Best movies like To Live
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Fugui and Jiazhen endure tumultuous events in China as their personal fortunes move from wealthy landownership to peasantry.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 20000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Hong Kong, China
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: epic, family saga, sad, touching, emotional, sincere, depressing, independent film, mind blowing, tense
Best tv shows and movies like To Live (1994):
Similar in 87%
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 87%
The Puppetmaster (1993)
Plot Summary:
In the first half of this century, young Li Tienlu joins a travelling puppet theatre and subsequently makes a career as one of Taiwan's leading puppeteers.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama, War
Country: Taiwan
Duration: 142 min
Plot tags: realistic, thought provoking, serious, sincere, slow cinema, aesthetic, epic, contemplative, stylized, crying
Similar in 81%
Ithaca (2015)
Plot Summary:
In a small town in California's San Joaquin Valley, 14-year-old Homer Macauley is determined to be the best and fastest bicycle telegraph messenger anyone has ever seen. His older brother has gone to war, leaving Homer to look after his widowed mother, his older sister and his 4-year-old brother, Ulysses. And so it is that as spring turns to summer, 1942, Homer Macauley delivers messages of love, hope, pain... and death... to the good people of Ithaca. And Homer Macauley will grapple with one message that will change him forever - from a boy into a man. Based on Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Saroyan's 1943 novel, The Human Comedy, ITHACA is the quintessential wartime tale of the Home Front. It is a coming-of-age story about the exuberance of youth, the sweetness of life, the sting of death and the modesty and sheer goodness that lives in each and every one of us.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: captivating, tense, thought provoking, realistic, crying, freeze frame
Similar in 81%
Drifters (2003)
Plot Summary:
The young adult life of Hong Yunsheng, nicknamed Little Brother, is seen as somewhat of a failure by those that know him. A Chinese national, he stowed away on a boat to the United States, where he worked as a dishwasher in the restaurant of a family from his hometown back in Fujian province. After two years in the States and after fathering an illegitimate child there named Fusheng, the child's mother Xuhui who is the restaurateur's daughter, he was deported back to China. Since, he has been floundering in life, which has caused a rift between himself and his older brother, who, with his wife, operate a street front diner and can't have children of their own. Little Brother relies on his new girlfriend, a woman he barely knows named Wu Ruifang who is a performer in a touring opera troupe, for emotional support. Despite Little Brother being the local poster boy for not stowing away, his friend named Monkey tried to do the same, but died on the voyage over due to exposure to toxic.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 304
Genere: Drama
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, sincere, crying
Similar in 89%
Coup de grâce (1976)
Plot Summary:
A countess loves her brother's Prussian-officer friend in the 1919 Baltic area.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France, West Germany
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: serious, stylized, realistic, bleak, philosophical, depressing, political, sad, art house, black and white
Similar in 89%
Magnifico (2003)
Plot Summary:
With a daughter who suffers from cerebral palsy and a son who's lost his much-needed scholarship, an impoverished married couple begins to abandon their faith and courage in the face of such misfortune. But when a gifted young boy called Magnifico uses his goodness to magically transform their lives for the better, the family's belief in miracles is restored. Suddenly, living with adversity doesn't seem like such a burden.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 930
Genere: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, emotional, uplifting, serious, realistic, surprise ending, sad, tagalog, contemplative
Similar in 77%
Devils on the Doorstep (2000)
Plot Summary:
During the Japanese occupation of China, two prisoners are dumped in a peasant's home in a small town. The owner is bullied into keeping the prisoners until the next New Year, at which time they will be collected. The village leaders convene to interrogate the prisoners. The townspeople then struggle to accommodate the prisoners. One is a bellicose Japanese nationalist, the other a nervous translator. Will the townspeople manage to keep the prisoners until the New Year?.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: China
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: semi serious, atmospheric, humorous, realistic, dark comedy, depressing, cerebral, philosophical, absurd, independent film
Similar in 87%
War Witch (2012)
Plot Summary:
Somewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa, Komona a 14-year-old girl tells her unborn child growing inside her the story of her life since she has been at war. Everything started when she was abducted by the rebel army at the age of 12.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: disturbing, touching, serious, bleak, social, sad, depressing, independent film, realistic, crying
Similar in 75%
Coming Home (2014)
Plot Summary:
Lu and Feng are a devoted couple forced to separate when Lu is arrested and sent to a labor camp as a political prisoner during the Cultural Revolution. He finally returns home only to find that his beloved wife no longer remembers him.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: China
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, atmospheric, touching, realistic, social
Similar in 89%
Pavilion of Women (2001)
Plot Summary:
With World War 2 looming, a prominent family in China must confront the contrasting ideas of traditionalism, communism and Western thinking, while dealing with the most important ideal of all: love and its meaning in society.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: China, USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: emotional, serious, realistic, tense, crying, intercultural
Similar in 85%
Not One Less (1999)
Plot Summary:
Teacher Gao loves the students in his poor village and is devoted to educating them in the hope of their greater futures. When he is called away to tend to his dying mother for a month, the Mayor calls in an inexperienced 13 year-old replacement, Wei Minzhi; much to Teacher Gao's dismay. Teacher Gao cannot stand the thought of losing anymore students: he has already lost twelve to ever-increasing attrition, and he promises Wei an extra 10 yuan if she succeeds in ensuring that upon his return, there will be not one less. Wei's difficult mission to fulfill Teacher Gao's wish and her own concern for the welfare of the children begins.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: inspirational, road movie, touching, realistic, sad, art film, informative, sincere, feel good, humorous
Similar in 82%
The Blue Kite (1993)
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
Similar in 78%
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 81%
Zelary (2003)
Plot Summary:
A nurse and her surgeon-lover are part of a resistance movement in 1940s Czechoslovakia. When they are discovered, her lover flees and she must find a place to hide. A patient whose life she saved, a man from a remote mountain village where time stopped 150 years ago, agrees to hide her as his wife.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, realistic, sincere, contemplative, epic, mysterious, serious, sentimental, romantic
Similar in 84%
David (1979)
Plot Summary:
Although members of the Hitler Youth chant anti-Semitic paroles in front of his house during the Purim festival, Rabbi Singer is still profoundly convinced that Germany will stay a safe country for him, his family, and his fellow believers. But several years later, his son David is banned from going to school because he is a Jew. Shortly after, Rabbi Singer and his wife are deported. Now, young David also fears for his life. In constant fear of being detected, he tries to find a way to leave Germany.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 165
Genere: Drama, War
Country: West Germany
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: rough, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 86%
Circle of Deceit (1981)
Plot Summary:
Georg Laschen leaves his family in West Germany to go work as a war correspondent in Beirut during the fights between Christians and Palestinians.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 948
Genere: Drama, War
Country: West Germany, France
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: political, sincere, rough, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 77%
Raise the Red Lantern (1991)
Plot Summary:
China in the 1920s. After her father's death, 19 year old Songlian is forced to marry the much older lord of a powerful family. With three wives already, each living in a separate house within the great castle, there is fierce competition for his attention and the privileges that are gained. This competition gets out of hand.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 35000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Hong Kong, China
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, depressing, stylized, visually stunning, intense, serious, realistic, poignant, cerebral, independent film
Similar in 79%
Private Peaceful (2012)
Plot Summary:
Set in the fields of Devon and the WW1 battlefields of Flanders, two brothers fall for the same girl while contending with the pressures of their feudal family life, the war, and the price of courage and cowardice.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, crying, weeping, period drama
Similar in 77%
The Deer Hunter (1978)
Plot Summary:
A group of working-class friends decides to enlist in the Army during the Vietnam War and finds it to be hellish chaos -- not the noble venture they imagined. Before they left, Steven married his pregnant girlfriend -- and Michael and Nick were in love with the same woman. But all three are different men upon their return.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 356000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 183 min
