Skip to content

Movies like Romance in Factory (2016)

The best movies like Romance in Factory (2016) are The Iron Ministry (2014), China. The Arts – The People (1985) and Twenty Two (2017). If Romance in Factory hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks

  1. The Iron Ministry (2014)

    Filmed over three years on China’s railways, The Iron Ministry traces the vast interiors of a country on the move: flesh and metal, clangs and squeals, light and dark, and language and gesture. Scores of rail journeys come together into one, capturing the thrills and anxieties of social and technological transformation. The Iron Ministry immerses audiences in fleeting relationships and uneasy encounters between humans and machines on what will soon be the world’s largest railway network.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style

  2. China. The Arts – The People (1985)

    China marks the beginning of the extensive Asian theme in Ottinger’s filmography and is her first travelogue. Her observant eye is interested in anything from Sichuan opera and the Beijing Film Studio to the production of candy and sounds of bicycle bells.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style

  3. Twenty Two (2017)

    Follow the lives of the elderly survivors who were forced into sex slavery as “Comfort Women” by the Japanese during World War II. At the time of filming, only 22 of these women were still alive to tell their story. Through their own personal histories and perspectives, they tell a tale that should never be forgotten to generations unaware of the brutalization that occurred.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style

  4. The Bride (2009)

    Chinese film directed by Zhang Ming,

    Why it matches: Similar story and style

  5. Call If You Need Me (2009)

    Gentle, easy-going Or Kia moves from the countryside to Kuala Lumpur to work for his cousin and best friend Ah Soon, a mid-level gangster and enforcer. While Or Kia works hard to put a sister through school, Ah Soon cares for an unstable girlfriend prone to mysterious disappearances. As they both sink deeper into a nocturnal world of debts, drugs, and betrayal, Or Kia's loyalties are strained when Ah Soon falls out of favor with the bosses and tries to escape the business.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style

  6. Carriage (2004)

    Why it matches: Similar story and style

  7. My Milk Cup Cow (2014)

    The father tells his daughter Nunu a lie that there is a cow in her milk cup. She believes it and drinks up milk, but there isn't any cow. Her father tells her a variety of lies, which Nunu finds increasingly difficult to believe.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style

  8. Floss (2019)

    The relationship between two young men in Beijing becomes strained after one of them develops an unusual fetish.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style

  9. Shanghai Youth (2015)

    As a special generation born in the New China, the hundreds of thousands of educated youth from Shanghai went through enormous hardship during their work in Xinjiang from 1963 to 1966. Because of the specific historical conditions and context, they have been strikingly stamped with the mark of the times and have had to struggle to understand the relationship between themselves and the nation.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style

  10. Three Adventures of Brooke (2019)

    Xingxi travels alone to Alor Setar, a town in Northern Malaysia. As a consequence of a blown tire, she experiences three variant adventures. She introduces herself to people using different identities with mysterious secrets. In return, what the journey brings her is thoroughly unexpected. In the first adventure, Brooke is a traveler; in the second adventure, Brooke is an anthropologist; in the third, Brooke is a divorcée. She is a disheartened woman who comes across a French writer named Pierre. The two lonely travelers become instant friends. Their age gap enables them to have their respective insights into life and death. Meanwhile, it is not until the enigmatic side of Alor Setar begins to unfold that Brooke tells Pierre the true reason why she has come. They seek to understand the interaction between love and life. As the story comes to an end, mother nature shows her beauty with the magical Blue Tears phenomenon on prominent display.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style

  11. fragile women (2018)

    At a picnic in the countryside, the woman accidentally strikes a shuttlecock into water. The man leaps into the river and then I hear the mountain wind.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style

  12. On that Afternoon (2017)

    On that afternoon, an old man quarrels with the driver on a bus that runs between the old town and the new.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style

  13. Wheat Harvest (2008)

    A documentary film showing the life of Niu Hongmiao, a 20-year-old country girl who is now a prostitute in Beijing. Around the time of wheat harvesting, she goes back home to Dingxing County, Hebei Province to visit her parents.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style

  14. All's Right With The World (2007)

    The film explores the hidden face of poverty in one of the world's most affluent and capitalistic cities. Directed by CHEUNG King Wai (KJ: Music and Life), the film follows five Hong Kong families of different backgrounds that receive government subsidies. How do the poor get by in a glossy city that flaunts conspicuous consumption and hides poverty in cavernous public housing estates? All's Right With The World shares the different stories of these low-income families, their daily living conditions, and their ways of celebrating Chinese New Year.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style

  15. On the Way to the Sea (2010)

    On May 12, 2008 , the biggest earthquake in Chinese history occurred in the film maker's hometown of Wenchuan. According to official polls, 69,159 were killed, 374,141 were seriously injured and 17,469 are still considered to be missing. The film maker's parents, central character in the film, are survivors. In a surreal hybrid of documentary footage, experimental abstraction and fictional elements, "On the Way to the Sea" studies the human fragility and spiritual homelessness generated by such disasters.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style

  16. Beer! Beer! (2020)

    "Beer! Beer!" is an "anti-romantic comedy" set in the early morning following a wild party in Berlin. When Tao, a Chinese guy, meets Sebastian, a local German. As they seem to get more and more intimate with each other, suddenly a mattress changes everything...

    Why it matches: Similar story and style

  17. Game Theory (2010)

    This is a story about a five-year battle waged between the farmers of two villages and the local government over land-use rights. This documentary illustrates the subtle changes being made to the rules of the game between officials and citizens, and provides deep human insight into the loss, despair and increasing awareness experienced by common farmers in the pursuit of land-use rights.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style

  18. Chronicle of a Durian (2017)

    On a rainy day, Zhang Xin, a filmmaker who suffers from obsession deeply, comes across a strange girl, carrying a durian. He can’t help but walk towards her. This beautiful bubble breaks once the girl turns out to be the reflection of the obsession.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style

  19. Fear and Loathing in Inner Mongolia (2015)

    The Beat poet Chuck Miller traveled blind to Inner Mongolia, and he met a shoe repair guy......

    Why it matches: Similar story and style

  20. Torch Troupes (2006)

    In this vivid portrait of China's musical heritage, Sichuan Opera performers strive to keep a centuries-old artform alive. After thriving for 300 years, Sichuan Opera is an endangered art form. Having survived the Cultural Revolution, state-sponsored opera troupes now face extinction in the era of private enterprise. Opera master Li Baoting began his career at eight, but now performs pop songs with showgirls in cheap bars. His colleague Wang Bin performs in travelling tents, trying to resist the massive cultural changes threatening to wipe out this artform.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style

Like Romance in Factory and something else?

Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best movies like Romance in Factory?

The closest matches to Romance in Factory are The Iron Ministry (2014), China. The Arts – The People (1985) and Twenty Two (2017). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.

What should I watch after Romance in Factory?

Start with The Iron Ministry (2014), the closest match to Romance in Factory.

What is the newest movie like Romance in Factory?

Beer! Beer! (2020) is the most recent release on this list.

Are there Chinese movies like Romance in Factory?

Yes: The Iron Ministry (2014), Twenty Two (2017) and The Bride (2009).

How are movies similar to Romance in Factory chosen?

First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Romance in Factory, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.

↑ ↓ to move · Enter to open · Full search page