Movies like The Best of a Summer (1984)
The best movies like The Best of a Summer (1984) are One Million Yen Girl (2008), I Believe in Unicorns (2015) and Hounddog (2008). If The Best of a Summer hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedAntiporno (2017)6.6/10 from 462 votes
- NewestVesper (2022)Released 2022
- In JapaneseOne Million Yen Girl (2008)Also in Japanese
One 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 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 thisHounddog (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 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 thisSplit (2016)
When Inanna, a young actress, becomes obsessed with a mask maker, she sacrifices parts of her life in order to win his love. At the same time she enters a mythic journey in the theater that blurs her performance, her dreams and her real life and results in a provocative and powerful confrontation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies 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 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 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 Truth About Emanuel (2013)
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSuburbia (1984)
When household tensions and a sense of worthlessness overcome Evan, he finds escape when he clings with the orphans of a throw-away society. The runaways hold on to each other like a family until a tragedy tears them apart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAntiporno (2017)
Kyôko, a traumatized young Japanese girl, finds herself struggling with her self-confidence in her adult life. Growing up in a family without her mother and her sister, she constantly questions the rationale of sex and the notion of liberty in modern Japanese society.
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 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 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 Whispering Star (2015)
A feminine android delivers packages to scattered humans throughout the galaxy. With years to spare, the android and us have time to contemplate the meaning of being human.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 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 Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977)
A disturbed and institutionalized 16-year-old girl struggles between fantasy and reality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisVesper (2022)
After the collapse of Earth's ecosystem, Vesper, a 13-year-old girl struggling to survive with her paralyzed Father, meets a mysterious Woman with a secret that forces Vesper to use her wits, strength and bio-hacking abilities to fight for the possibility of a future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTeen Spirit (2019)
A shy teenager living on the Isle of Wight dreams of pop stardom. With the help of an unlikely mentor, she enters a singing competition that will test her integrity, talent, and ambition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Sister's Friend 2 (2017)
Sang-woo's daily life changes 180 degrees ever since his sister's friend Jeong-hee comes to live in their house. Everytime he sees her walking around the house with wet hair and wearing just a big T-shirt, he gets erotic thoughts. He dreams of having sex with her just once until one day, he does. However, since then, Jeong-hee can't forget the night with Sang-woo and how much better he was than her fiance and starts coming back to his room...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Married Woman Boutique: Women Indulging in Scandalous Love Affair (2002)
Kimie steps into a boutique each day to support her household in place of her husband, who is unable to work due to heart disease—while her own spirit aches with longing. She surrenders willingly to the irresistible pull of Tsukuda, the dashing apparel‐maker’s salesman whose whispered promises slip between her legs like silk. Kenji, burning to reclaim his former glory, watches his world unravel when he discovers the affair that simmered beneath Kimie’s restraint. And as the truth of Kimie’s glowing secret—her pregnancy—dawns on him, his reproaches choke in his throat, meeting instead a startling, fervent embrace from the woman he thought he knew…
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Agony!! A Shameful Act (1995)
Pinku distributed by Shintoho
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Ang Kapitbahay (2003)
Paula and Edmund are peacefully married until she meets Nicanor, a composer who happens to be their neighbor. Edmund feels troubled after seeing Paula seeing interest in Nicanor. Could it be that Nicanor is the man who will destroy their lives?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Kiskisan (2003)
Jojo grew in the house of his wicked Lola Susana who never taught him to be a rightful person. He became an image of his grandmother--- deceitful, arrogant and very greedy. He intentionally destroys the lives of his brothers and his sister without knowing that his own actions leads to his own downfall.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Monk Farted (1993)
The story is about Nagatoshi, a handsome and sexy monk played by Kazuhiro Sano, who is struggling for the widow he loves. Foreshadowing the prophecy of the Great Kanto Earthquake, the film is a highly entertaining theatrical spectacle that depicts the human condition of a downtown area undergoing development and the efforts of men and women who rebel against it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Angel in September (1994)
One day, Hitomi observes her classmate Eriko stealing lipstick in a drugstore and follows her home. The two young women get to know and love each other. While the withdrawn Hitomi believes herself and Eriko to be reincarnations of angel warriors who once fought demon armies, her emancipated and apathetic friend wanders through life between sex contacts with older men and fear of falling into a boring bourgeois existence. The different futures of the two soon lead to tensions.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
End of the World (1995)
A fugitive man and woman (Kawase, Kawana) come to an island to retrieve their son (Iwasaki), who the woman has given to a foster family, but the son's foster parents are policemen (Ito)... The suspense surrounding the retrieval of the son is made unusual by the location shooting on the vast and desolate Miyakejima Island and leads to an allegorical drama about the essential desires of human beings. This was Kawase Yota's first appearance in a Zeze film, and he has since become a regular actor. The title of the film at the time of its first release was Sukebe Tenkomori.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
No Good Men (1995)
No Good Men follows Kumiko, a young and attractive woman that works at a travel agency, and moonlights as an insatiable, sex-hungry mistress.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Honeymoon (1983)
The first soft core porn flick made in former Yugoslavia (today Croatia). It was a huge cause celebre for the participants and equally infamous for its innumerable shortcomings ranging from the lack of coherent plot-line to the most basic elements of film making. However, in time, it has gained a somewhat cult reputation. A priceless insight into an odd culture and its lax sexual mores and follies!
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Best of a Summer?
The closest matches to The Best of a Summer are One Million Yen Girl (2008), I Believe in Unicorns (2015) and Hounddog (2008). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Best of a Summer?
Start with One Million Yen Girl (2008), the closest match to The Best of a Summer.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Best of a Summer?
Antiporno (2017), rated 6.6/10 by 462 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Best of a Summer?
Vesper (2022) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like The Best of a Summer?
Yes: One Million Yen Girl (2008), Antiporno (2017) and The Whispering Star (2015).
How are movies similar to The Best of a Summer chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Best of a Summer, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.