Movies like Kim Jong-il (2011)
The best movies like Kim Jong-il (2011) are The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Bruce Lee, the Legend (1984) and The Mole: Undercover in North Korea (2020). If Kim Jong-il hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedDeath Note Relight 1: Visions of a God (2007)7.9/10 from 414 votes
- NewestTogether Together (2021)Released 2021
- In JapaneseDeath Note Relight 1: Visions of a God (2007)Also in Japanese
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Near the end of the Korean War, a platoon of U.S. soldiers is captured by communists and brainwashed. Following the war, the platoon is returned home, and Sergeant Raymond Shaw is lauded as a hero by the rest of his platoon. However, the platoon commander, Captain Bennett Marco, finds himself plagued by strange nightmares and soon races to uncover a terrible plot.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBruce Lee, the Legend (1984)
The Official Golden Harvest tribute to the Master of the Martial Arts Film, Bruce Lee.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Mole: Undercover in North Korea (2020)
A real-life undercover thriller about two ordinary men who embark on an outrageously dangerous ten-year mission to penetrate the world's most secretive and brutal dictatorship: North Korea.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Interview (2014)
Dave Skylark and his producer Aaron Rapaport run the celebrity tabloid show "Skylark Tonight". When they land an interview with a surprise fan, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, they are recruited by the CIA to turn their trip to Pyongyang into an assassination mission.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeath Note Relight 1: Visions of a God (2007)
When rogue shinigami Ryuk leaves his Death Note in the human world, he has no idea how far the one who finds it will take his new-found power. With the Death Note in hand, brilliant high school student Light Yagami vows to rid the world of evil. A recap of Death Note episodes 1–26, with alternate footage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisPork Chop Hill (1959)
Korean War, April 1953. Lieutenant Clemons, leader of the King company of the United States Infantry, is ordered to recapture Pork Chop Hill, occupied by a powerful Chinese Army force, while, just seventy miles away, at nearby the village of Panmunjom, a tense cease-fire conference is celebrated.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDefence of the Realm (1986)
A reporter named Mullen 'stumbles' onto a story linking a prominent Member of Parliament to a KGB agent and a near-nuclear disaster involving a teenage runaway and a U.S. Air Force base. Has there been a Government cover-up? Mullen teams up with Vernon Bayliss, an old hack, and Nina Beckam, the MP's assistant, to find out the truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLBJ (2017)
The story of U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson from his young days in West Texas to the White House.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple (2006)
Featuring never-before-seen footage, this documentary delivers a startling new look at the Peoples Temple, headed by preacher Jim Jones who, in 1978, led more than 900 members to Guyana, where he orchestrated a mass suicide via tainted punch.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Dry White Season (1989)
During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fog of War (2003)
Former corporate whiz kid Robert McNamara was the controversial Secretary of Defense in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, during the height of the Vietnam War. Augmented by archival footage and cabinet conversation recordings, Errol Morris gives the conflicted McNamara a platform on which he attempts to confront his and the U.S. government's actions in Southeast Asia in light of the horrors of modern warfare, the end of ideology and the punitive judgment of history.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Last Emperor (1987)
A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People's Republic.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOne Missed Call 2 (2005)
A Japanese restaurant cook/owner dies after answering his daughter's cellphone. Other people are getting strange, same ringtone calls as well and dying painfully. It happened in Taiwan as well. Can the police stop it if it's a ghost?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHarriet (2019)
The extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman's escape from slavery and transformation into one of America's greatest heroes. Her courage, ingenuity and tenacity freed hundreds of slaves and changed the course of history.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTogether Together (2021)
When young loner Anna is hired as the surrogate for Matt, a single man in his 40s, the two strangers come to realize this unexpected relationship will quickly challenge their perceptions of connection, boundaries and the particulars of love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBatman: Soul of the Dragon (2021)
Bruce Wayne faces a deadly menace from his past, with the help of three former classmates: world-renowned martial artists Richard Dragon, Ben Turner and Lady Shiva.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954)
A U.S. Navy pilot and his squad are assigned to bomb a group of heavily defended bridges deep behind enemy lines during the Korean War.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Night Strangler (1973)
After being run out of Las Vegas, reporter Carl Kolchak heads for Seattle and another reporting job with the local paper. It's not long before he’s on the trail of another string of bizarre murders. It seems that every 21 years, for the past century, a killer murders a certain number of people, drains them of their blood, and then disappears into the night. Kolchak is on his trail, but can he stop him?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Dinner with Hervé (2018)
An unlikely friendship evolves over one wild night in LA between a struggling journalist and actor Hervé Villechaize, the world's most famous gun-toting dwarf, resulting in life-changing consequences for both.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBody Bags (1993)
A horror anthology containing three stories: a female college student working a graveyard shift is terrorized by a serial killer; a hair transplant goes horribly wrong; and a baseball player loses an eye and gets a new one from a recently executed murderer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Kim Jong-il?
The closest matches to Kim Jong-il are The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Bruce Lee, the Legend (1984) and The Mole: Undercover in North Korea (2020). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Kim Jong-il?
Start with The Manchurian Candidate (1962), the closest match to Kim Jong-il.
What is the highest-rated movie like Kim Jong-il?
Death Note Relight 1: Visions of a God (2007), rated 7.9/10 by 414 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Kim Jong-il?
Together Together (2021) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Kim Jong-il?
Yes: Death Note Relight 1: Visions of a God (2007) and One Missed Call 2 (2005).
How are movies similar to Kim Jong-il chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Kim Jong-il, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.