Movies like さぶ (2020)

A Bramble House Christmas (2017)

While settling his father’s estate, Finn Conrad becomes suspicious as to why the man left a nurse $100,000. His dad knew her for less than two months before he died. Just before Christmas, Finn wants what to reclaim what he considers his family’s money, going undercover to investigate the bed and breakfast the nurse has recently taken over. When Finn meets Willa, he discovers she’s not a conniving gold digger at all, but a woman in need who put the money to good use. When she discovers his true identity, will it keep Willa from ever trusting him again?

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Girl in the Box (2016)

The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

A Sister's Secret (2018)

Twin sisters secretly swap places on their thirtieth birthday. The harmless prank becomes a nightmare when one of them is murdered.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Seeds of Yesterday (2015)

The Sheffield family reveal and go through some home truths as their middle child inherits the Foxworth mansion. The family's ghosts looming over, and more tragedies are in store as the curse lives on.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Scum (1977)

Carlin is a new reform school inmate with a reputation as a hard case. The authorities encourage gang leader Pongo to humble Carlin, but Carlin overtakes Pongo as Daddy of the ward. The guards institute a reign of terror and neglect, with Carlin emerging as an unlikely leader.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Cheaters (2000)

In the fall of 1994, a teacher at Chicago's run-down Steinmetz High conspires with the school's academic decathlon team to cheat on an academic competition.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Locke & Key (2011)

Three children become the caretakers of a New England mansion that is home to a bevy of secrets and magic.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

My 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 · both drama

Rebound: The Legend of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (1996)

A dramatization of the life of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (Don Cheadle), with a lot of factual based occurrences. A reformed junkie returns from prison to clean up his act and devote the rest of his life to the young kids of Harlem. 1996 was the 25th anniversary of the first tournament named after him.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

American Son (2019)

Time passes and tension mounts in a Florida police station as an estranged interracial couple awaits news of their missing teenage son.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

TalhotBlond (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

The Neighbor in the Window (2020)

A suburban wife finds herself and the security of her family threatened by another seemingly friendly neighborhood mom.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Sound of Christmas (2016)

Lizzie is a young piano teacher working at a music school while trying to save enough money for a Steinway piano. The school is gearing up for their major Christmas fundraiser and she has committed much of her time to plan the event. One afternoon, she meets Brad who takes an interest in her playing and asks if she will teach his uninterested teenage daughter. She begins to break through to the young girl, and sparks begin to fly with Brad, but she is shocked to find out that his interest is not solely in her playing, but in the property that houses the music school. She sets out to save the school and the event, but can she work things out with Brad?

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Hello Sister, Goodbye Life (2006)

A college student must take care of her 7-year-old half sister after the death of their parents.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

I Am Elizabeth Smart (2017)

The story of Elizabeth Smart's kidnapping and captivity, as told from her perspective.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Meltdown: Days of Destruction (2006)

Despite scientist Nathan's warnings, his boss continues an experiment meant as publicity for his satellite firm: exploding an asteroid. Instead it splits, and the major piece, the size of Iceland, changes course to earth. It is deflected but so close that it shift our course closer to the sun, causing rapid extreme heating, hopefully only mid-term. Nathan warns his sister, TV journalist Carly, and she her lover, police detective Tom. He brings his unruly daughter Kim, her ex-con lover C.J. and her mother, nurse Bonnie, when Nathan offers a flight to a friend's Arctic weather station. Tom takes charge of a dangerous trip to the airport, as everywhere on earth things catch fire and people fight for water, transport and sheer looting.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

The Christmas Shoes (2002)

Two separate stories mesh - in the first, a young music teacher, Maggie Andrews, begins dying of a heart condition and her son Nathan tries to get a pair of Christmas shoes for her before she dies. In the second, lawyer Robert Layton and his wife Kate are slowly drifting apart and the matter comes to a head during Christmas when Kate takes over for Maggie for the school choir.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal (2008)

Based on a true story. Five high school cheerleaders, including the daughter of the school principal, run amok -- and teachers, parents and administrators allow them to get away with a wide range of scandalous behavior. Known as the "Fab Five," the girls disregard school rules, drink alcohol and post suggestive pictures on the Internet. But when the new cheerleading coach attempts to discipline them, her superiors ask her to resign.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Ray Donovan: The Movie (2022)

A showdown decades in the making brings the Donovan family legacy full circle. As the events that made Ray who he is today finally come to light, the Donovans find themselves drawn back to Boston to face the past. Each of them struggles to overcome their violent upbringing, but destiny dies hard, and only their fierce love for each other keeps them in the fight.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Double Teamed! (2002)

Heather and Heidi play volleyball for their school team, when their family decides that they need to go to a bigger school so that they will have a better chance for scholarships. But at the new school, the twins are discovered by the basketball coach. Inspired by the true story of Heather and Heidi Burge.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

新選組!! 土方歳三 最期の一日 (2006)

Follows the final days of the shogunate and Shinsengumi's Vice-Comander Hijikata Toshizo along with his fellow anti-imperialist group.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Onihei Crime Files: The Final Zenpen - Gonenme no Kyaku (2016)

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Onihei Crime Files: Sutegoro Takahagi (2010)

Takahagi Sutegoro is highly skilled at casing locations for thieves so that he can sell detailed floor plans to them. He suffers an injury to his leg while trying to help a parent and a child being threatened by samurai. Heizo jumps in and chases the samurai away. Feeling indebted to Heizo, Sutegoro decides to become his spy. Now, together they will try to stop scheming Myogi Danemon’s gang of merciless thieves...

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Jōiuchi (2020)

One samurai is ordered to kill another by their master in punishment.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Throne of Blood (1957)

Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu and Miki are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit's prophecy comes true, Washizu's scheming wife, Asaji, presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit's prophecy by murdering his lord and usurping his place. Director Akira Kurosawa's resetting of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in feudal Japan is one of his most acclaimed films.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Red Beard (1965)

Aspiring to an easy job as personal physician to a wealthy family, Noboru Yasumoto is disappointed when his first post after medical school takes him to a small country clinic under the gruff doctor Red Beard. Yasumoto rebels in numerous ways, but Red Beard proves a wise and patient teacher. He gradually introduces his student to the unglamorous side of the profession, ultimately assigning him to care for a prostitute rescued from a local brothel.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Kagemusha (1980)

A feudal epic presenting the tale of a petty thief who is recruited to impersonate Shingen, an aging warlord, in order to avoid attacks by competing clans. The impostor becomes comfortable living his life among nobility, but his responsibilities to his station grow more demanding the longer he occupies it.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Korosuna (2022)

Kotani Zenzaemon, a ronin who has a side job making brushes in a tenement house in the back alley, is watching Omine, who lives with him, from Kichizo, a resident of the same tenement house and a boatman. is asked to Kichizo and Mine have eloped and got married, but she feels empty in her boring daily life, and she wants to take a break by crossing the bridge over the river. On the other hand, Kichizo forbids him from crossing the bridge, fearing that his whereabouts will be known to others. Zenzaemon superimposes the appearance of these two people on the appearance of his former self and his wife, whom he killed himself.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Stray Nightingale (2017)

Japan, 1785. Jūzaburō, a famous thief who refuses to kill innocent people, is betrayed, ambushed, and left for dead.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Chikamatsu Monogatari (1954)

When the wife of a 17th-century Kyoto scrollmaker is falsely accused of having an affair with his best employee, the pair flee the city and find themselves truly falling for one another.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama