Movies like Strangers in Kyoto (2025)
The best movies like Strangers in Kyoto (2025) are Achilles and the Tortoise (2008), Glory to the Filmmaker! (2007) and Almost Friends (2017). If Strangers in Kyoto hooked you with its drama and comedy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedMemoirs of a Geisha (2005)7.6/10 from 3,497 votes
- NewestDrifters (2026)Released 2026
- In JapaneseAchilles and the Tortoise (2008)Also in Japanese
Achilles and the Tortoise (2008)
Machisu is a painter. He never had the success he thinks he is entitled to. Regardless of this, he always remains trying to be successful. His wife Sachiko keeps supporting him, despite all setbacks.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGlory to the Filmmaker! (2007)
Takeshi Kitano plays a version of himself in which he's a struggling director cycling through a number of different genres in an effort to complete his latest project.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlmost Friends (2017)
A man in his mid-20s, still living at home with his mother and stepfather, puts all his eggs in one basket: the girl who works at his local coffee shop. The problem is, she has a serious boyfriend. As they become closer, the line between friendship and intimacy is blurred, and the situation forces both to examine where they are in their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFamily Weekend (2013)
A 16-year-old girl takes her parents hostage after they miss her big jump-roping competition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSmall Apartments (2012)
When a clumsy deadbeat accidentally kills his landlord, he must do everything in his power to hide the body, only to find that the distractions of lust, the death of his beloved brother, and a crew of misfit characters force him on a journey where a fortune awaits him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisLady Windermere's Fan (1925)
A society woman believes her husband is having an affair, a misconception which may have dire personal consequences for all involved.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOn Becoming a Guinea Fowl (2024)
On an empty road in the middle of the night, Shula stumbles across the body of her uncle. As funeral proceedings begin around them, she and her cousins bring to light the buried secrets of their middle-class Zambian family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMadea Goes to Jail - The Play (2006)
Madea returns in another hilarious story in which she gets sent to the big house. But regardless of the circumstances, she gives her trademark advice and wisdom to her friends and family as they learn the importance of letting go, moving on, and forgiveness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisChloe and Theo (2015)
A young woman, Chloe, living by her wits on the streets of New York City, has a chance meeting with a wise Inuit Eskimo, Theo, who was sent to New York by his elders to provide a message to the people of the world – We either change our destructive was or be destroyed by them. Chloe, who has been searching for something to believe in, becomes inspired by Theo and , with the help of a kind lawyer, Monica, the three of them present Theo’s story to the United Nations in hopes of creating a better future for all of us.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThings Change (1988)
Jerry, a misfit Mafia henchman, is assigned the low-level job of keeping an eye on Gino, a shoe repairman fingered by the Mob to confess to a murder he didn't commit. But Gino's mistaken for a Mafia boss, and the two are suddenly catapulted to the highest levels of mobster status. Only friendship will see them through this dangerous adventure alive!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSwing Vote (2008)
In a remarkable turn of events, the result of the presidential election comes down to one man's vote.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisTyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion - The Play (2002)
The fireworks begin when Madea’s family gathers for her granddaughter’s wedding. As usual, Madea rules the roost, as she and her neighbor, the wacky Mr. Brown, deliver nonstop laughs. Live, love, rejoice...it’s Madea’s Family Reunion!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTreasure (2024)
A music journalist accompanies her father, a charmingly stubborn Holocaust survivor, on a journey to his homeland. While she's eager to make sense of her family's past, her dad has an agenda of his own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe House of Tomorrow (2019)
The film tells futurist, architect, and inventor R. Buckminster Fuller's incredible story through two teens hoping to get laid, become punk gods, and survive high school.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSomewhere in Queens (2023)
Leo and Angela Russo live a simple life in Queens, surrounded by their overbearing Italian-American family. When their son finds success on his high school basketball team, Leo tears the family apart trying to make it happen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJuniper (2021)
