Best tv shows like The Japanese the Japanese Don't Know
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Haruko lands a job in a local tutoring establishment and upon showing up for work on the first day, she discovers that she will not be teaching Japanese people, but teaching people Japanese. Her students are all foreigners who live in Japan for several reasons, and she is faced with their many questions on the Japanese Language that she'd never really thought of before.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 148
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Best tv shows and movies like The Japanese the Japanese Don't Know (2010):
Similar in 83%
Massan (2014)
Plot Summary:
Massan is based on the lives of Masataka Taketsuru and his wife Jessie Roberta "Rita" Cowan, a Scotswoman Taketsuru met while studying abroad.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 55
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration: 15 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, asadora
Similar in 81%
The Red and the Blue (2012)
Plot Summary:
The story of a teacher and his students, set in an Italian high school.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 738
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: captivating, disturbing
Similar in 87%
The Queen's Classroom (2013)
Plot Summary:
Drama series depicts the conflicts and struggles between a cold-hearted female teacher and her students over a one school year period.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 91
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration:
Plot tags: psychological, humorous, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 79%
Second Call (2019)
Plot Summary:
5 teachers deal with terrible conditions in public schools but renew everyday their faith on the work they do.
IMDB Rating: 8.7
IMDB Votes: 356
Genere: Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 40 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, queer cinema
Similar in 89%
All the Little Things We Kill (2019)
Plot Summary:
A college professor takes her students hostage to force the passage of a bill that bans semi-automatic weapons.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 67
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, captivating
Similar in 75%
The Republic of Sarah (2021)
Plot Summary:
Faced with the destruction of her town at the hands of a greedy mining company, rebellious high school teacher Sarah Cooper utilizes an obscure cartographical loophole to declare independence. Now Sarah must lead a young group of misfits as they attempt to start their own country from scratch.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 924
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 42 min
Plot tags: captivating, disturbing, queer cinema
Similar in 85%
ROOKIES (2008)
Plot Summary:
Koichi Kawato is the new Japanese Literature teacher at the ill-famed Futakotamagawa high school, whose baseball club is composed of thugs and bullies who have been suspended for a year from all school competitions, for causing a brawl during an official match. The newly appointed teacher finds that the club members left are only interested in women, smoking and doing nothing until, under Kawato's guidance, they discover their dream of going to the Koshien high school baseball tournament. However, the road to Koshien is far from easy as many obstacles await them.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 206
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: sincere, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 88%
One for All (2020)
Plot Summary:
A substitute teacher takes on a job as a year 6 class teacher in a village he does not know. He has to help a student adjust back into school, although none of his classmates want him there.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 733
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, social
Similar in 83%
Nobody's Perfect (2013)
Plot Summary:
"Daijobu 3 Kumi" depicts the interactions between new teacher Shinnosuke Akao, who was born without arms and legs, and the 28 students in his 5th grade class, told from the vantage point of school board member Yusaku Shiraishi.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 56
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: captivating, disturbing
Similar in 87%
Sakura (2002)
Plot Summary:
Sakura is a Japanese serialized morning television drama that aired on NHK from April 1 to September 28 of 2002. The series totalled 156 episodes. It chronicles the life of Matsushita Sakura, a Sansei Japanese-American living in Hawaii. She moves to a small town in Japan to be an assistant language teacher for Japanese middle-school students. The show, lasting only 15 minutes long, is on every morning except Sunday, every week. Sakura first comes to Japan living with her grandparents; later, she moves because she has to teach English to the Japanese students. There she learns many valuable lessons and makes new friends.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 31
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, captivating, disturbing, asadora
Similar in 80%
GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka (2012)
Plot Summary:
Through the introduction of his friend Danma Ryuji, Onizuka Eikichi, the former legendary bike gang member, visits Meishu Academy to tend to the trees in the garden as a part-time gardener. Learning that Yoshikawa Noboru, a student in teacher Fuyutsuki Azusa’s class is being bullied by Uehara Kyoko and other classmates, Onizuka befriends and saves Yoshikawa. Seeing Onizuka’s unprecedented but visceral, powerful response to problem solving, the school’s president and principal, Sakurai Yoshiko, overrides resistance from her vice principal Uchiyamada Hiroshi and makes Onizuka a teacher. Onizuka goes on to tackle many issues as the teacher in charge of the most problematic class, Class 2-4.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 678
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: captivating, entertaining, satirical, disturbing, semi serious, dorama, anime
Similar in 75%
Black Dog (2019)
Plot Summary:
