Movies like Dragon Seed (1944)

Empire of the Sun (1987)

Jamie Graham, a privileged English boy, is living in Shanghai when the Japanese invade and force all foreigners into prison camps. Jamie is captured with an American sailor, who looks out for him while they are in the camp together. Even though he is separated from his parents and in a hostile environment, Jamie maintains his dignity and youthful spirit, providing a beacon of hope for the others held captive with him.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958)

All her life, Englishwoman Gladys Aylward knew that China was where she belonged. Unqualified to be sent as a missionary, Gladys works as a domestic to earn to send herself to a poor, remote village. There, she eventually lives a full and happy life: running the inn, acting as 'foot inspector', advising the local Mandarin, and even winning the heart of mixed-race Captain Lin Nan. Gladys discovers her real destiny when the country is invaded by Japan and the Chinese children need her to save their lives.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Fatima (2020)

In 1917, outside the parish of Fátima, Portugal, a 10-year-old girl and her two younger cousins witness multiple visitations of the Virgin Mary, who tells them that only prayer and suffering will bring an end to World War I. As secularist government officials and Church leaders try to force the children to recant their story, word of the sighting spreads across the country, inspiring religious pilgrims to flock to the site in hopes of witnessing a miracle..

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

The Keys of the Kingdom (1944)

A young priest, Father Chisholm is sent to China to establish a Catholic parish among the non-Christian Chinese. While his boyhood friend, also a priest, flourishes in his calling as a priest in a more Christian area of the world, Father Chisholm struggles. He encounters hostility, isolation, disease, poverty and a variety of set backs which humble him, but make him more determined than ever to succeed.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson, the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

The Book Thief (2013)

While subjected to the horrors of WWII Germany, young Liesel finds solace by stealing books and sharing them with others. Under the stairs in her home, a Jewish refugee is being sheltered by her adoptive parents.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Kensuke's Kingdom (2024)

A young boy and his family set off on a sailing trip of a lifetime until a violent storm erupts, sweeping Michael and his dog overboard. After washing up on a remote island, terrified, they struggle to survive and adjust to life alone, One day, Michael discovers he is not alone when he is confronted by a mysterious Japanese man who has lived there secretly since World War II, angry that Michael has arrived. However, as dangerous invaders threaten their fragile island paradise, Michael and the old man, Kensuke, join forces to save their secret world.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

The Secret Garden (1993)

A young British girl born and reared in India loses her neglectful parents in an earthquake. She is returned to England to live at her uncle's castle. Her uncle is very distant due to the loss of his wife ten years before. Neglected once again, she begins exploring the estate and discovers a garden that has been locked and forgotten. Aided by one of the servants' boys, she begins restoring the garden, and eventually discovers some other secrets of the manor.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Won't Back Down (2012)

Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Blood on the Sun (1945)

Nick Condon, an American journalist in 20s Tokyo, publishes the Japanese master plan for world domination. Reaction from the understandably upset Japanese provides the action, but this is overshadowed by the propaganda of the time.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

The Bookshop (2017)

Set in a small English town in 1959, a woman decides, against polite but ruthless local opposition, to open a bookshop, a decision which becomes a political minefield.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Hungry Hearts (2015)

The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Poor Cow (1967)

Joy lives a life filled with bad choices. At a young age, she marries and has a child–with an abusive thief who quickly ends up incarcerated. Left alone, she takes up with the guy's mate, another thief, who seems to give her some happiness but who also ends up locked up. She then takes up with a series of seedy types who offer nothing but momentary pleasure–if that.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Eleanor the Great (2025)

94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Waiting for Anya (2020)

During the harrows of WWII, Jo, a young shepherd along with the help of the widow Horcada, helps to smuggle Jewish children across the border from southern France into Spain.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Wake of the Red Witch (1948)

Captain Ralls fights Dutch shipping magnate Mayrant Sidneye for the woman he loves, Angelique Desaix, and for a fortune in gold aboard the Red Witch.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

55 Days at Peking (1963)

Diplomats, soldiers and other representatives of a dozen nations fend off the siege of the International Compound in Peking during the 1900 Boxer Rebellion. The disparate interests unite for survival despite competing factions, overwhelming odds, delayed relief and tacit support of the Boxers by the Empress of China and her generals.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Since You Went Away (1944)

In 1943, several people enter, re-enter, and exit the difficult life of a Midwestern family whose patriarch has been called up to war, leaving behind his wife and two teen daughters.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

When the Game Stands Tall (2014)

A young coach turns a losing high school football program around to go undefeated for 12 consecutive seasons.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Queen of Katwe (2016)

A young girl overcomes her disadvantaged upbringing in the slums of Uganda to become a Chess master.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

Pelle the Conqueror (1987)

In the late 19th century, two Swedish emigrants, Lasse Karlsson and his son Pelle, arrive on the Danish island of Bornholm hoping to find work on a farm and save enough money to travel to the United States of America.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Touching the Void (2003)

The true story of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates' disastrous and nearly-fatal mountain climb of 6,344m Siula Grande in the Cordillera Huayhuash in the Peruvian Andes in 1985.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Evil (2003)

Stockholm, in the 1950s. Erik is expelled from the local school for getting into one brawl too many. To protect Erik from his violent stepfather’s reaction to his expulsion, Erik's mother arranges for Erik to spend a year at Stjärnsberg Boarding School, the only school willing to accept him. This is Erik's last chance to graduate to Upper School and he promises his mother, for his and her sake, to do all he can to stay out of trouble.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Beneath the Surface (TBA)

Beneath the Surface introduces readers to the story of the wealthy Kingsley family of Southern California. At the center of the action are the power-hungry children of an aging billionaire, who prove unprepared for a storm of deceptions and ruthless family ambition, while out on a weekend voyage.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Bloody Crayons (2017)

A group of friends goes to an island for a short film project when they are attacked by a mysterious killer after playing a game of bloody crayons.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

The Omega Man (1971)

Due to an experimental vaccine, Dr. Robert Neville is the only human survivor of an apocalyptic war waged with biological weapons. Besides him, only a few hundred deformed, nocturnal people remain; sensitive to light, and homicidally psychotic.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

The Night at 14th Parallel (1972)

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

The Hunger (1983)

Five-thousand-year-old vampire Miriam promises her lovers the gift of eternal life. When John, her cellist companion for centuries, discovers that he has suddenly begun growing old, he attempts to seek out the help of Dr. Sarah Roberts, a researcher on the mechanisms of aging.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

The Whale Caller (2017)

A kelp-horn-blowing man seems to be deeply drawn to a very particular whale. This is the story of a love triangle between the titular Whale Caller, his beloved whale Sharisha, and Saluni, the village drunk who teaches him to open his heart to people again.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)

The story of two radically different men thrown together in a Latin American prison cell. One is Valentin, a journalist being tortured for his political beliefs. The other is Molina, a gay window-dresser who fills their lonely nights by spinning romantic fantasies drawn from memories of old movies.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama