Movies like I Am the King (2012)
The best movies like I Am the King (2012) are The President's Barber (2004), Wittgenstein (1993) and The Face Reader (2013). If I Am the King hooked you with its history and comedy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWar of the Arrows (2011)7.2/10 from 304 votes
- NewestThe King's Warden (2026)Released 2026
- In KoreanThe President's Barber (2004)Also in Korean
The President's Barber (2004)
A well-meaning but politically naive barber gets pulled into the inner circle of the South Korean dictator Park Chung-Hee, with rather baleful consequences for his hapless family. This sharp political satire covers roughly twenty years in South Korean political history, from the viewpoint of the barber's son.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWittgenstein (1993)
A dramatization, in modern theatrical style, of the life and thought of the Viennese-born, Cambridge-educated philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, whose principal interest was the nature and limits of language. A series of sketches depict the unfolding of his life from boyhood, through the era of the first World War, to his eventual Cambridge professorship and association with Bertrand Russell and John Maynard Keynes. The emphasis in these sketches is on the exposition of the ideas of Wittgenstein, a homosexual, and an intuitive, moody, proud, and perfectionistic thinker generally regarded as a genius.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Face Reader (2013)
An exceptionally talented face reader becomes entangled in a bloody power struggle between a child king and his uncle who plans to usurp the throne.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKing and the Clown (2005)
Two clowns living in Korea's Chosun Dynasty get arrested for staging a play that satirizes the king. They are dragged to the palace and threatened with execution but are given a chance to save their lives if they can make the king laugh.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Throne (2015)
Ancient Korea, July 4, 1762. The Crown Prince Hyojang, posthumously named Sado, son of King Yeongjo of Joseon, is accused of treason. Thus, the king asks him to commit suicide, but his closest vassals prevent it, so the king orders the prince to get inside a wooden rice chest, where he suffers deprivation of food and water.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMasquerade (2012)
Though it places his own life in danger, a look-alike commoner secretly takes the place of a poisoned king to save his country from falling into chaos.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMary (2024)
A miraculous conception. A merciless king. A murderous pursuit. Mary's journey to give birth to Jesus unfolds in this biblical coming-of-age epic.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Call to Spy (2020)
The story of Vera Atkins, a crafty spy recruiter, and two of the first women she selects for Churchill's "secret army": Virginia Hall, a daring American undaunted by a disability and Noor Inayat Khan, a pacifist. These civilian women form an unlikely sisterhood while entangled in dangerous missions to turn the tide of the war.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDetective K: Secret of Virtuous Widow (2011)
In 1782, King Jeong-jo of Joseon asks detective K to investigate a series of murders related to a case of corruption within the government.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2017)
An African-American woman becomes an unwitting pioneer for medical breakthroughs when her cells are used to create the first immortal human cell line in the early 1950s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMr. Turner (2014)
Eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner lives his last 25 years with gusto and secretly becomes involved with a seaside landlady, while his faithful housekeeper bears an unrequited love for him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Scarlet and the Black (1983)
Fr. Hugh O'Flaherty is a Vatican official in 1943-45 who has been hiding downed pilots, escaped prisoners of war, and Italian resistance families. His activities become so large that the Nazis decide to assassinate him the next time he leaves the Vatican.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisScandal Makers (2008)
Former teen idol Nam Hyeon-soo is now in his thirties and working as a radio DJ. One day a young woman named Jeong-nam shows up and claims to be his own daughter. She also has a son whom she claims to be Hyeon-soo's grandson. Their relation is proven via DNA tests by Hyeon-soo's brother. This leads to Hyeon-soo attempting to avoid a scandal concerning him having children "unknown" to the media.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTwenty (2015)
A story about three friends who just turned twenty; an age where you can do whatever you want, love whoever you want with opportunities abroad.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNothing in Common (1986)
A successful advertising executive finds his freewheeling life crashing to a halt when his parents end their longtime marriage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisInseparable Bros (2019)
Se-ha who is physically handicapped and Dong-gu who is mentally handicapped are not their own brothers. But while living 20 years together, the two became indispensable to each other. One day, the mother of Dong-gu suddenly visits him and acts as his guardian.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisWar of the Arrows (2011)
After the death of their father, two siblings are raised by their father's best friend. However, when one gets kidnapped just before her wedding, the other rises against the Manchus.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSix Pack (1982)
Stopping briefly in a small Texas town, an itinerant race car driver finds that his stock car, on a trailer behind his motor home, has just been quickly and expertly stripped. He chases down the miscreants, who turn out to be six orphan children. He has no recourse to the law, for the corrupt local sheriff takes most of the proceeds of their thievery in exchange for not putting them in an orphanage. They are charming rogues who are in turn charmed by him. Disliking their arrangement with the sheriff, they stow away with him, and he finds himself becoming a reluctant stepfather. Thanks to their enthusiasm and incredible mechanical know-how, he begins to make a name for himself on the racing circuit. But the sheriff doesn't take kindly to losing his extra income...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA King in New York (1957)