Plot tags: epic, depressing, harsh, psychological, emotional, rough, disturbing, intense, controversial, serious
Similar in 76%
All My Loved Ones (1999)
Plot Summary:
Told from the perspective of man reflecting on his childhood in Prauge in the early years of World War 2 and the eventual destruction of his family as the Nazis rise to power. The storyline focuses heavily on Jewish-Czech Silberstein family members. Drama was filmed on the real events as a tribute to Mr. Nicholas Winton, the British humanitarian who organized the rescue of 669 children, most of them Jewish, from Czechoslovakia on the eve of the Second World War in an operation later known as the Czech Kindertransport from German-occupied Czechoslovakia and likely death in the Holocaust.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 570
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, contemplative, crying
Similar in 89%
Burnt by the Sun (1994)
Plot Summary:
Russia, 1936: revolutionary hero Colonel Kotov is spending an idyllic summer in his dacha with his young wife and six-year-old daughter Nadia and other assorted family and friends. Things change dramatically with the unheralded arrival of Cousin Dmitri from Moscow, who charms the women and little Nadia with his games and pianistic bravura. But Kotov isn't fooled: this is the time of Stalin's repression, with telephone calls in the middle of the night spelling doom - and he knows that Dmitri isn't paying a social call.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Russia, France
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: touching, captivating, stylized, political, sad, emotional, mind bending, psychedelic, intellectual, surreal
Similar in 76%
Red Cherry (1995)
Plot Summary:
Based on a true story, this horrifying tale follows two orphaned friends as they struggle to survive during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 745
Genere: Drama, War
Country: China
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: touching, bleak, serious, mesmerizing, saga, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 90%
Turtles Can Fly (2004)
Plot Summary:
Turtles can fly tells the story of a group of young children near the Turkey-Iran border. They clean up mines and wait for the Saddam regime to fall.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 21000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Iran, France, Iraq
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: sincere, bleak, emotional, atmospheric, stylized, rough, heartbreaking, political, dramatic, realistic
Similar in 78%
The Kite Runner (2007)
Plot Summary:
After spending years in California, Amir returns to his homeland in Afghanistan to help his old friend Hassan, whose son is in trouble.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 82000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, China, USA
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: emotional, disturbing, inspirational, sincere, psychological, touching, realistic, educational, sad, motivational
Similar in 90%
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 90%
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 88%
Farewell My Concubine (1992)
Plot Summary:
Abandoned by his prostitute mother in 1920, Douzi was raised by a theater troupe. There he meets Shitou and over the following years the two develop an act entitled, "Farewell My Concubine," that brings them fame and fortune. When Shitou marries Juxian, Doutzi becomes jealous, the beginnings of the acting duo's explosive breakup and tragic fall take root.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 32000
Genere: Drama, Music, Romance
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 171 min
Plot tags: visual, epic, visually stunning, atmospheric, emotional, realistic, stylized, depressing, controversial, retro
Similar in 84%
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 82%
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008)
Plot Summary:
When his family moves from their home in Berlin to a strange new house in Poland, young Bruno befriends Shmuel, a boy who lives on the other side of the fence where everyone seems to be wearing striped pajamas. Unaware of Shmuel's fate as a Jewish prisoner or the role his own Nazi father plays in his imprisonment, Bruno embarks on a dangerous journey inside the camp's walls.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 239000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, sad, heartbreaking, sentimental, tear jerker, serious, crying, thought provoking, gloomy
Similar in 89%
Butterfly (1999)
Plot Summary:
The film centres on Moncho and his coming-of-age experience in Galicia in 1936. Moncho develops a close relationship with his teacher Don Gregorio who introduces the boy to different things in the world. While the story centres on Moncho's ordinary coming-of-age experiences, tensions related to the looming Spanish Civil War periodically interrupt Moncho's personal growth and daily life.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Spain
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: emotional, sentimental, touching, realistic, political, compassionate, melancholic, intense, psychological, sincere