Best movies like The Light Shines Only There
Last updated March 2024
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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
Best tv shows and movies like The Light Shines Only There (2014):
Similar in 76%
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 86%
Wolfy (2009)
Plot Summary:
There are two of them: a mother and a girl. They have no names. And they are in a constant run. The mother runs away from the daughter in an attempt to start new life, and the girl runs after her mother as she has no idea how to live without her. This endless run is full with repeated mistakes and resembles a barrel-organ sorrowful song or a spinning-top rotation. This small ridiculous toy "volchok" was the first toy in the girl's life, the only thing that tied her with the mother.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Russia
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: rough, realistic, serious, tense, disturbing, neorealism, gloomy, bleak, art house, weird
Similar in 83%
The Night (2014)
Plot Summary:
A young man stands in front of a mirror. The night belongs to him. Every evening, he appraises his appearance, attired in a new shirt, leaves his apartment and waits in a poorly lit alleyway for his johns. One night he meets a female prostitute of his age who’s new in this part of town.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 77
Genere: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, serious, suspense, queer cinema
Similar in 89%
Cairo Exit (2010)
Plot Summary:
A powerful account of life in contemporary Cairo, this raw drama about a pair of star-crossed lovers shines a powerful spotlight upon the social and cultural taboos that riddle the city's diverse population. Heralding a bold new shift for contemporary Egyptian cinema, 'Cairo Exit' is a gritty and uncompromising work from a major new cinematic talent, Hesham Issawi.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 161
Genere: Drama
Country: Egypt, United Arab Emirates
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, stylized, bleak
Similar in 88%
If Nothing Else Works Out (2008)
Plot Summary:
In 2006, a journalist in financial problems, a woman who dresses as a man and a troubled taxi driver become friends, and gradually, an awkward, strong emotional bond emerges among them, especially when they decide to play a confidence game.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 281
Genere: Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: sincere, rough, touching, serious, clever, offbeat, bleak, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 87%
Nagima (2013)
Plot Summary:
Ugly, illiterate and an uncommunicative “graduate” of the city orphanage, Nagima is a young woman whose life offers little potential for success or even happiness. Nagima rents a tiny room on the outskirts of the city of Almaty with her fellow orphanage “graduate” the pregnant, and equally isolated, Anya. In the midst of giving birth to her child, tragedy strikes and Anya dies. Never knowing her mother, the newborn girl must be submitted to the orphanage and so Nagima sees the vicious cycle of life in repetitious action and becomes severely depressed at the cruelty of life.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 40
Genere: Drama
Country: Kazakhstan
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, touching, suspenseful, rough, bleak
Similar in 78%
Always Outnumbered (1998)
Plot Summary:
An ex-con moves to L.A. to find work and creates a disturbance by fighting for a position. More importantly he touches the lives of many of his neighbors including an older man dying of cancer, a young married couple whose husband is too proud to accept a lesser position which causes strife with his wife, and a young boy on the verge of getting in trouble with street gangs.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: hood, crime drama, rough, serious, realistic
Similar in 84%
Girlfriend (2010)
Plot Summary:
A young man with Down's Syndrome romantically pursues a small town single mom who is still mixed up with her volatile ex-boyfriend.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 713
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, melancholic, independent film, realistic
Similar in 84%
Another Woman's Husband (2000)
Plot Summary:
When Laurel signs up for swimming lessons, she becomes best friends with her teacher Susan - until they realize Laurel’s boyfriend and Susan’s husband are the same man.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 501
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, ridiculous
Similar in 84%
The Cowards who Looked to the Sky (2012)
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
Similar in 80%
A Brother's Kiss (1997)
Plot Summary:
Two brothers, Lex and younger Mick, are living in Harlem. Mick is a policeman, and Lex, who spent youth years in reformatory because of injustice after he confronted the cop who tried to sodomize Mick on the street, is living with his wife Debbie trying to make ends meet and failing. One day Lex calls Mick - he has a problem.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 412
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, serious, rough, bleak, erotic, independent film, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 80%
I Am from Titov Veles (2007)
Plot Summary:
Burdened by memories of their late father, three sisters struggle to escape the suffocating environment of the dying town of Veles. A contemporary story of urban decay, „Jas sum od Titov Veles“ employs a stark realism to depict the vivid landscape of post-Communist Macedonia.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 617
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium, France, Slovenia
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, bleak, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 89%
We Were the Mulvaneys (2002)
Plot Summary:
Based on the novel by the same name, We Were the Mulvaneys is a sensitive portrayal of one family's journey as they face conflict, fear, tragedy and ultimately, themselves.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 599