A recently-deposed "Estrovian" monarch seeks shelter in New York City, where he becomes an accidental television celebrity. Later, he's wrongly accused of being a Communist and gets caught up in subsequent HUAC hearings.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSunny (2011)
Seven girls become good friends in high school, then events pull them apart for 25 years. When one of the friends lies dying in a hospital, she wishes to see each of them one last time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRobert the Bruce (2019)
In 1306, Scottish King Robert the Bruce turns a defeated outlaw when his country is invaded. But before to free his sacred land, he must manage to regain his will to fight back and survive the persecution of those who want take his head and the English gold.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
SnoozefestMovies like thisLim Kkeok-jeong (1961)
During the later years of Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), Lim Kkeok-jeong, a butcher's son, stands up against the aristocrats' tyranny and helps displaced people live in peace at a village he has established. He also forms a chivalrous robbers' band to get rid of corrupt officials. He dedicates himself to saving people from misery and teaching a lesson to the aristocrats and corrupted officials.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Canvas of Blood (TBA)
Dedicating his days to art, Prince Anpyeong leaves matters of the kingdom to his elder brothers, King Munjong and Prince Suyang. But after dreaming of a utopia in a peach grove and commissioning a painting of it, Anpyeong begins involving himself in politics, driven by the desire to turn his dream into reality for his nation. When Suyang steps in to manifest his own dreams for Joseon, the fate of the kingdom and their own lives hang in the balance, testing their brotherhood to the breaking point.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & drama
Forever Amber (1947)
Amber St Clair, orphaned during the English Civil War and raised by a family of farmers, aspires to be a lady of high society; when a group of cavaliers ride into town, she sneaks away with them to London to achieve her dreams.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Feng Shui (2018)
Park Jae-sang was a royal geomancer, who helps people designate propitious site for houses, store and even graves under the belief that a grave in a good site will bring future fortune for descendants. But he loses his family because he exposed a conspiracy about crown Prince's grave site. Park Jae-sang plans to make a revenge of his family and learns that there is a much bigger conspiracy about propitious grave site; the place that would make grave owner's son the King of Joseon.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
The King's Warden (2026)
In a remote mountain village of 15th-century Joseon, humble headman Heung-do hears a rumor that any village hosting an exiled nobleman will be blessed with abundance and fortune. Hoping to bring prosperity to his impoverished community, he eagerly submits a petition to host one—unaware that his guest is none other than the fallen monarch, deposed boy-king Danjong.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & drama
Portrait of a Beauty (2008)
Yun-jeong, a skilled painter, disguises herself as a man in court to continue her family's legacy. Circumstances become difficult when her relationship with Kang-mu draws jealousy from the others.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWWE Night of Champions 2023 (2023)
The 2023 Night of Champions is an upcoming professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and live-streaming event produced by WWE. This will be the 10th Night of Champions event, the first since the 2015 event, and the first to live stream on Peacock. The event will be held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions and will be held on Saturday, May 27, 2023, at the Jeddah Super Dome in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It will be the ninth event that WWE will hold in Saudi Arabia under a 10-year partnership supporting Saudi Vision 2030. Originally known as the King and Queen of the Ring as its 12th event since 2002, the WWE renamed the event on April 13, 2023, to coincide with the 1,000-day reign of Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Shadows in the Palace (2007)
Upon receiving the body of a maid in waiting who was said to have hung herself within the palace walls, dedicated doctor Chun-ryung begins to suspect foul play. Upon launching a personal investigation, however, Chun-ryung quickly discovers a labyrinthine maze of deception constructed by those with limitless power to conceal a valuable secret.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Ghost Story of Joseon Dynasty (1970)
Prince Yeonsan-gun attempts to sexually harass Yahwa, the wife of Yun Pil-u who was beheaded after being branded as a traitor. Yahwa commits a suicide following her husband but, before she dies, has already asked her cat to make revenge. Since that time, the bodies of the court ladies and the patrol guards are found every morning and ghosts of Pil-u and Yahwa regularly appear along with the mewing sound of the cat. Kim Chung-won, head of the guardsmen and also a former friend of Pil-u, borrows the supernatural power of a senior Buddhist priest and succeeds in getting rid of the ghosts for the peace of the nation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like I Am the King and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like I Am the King?
The closest matches to I Am the King are The President's Barber (2004), Wittgenstein (1993) and The Face Reader (2013). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after I Am the King?
Start with The President's Barber (2004), the closest match to I Am the King.
What is the highest-rated movie like I Am the King?
War of the Arrows (2011), rated 7.2/10 by 304 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like I Am the King?
The King's Warden (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Korean movies like I Am the King?
Yes: The President's Barber (2004), The Face Reader (2013) and King and the Clown (2005).
How are movies similar to I Am the King chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside I Am the King, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.