When a self-destructive teenager is suspended from school and asked to look after his feisty alcoholic grandmother as a punishment, the crazy time they spend together turns his life around.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSubUrbia (1997)
A group of suburban teenagers try to support each other through the difficult task of becoming adults.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLandline (2017)
A teenager living with her sister and parents in Manhattan during the 1990s discovers that her father is having an affair.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTokyo Family (2013)
An elderly couple journey to Tokyo to visit their grown children, only to find them preoccupied and self-involved.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFemale Yakuza Tale (1973)
Ocho is accidentally captured by a drug trafficking cartel who use Chinese women to smuggle drugs into Japan by hiding it in their vaginas. She is tortured, and manages to escape, fighting both the male yakuzas and a gang of female thieves.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStrong Women, Weak Men (1968)
After the closure of a coal mine leaves her husband unemployed, Fumiko travels from Kyushu to Kyoto with her daughter Kimiko, and they become hostesses at a cabaret.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Drifters (2026)
In an attempt to escape their problems, three struggling college students take an impromptu trip to Japan. As they aimlessly roam this foreign country, the struggles of everyday life, and their lives back home, begin to resurface.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
Mother Water (2010)
Set with three central figures, "Mother Water" describes the daily lives of people near the Kamo River in Kyoto, Japan.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)
In the years before World War II, a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTaboo (1999)
Set during Japan's Shogun era, this film looks at life in a samurai compound where young warriors are trained in swordfighting. A number of interpersonal conflicts are brewing in the training room, all centering on a handsome young samurai named Sozaburo Kano. The school's stern master can choose to intervene, or to let Kano decide his own path.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Temple of Wild Geese (1962)
Satoko is a mistress by trade or fate: when her master, the silkscreen artist of the Kohoan Temple in Kyoto, dies, she is given to the temple's lascivious head priest Kikuchi. She is drawn to a melancholy young acolyte, Jinen, who has observed the profligacy of his cruel master and Satoko's utter dependence on the man. Jinen is both fascinated and disturbed by Satoko's interest in him; he is similarly caught between loathing of Kikuchi and of the dark circumstances of his birth and his own moral weakness. The story unfolds in a dreamlike manner—a flashback inspired by a now-infamous image on a silkscreen in the souvenir shop at the so-called Temple of the Wild Geese.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Sisters of the Gion (1936)
A geisha in the Gion district of Kyoto feels obliged to help her lover when he asks to stay with her after going bankrupt and leaving his wife. However, her younger sister opposes this, thinking that they should both find wealthy patrons to support them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWonderwall: The Movie (2020)
A university orders that old, decrepit Konoe Dormitory be rebuilt, to the opposition of the students who still occupy and maintain it. Movie version with additional scenes of the 2018 NHK's drama show.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Ashes from the Sun (2008)
Environmental drama set in Asturias, Spain. A Scottish travel writer is forced to stay in a valley town in northern Spain when his camper van breaks down. There he gets to know the different inhabitants, some of them struggling to close down the nearby power station and some trying to make it more prosperous.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Stardom in Kyoto 2026 May. (2026)
Stardom in Kyoto 2026 May. was a professional wrestling event produced by World Wonder Ring Stardom, held on May 31, 2026, at the KBS Hall in Kyōto, Japan.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Strangers in Kyoto?
The closest matches to Strangers in Kyoto are Achilles and the Tortoise (2008), Glory to the Filmmaker! (2007) and Almost Friends (2017). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Strangers in Kyoto?
Start with Achilles and the Tortoise (2008), the closest match to Strangers in Kyoto.
What is the highest-rated movie like Strangers in Kyoto?
Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), rated 7.6/10 by 3,497 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Strangers in Kyoto?
Drifters (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Strangers in Kyoto?
Yes: Achilles and the Tortoise (2008), Glory to the Filmmaker! (2007) and Tokyo Family (2013).
How are movies similar to Strangers in Kyoto chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Strangers in Kyoto, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.