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, touching, bleak, gloomy
Similar in 83%
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 80%
Hi, Tereska (2001)
Plot Summary:
Teenager Tereska comes from poor family and has to face difficult world and mean people around her.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: disturbing, touching, serious, realistic, bleak, gloomy
Similar in 86%
Angel's Fall (2004)
Plot Summary:
Zeynep, Tülin Özen works in a hotel as a housekeeper. But she suffers hell on earth because of her father's behavior. She only talks to Mustafa, 'Engin Dogan' who works in the same hotel and he is interested in Zeynep. She is not interested in Mustafa who is younger than Zeynep, but she is not indifferent to him. While Zeynep is trying to make a bonfire of bad situation, Selçuk, Budak Akalin who lives on the other side of city is a voice technician. He feels guilty after his wife's death. The suitcase which has his wife's dresses changes the Zeynep's destiny.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Greece, Turkey
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, atmospheric, touching, tense, bleak, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 82%
Offline (2012)
Plot Summary:
A man attempts to reclaim the life that prison took from him but his dark past threatens to ruin everything.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 876
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 77%
Little Soldier (2008)
Plot Summary:
A soldier returning from war is hired by her own father to drive his prostitutes around town. She calls upon herself to help one of them.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 672
Genere: Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sincere, atmospheric, touching, serious, tense, realistic
Similar in 82%
Mouth to Mouth (2005)
Plot Summary:
The teenage girl Vera left her family after an incident at home, and is now living with a middle-aged drug addict, Morgan, who is using her as a prostitute to get money for drugs and debts. Meanwhile, the rest of her family is falling apart, and her father, Mats, is trying to figure out how to get her back before it's too late.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 463
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 75%
Sofie (1992)
Plot Summary:
From 1886 to 1907 in the life of Sofie, a Jew in Copenhagen who is nearly 29, with no marital prospects, living with her loving parents.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 240
Genere: Drama
Country: Denmark, Norway, Sweden
Duration: 151 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, talky, masterpiece
Similar in 79%
Nobody Owns Me (2013)
Plot Summary:
The story of a lone father's relationship with his daughter, of the destructive power of alcohol, of a child's vulnerability, but also of love, betrayal and socialist politics in 1970s Sweden. A unique and moving story freely based on Åsa Linderborg's best-selling novel.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: touching, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, social
Similar in 83%
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 84%
Master Harold ... and the Boys (2010)
Plot Summary:
This movie is of Hally, an adolescent white South African. He is stuck between his intolerant father's outlook of him and those of his caretaker, Sam. Sam is a black waiter and Hally's friend and teacher. Hally is required to laugh at his father's racist jokes, by contrast, Sam exposes Hally to uplifting experiences. One day Hally was terribly humiliated by his father and Sam shows Hally how to be proud of something he can achieve.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 580
Genere: Drama
Country: South Africa
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 76%
Something Like Happiness (2005)
Plot Summary:
Over the course of a year, in a small town scarred and beaten down by industrialization, Tonda and Monika, friends since childhood, come to experience what life might be like if they could be with one another – which they seemingly can't. Or can they?.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Czech Republic, Germany
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, humorous, ambiguous ending
Similar in 75%
Bereft (2004)
Plot Summary:
A young Vermont widow is haunted by the memory of her dead husband, while trying to date again.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 409
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: touching, psychological, serious, emotional, independent film, realistic
Similar in 80%
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 84%
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
Similar in 83%
Surrender, Dorothy (2005)
Plot Summary:
When her daughter Sara unexpectedly passes away, Natalie retreats to the summer home where she and Sara used to visit. Time with her best friends and some of Sara's friends help her deal with her loss.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 897
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 83%
Everybody Dies But Me (2008)
Plot Summary:
One Monday morning Katya, Vika and Zhanna learn that there will be a school disco, their first disco, on the coming Saturday night. The girls feverishly start preparing for the event, which rapidly becomes the most important moment ever in their universe, and looks like the ideal way to escape their daily lives.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Russia
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: serious, touching, realistic, suspense, psychological, rough, sincere, gloomy
Similar in 89%
The Sea Is Watching (2002)
Plot Summary:
Based on Akira Kurosawa's final unproduced script, this Edo-period drama takes place almost entirely inside an ocean-village brothel. O-Shin is a young brothel worker who one night helps a young samurai escape from his pursuers. Against the warnings of her fellow workers, particularly Kikuno and the brothel's owner, O-Shin falls in love with the samurai.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Romance, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: sentimental, serious, realistic, touching, captivating, contemplative, gloomy, jidai geki