Ko Ha-Neul dreamed of becoming a teacher, due to a teacher who helped her when she was young. Ko Ha-Neul now begins work as a temporary teacher at a private high school. While working there, she interacts with many people, including teachers Park Sung-Soon and Do Yeon-Woo. Both of whom are dedicated to their teaching jobs. Meanwhile, Ko Ha-Neul faces different problems at the school. As she works through those problems, Ko Ha-Neul grows as a person and a teacher.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 262
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, captivating, disturbing, inspirational, emotional, heartfelt
Similar in 76%
Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories (2016)
Plot Summary:
In an otherwise mundane diner open from midnight to 7 a.m., there is no menu – but the chef cooks anything his customers want. Each episode is about different a different customer, as they find simple yet profound connections with one another based on their shared love of a particular dish.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 24 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, sitcom, anthology
Similar in 78%
Hello My Teacher (2005)
Plot Summary:
Na Bori is a 25-year-old woman who desperately wants to be a teacher at the high school she was kicked out of due misunderstanding with her teachers over injuring a group of male classmates. After getting her GED, she rejects job offers from other high schools and works on becoming a teacher at her old high school so she could work side by side with her high school love interest, the art teacher Ji Hyun Woo. However, the only thing that enables her to get the coveted job is by signing a contract to essentially babysit Park Tae In, a troublemaker, who attends the same high school. Tae In, a lonely youth, quickly becomes the "jjang", or "king" of the high school, and enjoys playing mean tricks on Bori whose easygoing personality attracts the majority of her students. Noh Jemma is jealous of the relationship between Bori and Tae In, and goes out of her way to get Bori kicked out but she's not the only one against them.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 272
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: South Korea
Duration: 70 min
Plot tags: psychological, romantic, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 89%
School can't teach! (2008)
Plot Summary:
Gakko ja Oshierarenai! is a Japanese television drama series concerning the life of ten high school students. It stars Kyoko Fukada as their teacher. It started to air on July 15, 2008. Aida Mai is a woman in her third year as an english teacher at a private all-girls high school. Due to declining enrollment, the school decides to admit its first male students. Those five freshmen initially feel they're in paradise, but the concerned Mai tries to help them adjust by creating a social dance club and inviting five girls. Those ten students become the focus of the drama, which is described as a story of love and adolescence.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 25
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, thrilling
Similar in 84%
Dr. Coto's Clinic (2003)
Plot Summary:
After making a serious mistake in his work in Tokyo, talented surgeon Goto Kensuke is invited to take charge of the only clinic on the small island of Yonaguni, Okinawa. It is difficult to get competent doctors to serve on this remote island, and the islanders are now used to traveling for hours via boat for proper medical care. Despite seeming weak and unreliable (he gets very seasick, and does not have a driving license), he wins over the skeptical islanders with his skill and dedication. Some children of the island make a flag for his clinic, but get his name wrong. Thereafter he is known by all as Koto.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 60
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 53 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 83%
I'm Home (2015)
Plot Summary:
Ieji Hisashi, a salaryman who works for a securities company, has a fuzzy memory of the recent five years because of an accident at his job posting. His wife of five years, Megumi and their 4-year-old son seem to wear masks. He can neither tell their facial expressions nor their emotions. He also struggles about his love for them. On the other hand, Ieji feels an attachment to his ex-wife, whom he divorced five years ago, and their daughter. What sort of days did he have in those five years which are a blank to him? Ieji sets out on a journey to find his past self with a mysterious bunch of 10 keys that he has. He becomes aware that he was a cold, career-minded man before the accident, and the persona that is gradually revealed is beyond the imagination of his present kindhearted self.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 481
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 54 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 89%
Room Laundering (2018)
Plot Summary:
Miko Yakumo (Elaiza Ikeda) continues her work "room laundering." She struggles to solve the worries of ghosts staying in the rooms. Meanwhile, the relationship of Miko Yakumo and Akito Nijikawa (Kentaro Ito) develop romantically.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 23
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags: psychological, romantic, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 80%
Dragon Sakura (2005)
Plot Summary:
A struggling lawyer, Kenji Sakuragi, takes a position at private school Tatsuyama Gakuen to pay off his debts. Kenji decides to try to turn this hopeless school into one of the elite institutions in Japan to help rejuvenate his career. His barometer of success will be to get five of his students admitted to the prestigious Tokyo University the following year. But rather than cramming them with lots of general information, his down-to-earth class concentrates on unknown techniques for passing the entrance examination and how to live a good life in these turbulent times. His refreshing outlook and strategy may just be what is needed to turn around the future prospects of himself and his students, and teach the rest of us a thing or two as well!.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags: sincere, dorama, touching, captivating, semi serious, entertaining, realistic
Similar in 90%
Dangerous Minds (1996)
Plot Summary:
