Skip to content

Movies like After the Cat (2024)

The best movies like After the Cat (2024) are Black Dog (2024), Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains (2020) and Lighting Up the Stars (2022). If After the Cat hooked you with its drama, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks

  1. Black Dog (2024)

    Released from jail, Lang returns to his hometown in Northwest China. As part of a dog patrol tasked with clearing stray dogs before the 2008 Olympics, he bonds with a black stray. The two lonely souls embark on a new journey together.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  2. Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains (2020)

    In the Chinese town of Fuyang, four brothers go about their day-to-day lives, their destinies shaped by love and challenges.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  3. Lighting Up the Stars (2022)

    Having been released after serving his sentence, a funeral director accidentally crosses paths with a girl which brings about an unexpected change in his attitude towards life.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  4. Caught by the Tides (2024)

    Years after her boyfriend left her for the big city and promised to bring her there after he’s settled down, a Chinese woman sets out on a journey to be reunited with him.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  5. 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

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  6. Where the Red Fern Grows (2003)

    Set in the Ozark Mountains during the Great Depression, Billy Coleman works hard and saves his earnings for 2 years to achieve his dream of buying two coonhound pups. He develops a new trust in God as he faces overwhelming challenges in adventure and tragedy roaming the river bottoms of Cherokee country with "Old Dan" and "Little Ann."

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  7. The World (2004)

    At Beijing World Park, a bizarre cross-pollination of Las Vegas and Epcot Center where visitors can interact with famous international monuments without ever leaving the city’s suburbs, a security guard betrays his dancer girlfriend by pursuing another woman.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  8. Vanya 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 this
  9. Buddha Mountain (2011)

    In Chengdu, China, a retired female opera singer named Master Chang takes in a trio of young tenants into her boarding home. The tenants include a rock singer and a college student who has run away from home.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  10. Where the Red Fern Grows (1974)

    Billy Coleman works hard and saves his earnings for two years to achieve his dream of buying two red-bone coonhound pups. He develops a new trust in life as he faces overwhelming challenges in adventure and tragedy roaming the river bottoms of Cherokee country with his dogs, Old Dan and Little Ann.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  11. The Color of Friendship (2000)

    Mahree Bok lives on a farm in South Africa. Her father is a policeman who cannot hide his joy when activist Steve Biko is caught by the South African authorities. Piper Dellums is the daughter of a US congressman from California and who lives in a nice home in Washington DC. When Mahree is chosen to spend a semester at the Dellums' house, she doesn't expect that her host family would be black. Nor do her hosts suspect that she is not a black South African.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  12. American Dreams in China (2013)

    Three Chinese friends build a successful English language school to help Chinese teenagers fulfil their dreams.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  13. One Week Friends (2022)

    A high school student suffers from a strange amnesia, causing her memories to only last a week. After she befriends a new student, his kindness and persistence make her gradually open up.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  14. The Last Bus (2021)

    Widower Tom, on the recent passing of his wife Mary, uses his free bus pass to travel the length of Britain from John O'Groats in Caithness to Land's End in Cornwall, their shared birthplace, using only local buses. It's an incident-fuelled nostalgia trip and his encounters with local people make him a media phenomenon. Tom is totally unaware and to his surprise on arrival at Land’s End he’s greeted as a celebrity.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  15. Blue 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 this
  16. 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

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  17. Aftershock (2010)

    Tangshan, 1976. Two seven-year-old twins are buried under the rubble of the deadliest earthquake of the 20th century. The rescue team explains to their mother that freeing either child will almost certainly result in the death of the other. Forced to make the most difficult decision of her life, she finally chooses to save her son. Though left behind as dead, the little girl miraculously survives, unbeknownst to her brother and mother.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  18. The Continent (2014)

    Three men living in the Eastern most island of China go on a road trip to the Western most end of the country, and facing crises of love, friendship, and faith on their journey to the West.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  19. Inside I'm Dancing (2004)

    Michael is a 24-year-old who has cerebral palsy and long-term resident of the Carrigmore Residential Home for the Disabled, run by the formidable Eileen. His life is transformed when the maverick Rory O'Shea moves in.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  20. All Together Now (2020)

    An optimistic, talented teen clings to a huge secret: she's homeless and living on a school bus. When tragedy strikes, can she learn to accept a helping hand?

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this

Like After the Cat and something else?

Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best movies like After the Cat?

The closest matches to After the Cat are Black Dog (2024), Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains (2020) and Lighting Up the Stars (2022). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.

What should I watch after After the Cat?

Start with Black Dog (2024), the closest match to After the Cat.

What is the highest-rated movie like After the Cat?

Inside I'm Dancing (2004), rated 7.4/10 by 243 TMDB users.

What is the newest movie like After the Cat?

Eleanor the Great (2025) is the most recent release on this list.

Are there Chinese movies like After the Cat?

Yes: Black Dog (2024), Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains (2020) and Lighting Up the Stars (2022).

How are movies similar to After the Cat chosen?

First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside After the Cat, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.

↑ ↓ to move · Enter to open · Full search page