Movies like One Summer Affair (1978)
The best movies like One Summer Affair (1978) are Hounddog (2008), One Million Yen Girl (2008) and The Safety of Objects (2002). If One Summer Affair hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Trials of Cate McCall (2013)6.4/10 from 321 votes
- NewestEleanor the Great (2025)Released 2025
- In JapaneseOne Million Yen Girl (2008)Also in Japanese
Hounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOne Million Yen Girl (2008)
A 21-year-old girl is released from prison, only to deal with the neighborhood gossip about her and family conflicts. She decides to save one million yen, move to where no one knows her and keep repeating the process.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Safety of Objects (2002)
In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBastard Out of Carolina (1996)
A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLucky Them (2013)
More interested in partying and flirting with young musicians than work, veteran rock journalist Ellie Klug has one last chance to prove her value to her magazine’s editor: a no-stone-unturned search to discover what really happened to long lost rock god, Matt Smith, who also happens to be her ex-boyfriend. Teaming up with an eccentric amateur documentary filmmaker, Ellie hits the road in search of answers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Believe in Unicorns (2015)
Feeling awkward and isolated, an imaginative and strong-willed teenage girl runs away from home with an older punk rock drifter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIron Jawed Angels (2004)
Defiant young activists take the women's suffrage movement by storm, putting their lives at risk to help American women win the right to vote.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCall Me Crazy: A Five Film (2013)
A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Poker House (2008)
Agnes and her two sisters struggle through a day in a home overrun by gamblers, thieves, and johns.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Young One (1960)
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Trials of Cate McCall (2013)
In order to be reinstated to the bar and recover custody of her daughter, a hotshot lawyer, now in recovery and on probation, must take on the appeal of a woman wrongfully convicted of murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisXiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998)
Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Girl in the Book (2015)
The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisCome Sunday (2018)
Evangelist Carlton Pearson is ostracized by his church for preaching that there is no Hell.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisRogue Agent (2022)
Conman Robert Freegard poses as an undercover MI5 agent and kidnaps countless victims amidst a high-stakes manhunt, until the woman who fell for him brings him to justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHoly Lands (2019)
When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEleanor the Great (2025)
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRitual (2000)
A disillusioned filmmaker has an encounter with a young woman who has a ritual of repeating "Tomorrow is my birthday" everyday. He tries to communicate with her through his video camera.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSkin (2009)
Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTokyo Decadence (1992)
A submissive hooker goes about her trade, suffering abuse at the hands of Japanese salarymen and Yakuza types. She's unhappy about her work, and is apparently trying to find some sort of appeasement for the fact that her lover has married.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJun Marumo's Slut Legend (1984)
A woman frustrated by her fiancé's reluctance for premarital sex sends her on a round of boozing and remembrances of bad sexual encounters. Meanwhile someone is drugging young men late at night and doing unspeakable things to them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Prey (1990)
An eighteen year old beautiful and restless girl runs away from home to find freedom which she much dreamed of. She come across, instead, is the unsavory characters that start on the road to prostitution.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Gangnam Daughter-in-law (2019)
Ah-yeong, who wants to free herself from poverty and live in Gangnam, coincidentally meets the rich Man-soo, who introduces her to his son, Tae-min. Not long after they start dating, the contract on the house Ah-yeong lives in is terminated and she moves in with Tae-min and Man-soo, just a few months before they get married. However, Ah-yeong starts feeling more attracted to Man-soo, who truly cares for her, instead of Tae-min, who’s incompetent and abusive.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Kind Affair (2017)
A housewife who has presenile Alzheimer's feels romance with a young man. She has hot intercourse with him and not her husband who embraces her rachet sex life and holds her with dear love. She feels physical pleasure and delight during intercourse that she's never felt with her husband before! Her affair with the young man starts like that.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Beastie Girls (2017)
About the life in the celebrity and prostitution world. Only those who have been there know what it's like with the relationships with people, misunderstandings, conflicts, worries and sadness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Unfaithful Wife: In Front of Her Husband's Eyes (1994)
Mayumi Hirose lived with her husband Yasuhiro and younger sister Miki. Her girlfriend Yasuhiro, who was in the prime of his career, was busy every day, had many business trips overseas, and often returned home late at night. One day, my cousin Tadao came to Tokyo from his hometown. Tadao, who lost his family, ends up staying at Mayumi's house.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Female Teacher's Dangerous Lust (1996)
Yuko becomes a teacher at an all-boys school. She just spends her days going back and forth between her home and school in vain. And then there was her 30th birthday, which she celebrated alone. At a boutique she stops at to relieve her loneliness, she meets Seiichi, a young clerk. Coincidentally, she is revealed to be the lover of Hideko's younger sister, and before she knows it, they begin to spend sweet nights together.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Forced Indecency Sisters (1994)
Mai Kuraishi was attacked by two young men on the banks of the Chikuma River. They see her face and try to strangle her to death, but she is saved by Ota, who was just passing by in his car, and takes her home. When Mai's helpers jump out at Mai's strange behavior, she takes her in their arms. When Ota is surprised at how big Mai's house is, the people come out and thank her and ask her name, so Ota gives her his business card.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Black Erogenous Zone: Mourning Wife's Thighs (1995)
Noriko Murakami's vermilion-stained body welcomed Toshio Kuze's cock. Kuze moves violently as if fascinated by Noriko's body. The two had just gotten engaged and were planning to hold their wedding in three months. The north wind blew against Kimiko Sakuraba's cheek as she stood in front of her grave.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Woman Who Wants to Be Raped ~ Requiem for Masochism ~ (1992)
Keiharu Suzuki’s body was set ablaze by a bondage rape soaked in blood! The woman who could never forget that pleasure eventually… An unexpected twist and a chilling conclusion. The entire piece is stained with twisted ecstasy…
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like One Summer Affair and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like One Summer Affair?
The closest matches to One Summer Affair are Hounddog (2008), One Million Yen Girl (2008) and The Safety of Objects (2002). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after One Summer Affair?
Start with Hounddog (2008), the closest match to One Summer Affair.
What is the highest-rated movie like One Summer Affair?
The Trials of Cate McCall (2013), rated 6.4/10 by 321 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like One Summer Affair?
Eleanor the Great (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like One Summer Affair?
Yes: One Million Yen Girl (2008), Ritual (2000) and Tokyo Decadence (1992).
How are movies similar to One Summer Affair chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside One Summer Affair, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.