Best movies like The Message
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
1942, Nanjing (Nanking). Following a series of assassination attempts on officials of the Japanese-controlled puppet government, the Japanese spy chief gathers a group of suspects in a mansion house for questioning. A tense game of "cat and mouse" ensues as the Chinese code-breaker attempts to send out a crucial message while protecting his/her own identity.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller, War
Country: China
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: suspense, captivating, realistic, tense, psychological, controversial, serious, suspenseful, stylized
Best tv shows and movies like The Message (2009):
Similar in 82%
The Resistance (2011)
Plot Summary:
In 1937, Japan began their invasion of China by murdering over 300,000 people in the capital of Nanjing. The atrocities committed against women and their daughters are especially barbaric. One of them is Xiaoyun, a peasant girl who fights with the Chinese resistance group. On her way to freedom she must fight against Japanese soldiers, ninjas, a killer geisha, Nazis, and the evil General of the Japanese imperial army.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, War
Country: China
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: exciting, captivating, tense, entertaining, serious, realistic
Similar in 81%
The Resistance Fighter (2019)
Plot Summary:
Film about the lead up to the Polish uprising against German occupation at the end of the Second World War.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Drama, History, Thriller, War
Country: Poland
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: exciting, suspense, suspenseful
Similar in 76%
Our Time Will Come (2017)
Plot Summary:
In Japanese-occupied Hong Kong, a school teacher and her would-be-fiancé link up with Chinese guerrilla fighters, forging their own path to freedom.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 995
Genere: Drama, War
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 86%
The Fifth Patient (2007)
Plot Summary:
John Reilly wakes up in an African Hospital with only fragments of his memory in tact. An officer of the local regime, Mugambe, accuses him of being an American spy.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 377
Genere: Drama, Thriller, War
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, psychological, suspense, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, surprise ending
Similar in 87%
People Mountain People Sea (2011)
Plot Summary:
A story of vengeance set in China’s wild Southwest, where brutality can be the norm rather than the exception.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 231
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, contemplative, tense, captivating, psychological, suspense, sincere, touching, road movie
Similar in 81%
Operation Mekong (2016)
Plot Summary:
Chinese narco-cops take their mission to the Golden Triangle following the Mekong River massacre of innocent fishermen by the region's drug lord.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Crime, Drama, History, Thriller
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: psychological, exciting, tense, captivating, suspense, suspenseful, scenic, complex
Similar in 85%
The Disguiser (2015)
Plot Summary:
Set in the Japanese occupation era, the rich yet naive young master Ming Tai is trained to become an agent, and is later sent to become an underground spy for the Communists. Together with his brother and double agent Ming Lou, they try and bring down Wang Wei's Kuomintang Secret Service Headquarters.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 448
Genere: Action, Drama, History, Thriller
Country: China
Duration: 40 min
Plot tags: exciting, captivating, psychological, tense, suspense
Similar in 83%
The Silent War (2012)
Plot Summary:
An espionage thriller set in the 1950s and adapted from the novel "Year Suan/Plot Against" by May Jia. Tony Leung Chiu Wai plays a blind man who works for a piano tuner. He is recruited for a spy mission because of his exceptional hearing.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong, China
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, tense, realistic, captivating
Similar in 82%
To Commit a Murder (1967)
Plot Summary:
A writer gets wrapped up in espionage.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 113
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: France, West Germany, Italy
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, eurospy
Similar in 85%
Bad Company (1995)
Plot Summary:
Nelson Crowe is a CIA operative under the thumb of the Company for a disputed delivery of $50,000 in gold. They blackmail him into working for the Grimes Organization, which is set up as a private company for hire, to blackmail prominent individuals. Crowe, working with Margaret Wells (another former Covert Operations operative), blackmails and bribes a State Supreme Court judge, but the deal sours. One of Crowe's co-workers, Tod Stapp, discovers Crowe's current CIA involvement in a plot to overthrow Grimes, and blackmails him to be cut in on the deal. More blackmail occurs as Wells manipulates Crowe to kill Grimes, then the CIA uses that discovery to blackmail Wells into killing Crowe. Who can you trust???.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: tense, suspenseful, clever, psychological, neo noir, stylized, suspense, anamorphic, rough, serious
Similar in 75%
Murder on the Home Front (2013)
Plot Summary:
At the height of the London blitz, Dr Lennox Collins, pioneer of the new forensic science, is enlisted by DI Wilkins after prostitute Mary Williams is strangled and a swastika carved on her tongue.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: realistic, stylized, tense, captivating, exciting, suspense, period piece, clever, serious, suspenseful
Similar in 83%
Pastorale 1943 (1978)
Plot Summary:
In a Dutch village during the German occupation, a small group of badly organized resistance fighters attempt to assassinate a collaborator.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 477
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, psychological, factual, rough, disturbing, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 75%
Purple Butterfly (2003)
Plot Summary:
Ding Hui is a member of Purple Butterfly, a powerful resistance group in Japanese occupied Shanghai. An unexpected encounter reunites her with Itami, an ex-lover... and officer with a secret police unit tasked with dismantling Purple Butterfly.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: China, France
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, realistic, bleak, captivating, suspenseful, tense, atmospheric, non-linear
Similar in 85%
The Spy (2012)
Plot Summary:
Spring 1941. Center of Moscow. Duel of the two intelligence services turns more and more tense.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller, War
Country: Russia
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: exciting, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, rough, bleak, serious
Similar in 86%
Resistance (2011)
Plot Summary:
It is 1944 and the D-Day invasion has failed, Germany's army have successfully invaded England and the Nazi war-machine is now heading west towards Wales. A group of women in an isolated Welsh village near the English border wake up to discover all of the their husbands have mysteriously vanished. They have headed into the mountains to join the Resistance.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Thriller, War
Country: UK, Germany
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, suspenseful, realistic, interesting, period drama
Similar in 90%
Shanghai (2010)
Plot Summary:
An American man returns to a corrupt, Japanese-occupied Shanghai four months before Pearl Harbor and discovers his friend has been killed. While he unravels the mysteries of the death, he falls in love and discovers a much larger secret that his own government is hiding.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Romance, Thriller
Country: China, USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: captivating, suspenseful, stylized, suspense, neo noir, independent film, serious, realistic, gloomy, surprise ending
Similar in 88%
The Night of the Generals (1967)
Plot Summary:
An unusual World War II crime thriller about a Nazi investigation into the murder of a prostitute. Major Grau finds himself focusing on three suspects: the Generals Tanz, Kahlenberg and Seydlitz-Gabler – all three of whom, it seems, are also involved in a plot to kill Hitler.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller, War
Country: UK, France
Duration: 148 min
Plot tags: tense, realistic, suspenseful, suspense, serious, captivating, detective, retro, neo noir, psychological
Similar in 89%
Shining Through (1992)
Plot Summary:
Spirited New Yorker Linda Voss goes to work for international lawyer and secret Office of Strategic Services operative Ed Leland just before World War II. As they fall in love, the United States enters the fight against Hitler, and Linda volunteers to work for Ed spying undercover behind Nazi lines. Assigned to uncover information about a German bomb, Linda also has personal motives to fulfill: discovering the fate of her Jewish family members in Berlin.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama, Romance, Thriller, War
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, sentimental, suspense, melancholic, exciting, serious, realistic, romantic, retro, anamorphic
Similar in 75%
Soldier of Orange (1977)
Plot Summary:
This film depicts World War II through the eyes of several Dutch students. It follows them through the beginning of the war, the Nazi occupation and the liberation.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Drama, Romance, Thriller, War
Country: Netherlands, Belgium
Duration: 155 min
Plot tags: tense, realistic, stylized, political thriller, edutainment, colorful, serious, captivating, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 79%
Code Name: Emerald (1985)
Plot Summary:
In april 1944, an allied agent is sent to France in order to rescue an "overlord" captured by the Germans. (An "overlord" is one of the few men who knew the date and place of the "D" day). To achieve this goal, he will be supported by a secret friend of the allies, a very important German officer and the French resistance. But the nazi SS is not resting.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 77%
X Company (2015)
Plot Summary:
An emotionally-driven character drama, set in the thrilling and dangerous world of WWII espionage and covert operations. It follows the stories of five highly skilled young recruits - Canadian, American and British - torn from their ordinary lives to train as agents in an ultra-secret facility on the shores of Lake Ontario. These agents parachute behind enemy lines, where they're fair game for torture and execution. From elegant hotels to hellholes in the field, it's one risky operation after another, masterminded by the brains of Camp X.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Canada
Duration: 44 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, exciting, captivating, tense, suspense, dark, educational, historical drama
Similar in 81%
Stones for the Rampart (2014)
Plot Summary:
To be defeated and not be - a victory. This is the motto that life is guided by three young friends: Alek, Sophy and Rudy. Scouts, high school graduates high school in Warsaw drifting ambitious plans for the future broken through September 1939. Entering adulthood in a very dramatic times, which puts them a choice - to survive at any cost, or to join the fighting for a free homeland, risking everything. The boys brought up in patriotic homes, shaped by the ideals of scouting, they decide to fight. They become soldiers, and although every scrape with death, they can live a full life.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Poland
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 89%
April 9th (2015)
Plot Summary:
In the early morning of April 9th 1940 the Danish army is alerted. The Germans have crossed the border; Denmark is at war against Europe's strongest army. In Southern Jutland Danish bicycle- and motorcycle companies are ordered out, to against all odds, hold back the forces until the Danish reinforcements can be mobilized. In the fatal hours, we follow second lieutenant Sand and his bicycle company - they will as the first Danish soldiers meet the enemy in combat on April 9th 1940.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Denmark
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, tense, suspense, suspenseful
Similar in 80%
Fires on the Plain (2014)
Plot Summary:
In the final days of World War II, occupying Japanese forces in the Philippines face resistance from the local population and the American offensive. The dwindling Japanese soldiers attempt to survive through the horrors of war.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 831
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Japan
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, atmospheric, realistic, captivating, rough, bleak, serious, gloomy, cult film
Similar in 83%
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 80%
Canopy (2013)
Plot Summary:
An unlikely friendship between 2 young men becomes everything, when an Australian soldier takes refuge under the canopied jungles of Singapore, during the violent Japanese invasion in World War II. Jim is lost, injured and defenseless in a hostile, tropical world, hunted by Japanese troops, Seng, a Singapore-Chinese resistance fighter emerges from the jungle and the two young men find themselves thrown together hoping to survive.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Thriller, War
Country: Australia, Singapore
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: tense, realistic, exciting, serious, captivating, suspense, suspenseful, independent film
Similar in 82%
This Life (2012)
Plot Summary:
The true story of the Fiil's a family of innkeepers who during Nazi-Germany's occupation of Denmark took up arms against the German occupiers. But in the fight for freedom, some must die so that others may live.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Denmark
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: emotional, realistic, disturbing, captivating, tense, bleak, serious
Similar in 85%
Female Agents (2008)
Plot Summary:
May 1944, a group of French servicewomen and resistance fighters are enlisted into the British Special Operations Executive commando group under the command of Louise Desfontaines and her brother Pierre. Their mission, to rescue a British army geologist caught reconnoitering the beaches at Normandy.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France
Duration: 148 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, tense, suspense, retro, historical drama, bleak, captivating, beautiful
Similar in 88%
The Counterfeit Traitor (1962)
Plot Summary:
Blacklisted in modern day WW2, a Swedish oil trader opts to assist British Allies, by means of infiltrating and surveying Nazi Germany.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, History, Thriller, War
Country: USA
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: retro, political thriller, tense, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, gloomy
Similar in 77%
Enigma (2001)
Plot Summary:
A romantic thriller based around the World War 2 project to crack the codes behind the Enigma machine, used by the Germans to encrypt messages sent to their submarines.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 22000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Romance, Thriller, War
Country: UK, USA, Germany, Netherlands
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: factual, tricky, clever, captivating, suspenseful, serious, realistic, suspense, epic, political thriller