Movies like Pelangi (1951)
The best movies like Pelangi (1951) are The Sleeping Dictionary (2003), Poison (2023) and My Week with Marilyn (2011). If Pelangi hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Pelangi
Quick picks
- Highest ratedPaperman (2012)8.0/10 from 1,852 votes
- NewestPoison (2023)Released 2023
The Sleeping Dictionary (2003)
In the 1930s, British officer John Truscott journeys to a remote village in colonial Malaysia to educate and Westernize the local Iban population. There, he's introduced to the lovely Selima. In keeping with tradition, Selima is assigned to sleep with Truscott and teach him the native language and customs. But when they fall in love, both colonists and natives object to their plans to marry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPoison (2023)
When a poisonous snake slithers onto an Englishman's stomach in India, his associate and a doctor race to save him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Week with Marilyn (2011)
London, 1956. Genius actor and film director Laurence Olivier is about to begin the shooting of his upcoming movie, premiered in 1957 as The Prince and the Showgirl, starring Marilyn Monroe. Young Colin Clark, who dreams on having a career in movie business, manages to get a job on the set as third assistant director.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisModern Romance (1981)
A film editor breaks up with his girlfriend, unsure if he is in love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShirkers (2018)
In 1992, teenager Sandi Tan shot Singapore's first indie road movie with her enigmatic American mentor Georges – who then vanished with all the footage. Twenty years later, the 16mm film is recovered, sending Tan, now a novelist in Los Angeles, on a personal odyssey in search of Georges' vanishing footprints.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Letter (1940)
After a woman shoots a man to death, a damning letter she wrote raises suspicions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlinded by the Light (2019)
In 1987, during the austere days of Thatcher’s Britain, a teenager learns to live life, understand his family, and find his own voice through the music of Bruce Springsteen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCrazy Rich Asians (2018)
An American-born Chinese economics professor accompanies her boyfriend to Singapore for his best friend's wedding, only to get thrust into the lives of Asia's rich and famous.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPast Lives (2023)
After decades apart, childhood friends Nora and Hae Sung are reunited in New York for one fateful weekend as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBride & Prejudice (2004)
Mrs. Bakshi is eager to find suitors for her four unmarried daughters when a family friend introduces them to handsome American Will Darcy. A Bollywood-style modern adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHappiness for Beginners (2023)
At a crossroads after her divorce, a schoolteacher ventures toward a fresh start in life — and love — when she signs up for a grueling group hiking trip.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Woman of Paris: A Drama of Fate (1923)
When Marie St. Clair believes she has been jilted by her artist fiance Jean, she decides to leave for Paris on her own. After spending a year in the city as a mistress of the wealthy Pierre Revel, she is reunited with Jean by chance. This leaves her with the choice between a glamorous life in Paris, and the true love she left behind.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnna and the King (1999)
The story of the romance between the King of Siam (now Thailand) and the widowed British school teacher Anna Leonowens during the 1860s. Anna teaches the children and becomes romanced by the King. She convinces him that a man can be loved by just one woman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPaperman (2012)
An urban office worker finds that paper airplanes are instrumental in meeting a girl in ways he never expected.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Prince & Me 4: The Elephant Adventure (2010)
One year after their royal wedding, King Edvard and Queen Paige of Denmark receive an invitation to attend the wedding of Princess Myra of Sangyoon. Upon their arrival, Paige finds Myra is unhappy with her arranged marriage to the brooding and sinister Kah and is secretly in love with a young elephant handler named Alu.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991)
A chronicle of the production problems — including bad weather, actors' health, war near the filming locations, and more — which plagued the filming of Apocalypse Now, increasing costs and nearly destroying the life and career of Francis Ford Coppola.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisMachete Maidens Unleashed! (2010)
In the final decades of the 20th century, the Philippines was a country where low-budget exploitation-film producers were free to make nearly any kind of movie they wanted, any way they pleased. It was a country with extremely lax labor regulations and a very permissive attitude towards cultural expression. As a result, it became a hotbed for the production of cheapie movies. Their history and the genre itself are detailed in this breezy, nostalgic documentary.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTropic Thunder (2008)
A group of self-absorbed actors set out to make the most expensive war film ever. When budgets skyrocket and schedules fall far behind, the director tries to save the production by leading his cast into the jungles of Southeast Asia, where they inadvertently encounter real danger.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Legend of Barney Thomson (2015)
Barney Thomson, awkward, diffident, Glasgow barber, lives a life of desperate mediocrity and his uninteresting life is about to go from 0 to 60 in five seconds, as he enters the grotesque and comically absurd world of the serial killer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRoad to Bali (1952)
Having to leave Melbourne in a hurry to avoid various marriage proposals, two song-and-dance men sign on for work as divers. This takes them to an idyllic island on the way to Bali where they vie with each other for the favours of Princess Lala. The hazardous dive produces a chest of priceless jewels which arouses the less romantic interest of some shady locals.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
Like Pelangi and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Pelangi?
The closest matches to Pelangi are The Sleeping Dictionary (2003), Poison (2023) and My Week with Marilyn (2011). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Pelangi?
Start with The Sleeping Dictionary (2003), the closest match to Pelangi.
What is the highest-rated movie like Pelangi?
Paperman (2012), rated 8.0/10 by 1,852 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Pelangi?
Poison (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Pelangi chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Pelangi, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.