imperial Japanese Army has just captured the then-capital of the Republic of China, Nanjing. What followed was known as the Nanking Massacre, or the Rape of Nanking, a period of several weeks wherein tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians were killed.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: disturbing, rough, bleak, black and white, tense, captivating, depressing, breathtaking, political, dark
Similar in 89%
The Children of Huang Shi (2008)
Plot Summary:
About young British journalist, George Hogg, who with the assistance of a courageous Australian nurse, saves a group of orphaned children during the Japanese occupation of China in 1937.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Australia, China, Germany, USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, captivating, inspirational, social, novela, realistic
Similar in 82%
Paradise Road (1997)
Plot Summary:
Paradise Road is a 1997 film which tells the story of a group of English, American, Dutch and Australian women who are imprisoned in Sumatra during World War II. It was directed by Bruce Beresford and stars Glenn Close as beatific Adrienne Pargiter, Frances McDormand as the brash Dr. Verstak, Pauline Collins as missionary Margaret Drummond (based on missionary Margaret Dryburgh), Julianna Margulies as American socialite Topsy Merritt, Jennifer Ehle as British doyenne and model Rosemary Leighton Jones, Cate Blanchett as Australian nurse Susan McCarthy and Elizabeth Spriggs as dowager Imogene Roberts. Basing his picture on real events, Bruce Beresford tells the story of a vocal orchestra created by the women in a Japanese P.O.W. camp, a classic survivors' tale extolling women's ability to survive hardship and atrocity through perseverance, solidarity and creativity.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Australia, USA
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: touching, harsh, serious, uplifting, emotional, realistic, costume drama, intense, gloomy, sentimental
Similar in 89%
Walking with the Enemy (2013)
Plot Summary:
Regent Horthy is the leader of Hungary and a German ally, but his favorable standing with Hitler changes as the war comes to an end. Forced to cede Hungary’s power or else witness the execution of his son, Regent Horthy gives up control of his country to the Nazis, who quickly move Hungarians to ghettos and death camps, with no hope in sight. But the despair changes when a young man named Elek emerges. Separated from his family during the relocations and aided by the woman he loves , Elek defies the enemy by becoming one of them. In a race against time, disguised as a Nazi Officer he embarks on a mission to save his family and thousands of his countrymen.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: Romania, Hungary, Canada, USA
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: bleak, emotional, realistic, political thriller, costume drama, serious, independent film
Similar in 77%
Lust, Caution (2007)
Plot Summary:
During World War II a secret agent must seduce, then assassinate an official who works for the Japanese puppet government in Shanghai. Her mission becomes clouded when she finds herself falling in love with the man she is assigned to kill.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 45000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, Thriller, War
Country: Taiwan, USA, Hong Kong, China
Duration: 157 min
Plot tags: sexual, disturbing, sexy, erotic, tense, neo noir, captivating, sensual, suspense, political
Similar in 89%
Flags of Our Fathers (2006)
Plot Summary:
There were five Marines and one Navy Corpsman photographed raising the U.S. flag on Mt. Suribachi by Joe Rosenthal on February 23, 1945. This is the story of three of the six surviving servicemen – John 'Doc' Bradley, Pvt. Rene Gagnon and Pvt. Ira Hayes, who fought in the battle to take Iwo Jima from the Japanese.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 128000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: sincere, emotional, realistic, epic, factual, suspense, serious, touching, patriotic, historical drama
Similar in 90%
The Water Diviner (2014)
Plot Summary:
In 1919, Australian farmer Joshua Connor travels to Turkey to discover the fate of his three sons, reported missing in action. Holding on to hope, Joshua must travel across the war-torn landscape to find the truth and his own peace.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 77000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Australia, USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: touching, reflective, emotional, dramatic, compassionate, sentimental, political, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 85%
Land of Mine (2015)
Plot Summary:
In the days following the surrender of Germany in May 1945, a group of young German prisoners of war were handed over to the Danish authorities and subsequently sent out to the West Coast, where they were ordered to remove the more than two million mines that the Germans had placed in the sand along the coast. With their bare hands, crawling around in the sand, the boys were forced to perform the dangerous work under the leadership of the Danish sergeant, Carl Leopold Rasmussen.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 45000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Denmark, Germany
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: suspense, harsh, emotional, sentimental, brutal, realistic, heartbreaking, suspenseful, intense, historical drama
Similar in 90%
The Grey Zone (2001)
Plot Summary:
A Nazi doctor, along with the Sonderkomando Jews – who are forced to work in the crematoria of Auschwitz against their fellow-Jews – find themselves in a moral grey zone.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: depressing, bleak, disturbing, factual, emotional, harsh, compassionate, serious, realistic, heartbreaking
Similar in 88%
Bent (1997)
Plot Summary:
Max is a handsome young man who, after a fateful tryst with a German soldier, is forced to run for his life. Eventually Max is placed in a concentration camp where he pretends to be Jewish because in the eyes of the Nazis, gays are the lowest form of human being. But it takes a relationship with an openly gay prisoner to teach Max that without the love of another, life is not worth living.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: UK, Japan
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sexy, brutal, disturbing, bleak, serious, emotional, erotic, lgbt cinema, sad, homoerotic
Similar in 76%
Defiance (2008)
Plot Summary:
Based on a true story, during World War II, four Jewish brothers escape their Nazi-occupied homeland of West Belarus in Poland and join the Soviet partisans to combat the Nazis. The brothers begin the rescue of roughly 1,200 Jews still trapped in the ghettos of Poland.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 154000
Genere: Action, Drama, History, Thriller, War
Country: USA
Duration: 137 min
Plot tags: emotional, sincere, epic, period piece, dramatic, realistic, historical drama, psychological, motivational, clever
Similar in 80%
John Rabe (2009)
Plot Summary:
A true-story account of a German businessman who saved more than 200,000 Chinese during the Nanjing massacre in 1937-38.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: France, China, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: tense, realistic, disturbing, bleak, serious, uplifting, epic, edutainment, emotional, contemplative
Similar in 79%
The Counterfeiters (2007)
Plot Summary:
The story Jewish counterfeiter, Salomon Sorowitsch, coerced into assisting the Nazi operation of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 47000
Genere: Crime, Drama, History, War
Country: Austria, Germany
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: tense, brutal, bleak, harsh, serious, disturbing, suspenseful, realistic, intense, sincere
Similar in 87%
Flame & Citron (2008)
Plot Summary:
During Nazi occupation, red-headed Bent Faurschou-Hviid ("Flame") and Jørgen Haagen Schmith ("Citron"), assassins in the Danish resistance, take orders from Winther, who's in direct contact with Allied leaders. One shoots, the other drives. Until 1944, they kill only Danes; then Winther gives orders to kill Germans. When a target tells Bent that Winther's using them to settle private scores, doubt sets in, complicated by Bent's relationship with the mysterious Kitty Selmer, who may be a double agent. Also, someone in their circle is a traitor. Can Bent and Jørgen kill an über-target, evade capture, and survive the war? And is this heroism, naiveté, or mere hatred?.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 20000
Genere: Action, Drama, History, Romance, Thriller, War
Country: Denmark, Germany, Norway, France, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: realistic, sincere, period piece, tense, atmospheric, factual, brutal, intense, suspenseful, psychological
Similar in 90%
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
Plot Summary:
The story of the battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Imperial Japan during World War II, as told from the perspective of the Japanese who fought it.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 168000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 141 min
Plot tags: emotional, bleak, realistic, epic, disturbing, contemplative, touching, bloody, dramatic, black and white
Similar in 85%
The Thin Red Line (1998)
Plot Summary:
Based on the graphic novel by James Jones, The Thin Red Line tells the story of a group of men, an Army Rifle company called C-for-Charlie, who change, suffer, and ultimately make essential discoveries about themselves during the fierce World War II battle of Guadalcanal. It follows their journey, from the surprise of an unopposed landing, through the bloody and exhausting battles that follow, to the ultimate departure of those who survived. A powerful frontline cast - including Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Woody Harrelson and George Clooney - explodes into action in this hauntingly realistic view of military and moral chaos in the Pacific during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 197000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 170 min
Plot tags: visually stunning, epic, visual, philosophical, visually appealing, atmospheric, rough, captivating, intense, existential
Similar in 89%
Pearl Harbor (2001)
Plot Summary:
The lifelong friendship between Rafe McCawley and Danny Walker is put to the ultimate test when the two ace fighter pilots become entangled in a love triangle with beautiful Naval nurse Evelyn Johnson. But the rivalry between the friends-turned-foes is immediately put on hold when they find themselves at the center of Japan's devastating attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 348000
Genere: Action, Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 183 min
Plot tags: romantic, sentimental, emotional, epic, period piece, factual, exciting, serious, realistic, captivating
Similar in 85%
Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)
Plot Summary:
A sweeping romantic epic set in Japan in the years before World War II, a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 158000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA, Japan, France
Duration: 145 min
Plot tags: romantic, sentimental, captivating, dramatic, stylized, serious, touching, emotional, atmospheric, costume drama
Similar in 77%
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Plot Summary:
As U.S. troops storm the beaches of Normandy, three brothers lie dead on the battlefield, with a fourth trapped behind enemy lines. Ranger captain John Miller and seven men are tasked with penetrating German-held territory and bringing the boy home.
IMDB Rating: 8.6
IMDB Votes: 15000000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 169 min
Plot tags: realistic, epic, breathtaking, captivating, touching, motivational, rough, visually stunning, tense, inspirational