Movies like In Water (2023)
The best movies like In Water (2023) are The River (1984), The Con Artists (2014) and The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972). If In Water hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedAn Adventure in Space and Time (2013)7.7/10 from 222 votes
- NewestHallan (2025)Released 2025
- In KoreanThe Con Artists (2014)Also in Korean
The River (1984)
Tom and Mae Garvey are a Tennessee farming couple battling violent floods to save their land. In addition to natural disasters, the Garveys fight to stop a selfish land developer and a local corporation from foreclosing on their farm. While Mae stays at home to care for their children and tend to the crops, Tom finds work as a scab at a steel mill to preserve his family's property.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Con Artists (2014)
A wily safecracker is forced to help a mob boss pull off a $150 million heist, but smells a double-cross in the works.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972)
Middle-aged widow Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters Ruth and Matilda are struggling to survive in a society they barely understand. Beatrice dreams of opening an elegant tea room but does not have the wherewithal to achieve her lofty goal. Epileptic Ruth is a rebellious adolescent, while shy but highly intelligent and idealistic Matilda seeks solace in her pets and school projects, including one designed to show how small amounts of radium affect marigolds.
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 thisTalhotBlond (2012)
Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.
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 thisAn Adventure in Space and Time (2013)
Actor William Hartnell felt trapped by a succession of hard-man roles while wannabe producer Verity Lambert was frustrated by the TV industry's glass ceiling. Both of them were to find unlikely hope and unexpected challenges in the form of a Saturday tea-time drama. Allied with a team of unusual but brilliant people, they went on to create the longest running science fiction series ever made.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Novelist's Film (2022)
A novelist visits a bookstore run by a young colleague who's been out of touch, then takes a walk with a film director and his wife. She meets an actress and tries to convince her to make a film together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn Front of Your Face (2021)
She has never lived in a high-rise apartment, and she wonders how her sister can live at this height every day. A few days ago she kind of burst in to stay with her sister, and she is now becoming re-accustomed to life in Korea. While seeming to keep a grave secret to herself, she manages life one day at a time with a sense of mindfulness. Meanwhile a certain director, some years younger than her, has asked her to join his project, and after a polite refusal, they have agreed to meet for the first time today. Downtown Seoul is filled with narrow alleys that harbor tiny old bars, and that's where they meet. As they are getting drunk, there is sudden rainfall and thunder.
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 thisA Brand New Life (2009)
Abandoned by her father, a girl adjusts to life in an orphanage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMiracle: Letters to the President (2021)
Dreaming of making a way station for his sister and the villagers who have no choice but to commute along the dangerous train tracks every day, Joon-kyung sends many letters to the President, but with no reply. Ra-hee, who has a crush on Joon-kyung, does everything she can to help him meet the President.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSky (2016)
A woman embarks on a journey alone across the United States after fleeing from her violent husband.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThread of Lies (2014)
Cheon-ji's unexpected suicide causes her mother Hyeon-sook and older sister Man-ji to be moved into another apartment. Tracking down clues from school, Man-ji discovers that Cheon-ji's best friend Hwa-yeon is behind everything.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAdopt a Highway (2019)
Russ Millings has just been released from prison after serving 21 years for a 3rd strike conviction for possessing an ounce of marijuana. As he tries to adapt to a world he doesn’t recognize – including trying to learn how to use the internet – he finds an abandoned baby in a dumpster behind the fast food restaurant where he works as a dishwasher. Unsure of what to do, and caught between impulses of kindness and panic, Russ soon realizes this could be his chance at redemption.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVanya on 42nd Street (1994)
An uninterrupted rehearsal of Chekhov's 'Uncle Vanya' plays out by a company of actors. The setting: their run-down theater with an unusable stage and crumbling ceiling. The play is shown act by act with the briefest of breaks to move props or for refreshments. The lack of costumes, real props and scenery is soon forgotten.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisDolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors (2015)
"Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors" is based on the inspiring true story of living legend Dolly Parton's remarkable upbringing. This once-in-a-lifetime movie special takes place inside the tight-knit Parton family as they struggle to overcome devastating tragedy and discover the healing power of love, faith and a raggedy patchwork coat that helped make Parton who she is today. The film is set in the Tennessee Great Smoky Mountains in 1955. It is neither a biopic nor a musical about Dolly's whole life and performing career, but rather a family-oriented faith-based story about the incidents in her and her family's life around the time she was nine years old.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOmaha (2025)
A young girl and her brother are awoken by their father and loaded into the car on an early morning in 2008. As they road trip across the American West, she discovers the truth about their seemingly spontaneous journey.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlue Chips (1994)
Pete Bell, a college basketball coach is under a lot of pressure. His team isn't winning and he cannot attract new players. The stars of the future are secretly being paid by boosters. This practice is forbidden in the college game, but Pete is desperate and has pressures from all around.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPpong ddol (2011)
Seong-pil, an actor, is traveling through Jeju Island when he sees an ad looking for actors. He follows the ad that leads him to Pong-ddol. The film captures their sincerity without losing the humor. What does film and life mean to you?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Eomung (2019)
This is the story of Sook-ja (Moon Hee-kyung), a female diver in the beautiful Jeju Islands who has lived a tough life, and her childish son Yool (Yeon Joon). Young man Yool dreams of becoming a writer. One day he discovers his mother, Sook-ja, has terminal cancer, but she refuses to get treated and continues diving in the water. Yool gives up his dreams as a writer and goes to his brother-in-law to ask for a job just so he can change his mother's mind. One evening, Yool comes home drunk and upset. Sook-ja can't bear the sudden pain and wakes up her drunken son.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Grand Prix (2010)
Grand Prix" covers the world of horse racing, centered around the romance between a male horse jockey and a female horse jockey. Seo Joo-Hee (Kim Tae-Hee) is an ambitious equestrian who loses her beloved horse in a racing accident and also injures her arm. Devastated she quits the sport and travels to Jeju Island. On Jeju Island, Seo Joo-Hee meets fellow equestrian Woo-Seok (Yang Dong-Kun), a former winner of the Japan Cup who is also experienced a similar slump as Seo Joo-Hee. With Woo-Seok's help, Seo Joo-Hee becomes inspired to compete for the Grand Prix Chamionship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Hear me (2018)
Yu-jeong who works golf practice is in her late twenties. One day, she receive the shocking news that Sang-ho who is only family and one young brother deserted from his regiment...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Hallan (2025)
In 1948, as Jeju Island is swallowed by state violence, a 6-year-old girl wanders the forests beneath Hallasan, robbed of her voice. Her mother, A-jin, searches for her through a treacherous landscape where soldiers are ruthlessly crushing opposition to the country's partition.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Champ (2011)
A former jockey who became blind after losing his wife in an accident gets a second chance with the help of his daughter and an injured horse.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Island (2015)
A pensive man visits an empty house. A neighbor tells him the house is haunted but he ignores it. Park Jinseong's second feature that takes place in Jeju Island gazes into the pain of life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Ieoh Island (1977)
A company hopes to open a spa hotel named after Ieodo, a mythical island inhabited by the souls of drowned sailors. During a study trip to the proposed location of the hotel, a journalist disappears under mysterious circumstances. One of the contractors goes to Ieodo's neighboring island, populated by widows of the dead sailors, to unravel the mystery.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Love Wind Love Song (1999)
A Seoul businessman comes to Jeju Island and meets a lonely tour guide.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like You Know It All (2009)
A South Korean art house film director is first invited to serve on the panel of a film festival, then to guest lecture at a film school.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like In Water?
The closest matches to In Water are The River (1984), The Con Artists (2014) and The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after In Water?
Start with The River (1984), the closest match to In Water.
What is the highest-rated movie like In Water?
An Adventure in Space and Time (2013), rated 7.7/10 by 222 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like In Water?
Hallan (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Korean movies like In Water?
Yes: The Con Artists (2014), The Novelist's Film (2022) and In Front of Your Face (2021).
How are movies similar to In Water chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside In Water, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.