Dangerous Minds is an American drama television series that aired on ABC network between September 1996 and March 1997. The series is based on the motion picture film, Dangerous Minds. Annie Potts stars in the lead role originated by Michelle Pfeiffer.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 206
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: hood
Similar in 76%
The Girl's Speech (2015)
Plot Summary:
Haruna Tsubame, an inconspicuous high school girl, is always sensitive to people’s moods and keeps the peace in school. One day, she gets pushed to become the president of the student council by the people around her. Tsubame's encounter with a man who is a genius speechwriter, leads to a revolution in school. She struggles to change a school full of irrationality and dissatisfaction with the power of words.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 57
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 54 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, entertaining, disturbing
Similar in 87%
Umizaru (2005)
Plot Summary:
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IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 61
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 80%
Gokusen (2002)
Plot Summary:
Newly graduate Yamaguchi Kumiko an idealistic teacher who entered Shirokin High to be a math teacher. Having high hopes for her students, her world turned up side down when she finds out that she'll be teaching the class 3-D the hardest class to take care of. Class 3-D is a bunch of students who looks more like delinquents and trouble makers. The students show no respect to teachers nor a little kindness. Each and every student doesn't like teacher for almost everyone has no good memories of them. The leader of the class is Sawada Shin. He is well respected for there are rumors that he beat a teacher to death. The students try there hardest to bully and make fun of her so she'll quit but all there efforts went to waste because Yamaguchi ain't an ordinary Teacher. Yamaguchi Kumiko is actually the 4th generation heir to Oedo group, a yakuza clan. Even though everyone in there clan wants her to the next leader, she made up her mind and so everyone accepted it. Eventually in the story, the students found out that she is different from other teacher and earned their respects. They called her Yankumi.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 54 min
Plot tags: humorous, captivating, realistic, semi serious, dorama, anime, josei
Similar in 81%
Lucky Seven (2012)
Plot Summary:
Lucky Seven Rakkīsebun is a 2012 Japanese television drama broadcast by Fuji Television from January 16 to March 19, 2012. It stars Jun Matsumoto and Eita.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 129
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 54 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing, detective
Similar in 81%
The Queen's Classroom (2005)
Plot Summary:
The Queen's Classroom is a live-action Japanese television drama about Maya Akutsu, a new teacher at Hanzaki Elementary School who strives for perfection and punishes her students in unorthodox manners. A 12 year old student, Kazumi Kanda, has been able to withstand her strange punishments so far but the other 23 students begin to fold under the pressure. A South Korean remake of the same title starring Go Hyun-jung in the lead role, was produced in 2013.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 368
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 75%
Ichikei's Crow (2021)
Plot Summary:
Michio Iruma is a former lawyer. He now works as a judge in the first criminal court (commonly known as "Ichikei") of the Tokyo District Court. He is an unusual judge. To avoid issuing wrong judgements, Michio Iruma seeks out the truth in cases by performing on-site inspections by himself. Due to this, lawyers and prosecutors are afraid of him.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 81
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 75%
Miracles (2018)
Plot Summary:
A comical and heartwarming drama about a university lecturer on animal behavior who just loves all living creatures. Once he starts thinking about them, he becomes too absorbed to care about anything else! People think he is quite odd and eccentric! But gradually his attitude, free from restrictions of rigid common sense and social norms, changes the way of thinking of those around him. They can recall a time when they, too, were engrossed in something they loved.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 172
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, clever, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 85%
Saki (2013)
Plot Summary:
From the 2011 drama, Utsukushi Rinjin, Nakama Yukie reprises the character Saki. This time round, as Saki Amihama, she will be targeting men. With the facade of an angel, she draws men to her, only to lead them to a destructive end. Like a moth to the flame... but where is the line drawn between the saint and the devil?.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 27
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 54 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 88%
Jyouou (2005)
Plot Summary:
Fujisaki Aya is a young college student whose family is 150 million yen in debt after her father's corporation went bankrupt. To earn the money, she enters the Hostess Grand Prix.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 13
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 76%
You Taught Me All the Precious Things (2011)
Plot Summary:
Shuji is a young teacher whose confidence and honesty has made him popular with the students. He is engaged to Natsumi, also a teacher at the same high school. At the morning of the new semester, Shuji wakes up with a hangover and no memory of the night before, and a strange young woman in his bed. He feels terrible about possibility of having cheated on his fiancée, but when it turns out the girl is a student in his class Shuji is wrecked with guilt. Things go from bad to worse when the girl, Hikari, makes it clear that she's in love with him and wants to break him and Natsumi apart. Shuji's honest nature makes him want to come clean to everyone about what has happened, but before he has the chance, the secret is out. As his life starts crumbling around him, Shuji still decides to try and save Hikari from herself.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 145
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing