Movies like SCHOOL SOUNDS (1978)
The best movies like SCHOOL SOUNDS (1978) are April Story (1998), A Story of Yonosuke (2013) and Ocean Waves (1993). If SCHOOL SOUNDS hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBack to the Future (1985)8.3/10 from 22,737 votes
- NewestPizza Movie (2026)Released 2026
- In JapaneseApril Story (1998)Also in Japanese
April Story (1998)
In spring, a girl leaves the island of Hokkaido to attend university in Tokyo. Once there, she is asked to reveal why she wanted to go there in the first place.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Story of Yonosuke (2013)
The year is 1987 and Japan is just reaching the peak of its economic success. Eighteen-year old Yonosuke Yokomichi arrives in Tokyo from Nagasaki. Ordinary in every way possible, he lives in a suburb far from the excitement of the big city and commutes to a university in the center of Tokyo.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOcean Waves (1993)
At Kichijōji Station, Tokyo, Taku Morisaki glimpses a familiar woman on the platform opposite boarding a train. Later, her photo falls from a shelf as he exits his apartment before flying to Kōchi Prefecture. Picking it up, he looks at it briefly before leaving. As the aeroplane takes off, he narrates the events that brought her into his life...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFrom Up on Poppy Hill (2011)
Yokohama, 1963. Japan is picking itself up from the devastation of World War II and preparing to host the 1964 Olympics—and the mood is one of both optimism and conflict as the young generation struggles to throw off the shackles of a troubled past. Against this backdrop of hope and change, a friendship begins to blossom between high school students Umi and Shun—but a buried secret from their past emerges to cast a shadow on the future and pull them apart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNo Regrets for Our Youth (1946)
After her anti-fascist professor father is dismissed, Yukie navigates love, political repression, and wartime upheaval—ultimately forging her own path in pre- and post-WWII Japan.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisParadise Kiss (2011)
Hyasaka Yukari only wants one thing: to enter the college that her mom wants. One day, she meets an extravagant group that loves fashion. They were searching for a model and Yukari fits their ideal model. From now Yukari will know the world of fashion and modeling, and what she really wants.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEros + Massacre (1969)
Two interwoven stories. The first is a biography of anarchist Sakae Osugi which follows his relationship with three women in the 1920s. The second centers around two 1960s students researching Osugi's theories.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBack to the Future (1985)
Eighties teenager Marty McFly is accidentally sent back in time to 1955, inadvertently disrupting his parents' first meeting and attracting his mother's romantic interest. Marty must repair the damage to history by rekindling his parents' romance and - with the help of his eccentric inventor friend Doc Brown - return to 1985.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisPizza Movie (2026)
A group of college students go downstairs to their dorm lobby to get a delivery pizza. There's only one issue: They're insanely high on a homemade drug, turning their simple journey down two sets of stairs into a mind-bendingly transformative quest.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLost in Translation (2003)
Two lost souls visiting Tokyo -- the young, neglected wife of a photographer and a washed-up movie star shooting a TV commercial -- find an odd solace and pensive freedom to be real in each other's company, away from their lives in America.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAccepted (2006)
A high school slacker who's rejected by every school he applies to opts to create his own institution of higher learning, the South Harmon Institute of Technology, on a rundown piece of property near his hometown.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove & Pop (1998)
Tokyo schoolgirl Hiromi and her friends engage in a practice known as enjo kosai, or "compensated dating", where older men pay young girls for dates. Hiromi plunges deeper into this world to raise money for an expensive ring.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCruella (2021)
In 1970s London amidst the punk rock revolution, a young grifter named Estella is determined to make a name for herself with her designs. She befriends a pair of young thieves who appreciate her appetite for mischief, and together they are able to build a life for themselves on the London streets. One day, Estella’s flair for fashion catches the eye of the Baroness von Hellman, a fashion legend who is devastatingly chic and terrifyingly haute. But their relationship sets in motion a course of events and revelations that will cause Estella to embrace her wicked side and become the raucous, fashionable and revenge-bent Cruella.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Brave Little Toaster (1987)
A group of dated appliances, finding themselves stranded in a summer home that their family had just sold, decide to seek out their eight year old 'master'.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAnimal House (1978)
At a 1962 College, Dean Vernon Wormer is determined to expel the entire Delta Tau Chi Fraternity, but those troublemakers have other plans for him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this20th Century Boys 2: The Last Hope (2009)
Set 15 years after "Twentieth Century Boys," Kanna (Airi Taira) reunites with several main characters from the first film in an attempt to stop Friend's increasing influence over the world and continued plans to eliminate humanity, as detailed in the New Book of Prophecy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMadadayo (1993)
In postwar Tokyo, beloved writer-professor Hyakken Uchida retires and is buoyed through hardship by the fierce devotion of his former students, who honor him each year with a raucous “Not yet!” birthday toast. Told in warm, gently comic vignettes, Kurosawa’s farewell celebrates aging, friendship, and the sustaining ritual of teacher and pupils refusing to say goodbye.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOne Wonderful Sunday (1947)
Two broke sweethearts wander war-scarred Tokyo on a single Sunday, stretching 35 yen as they chase housing, small pleasures, and a little hope.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThis Means War (2012)
Two top CIA operatives wage an epic battle against one another after they discover they are dating the same woman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Dreamers (2003)
When Isabelle and Theo invite Matthew to stay with them, what begins as a casual friendship ripens into a sensual voyage of discovery and desire in which nothing is off limits and everything is possible.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like SCHOOL SOUNDS?
The closest matches to SCHOOL SOUNDS are April Story (1998), A Story of Yonosuke (2013) and Ocean Waves (1993). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after SCHOOL SOUNDS?
Start with April Story (1998), the closest match to SCHOOL SOUNDS.
What is the highest-rated movie like SCHOOL SOUNDS?
Back to the Future (1985), rated 8.3/10 by 22,737 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like SCHOOL SOUNDS?
Pizza Movie (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like SCHOOL SOUNDS?
Yes: April Story (1998), A Story of Yonosuke (2013) and Ocean Waves (1993).
How are movies similar to SCHOOL SOUNDS chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside SCHOOL SOUNDS, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.