Movies like A Shyness for the Real Thing (1995)
The best movies like A Shyness for the Real Thing (1995) are Close Range Love (2014), How to Fall in Love (2012) and My Date with Drew (2005). If A Shyness for the Real Thing hooked you, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Best of Me (2014)7.5/10 from 2,775 votes
- NewestMiller's Girl (2024)Released 2024
- In JapaneseClose Range Love (2014)Also in Japanese
Close Range Love (2014)
A smart high school student falls in love with her English teacher after she receives one-on-one tutoring from him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHow to Fall in Love (2012)
An accountant, who never quite grew out of his awkward teenage years, finds himself with a dating coach - she happens to be his high school crush as well. Thanks to his coach, he gets a pretty woman he has his sights on for some time, but realizes they are incompatible. Meanwhile, his dating lessons with his teenage crush reawaken old feelings. Not realizing the feelings are mutual, he finds himself unable to act on them due to his fear of being rejected by the one he truly loves.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Date with Drew (2005)
Ever since the second grade when he first saw her in E.T. The Extraterrestrial, Brian Herzlinger has had a crush on Drew Barrymore. Now, 20 years later he's decided to try to fulfill his lifelong dream by asking her for a date. There's one small problem: She's Drew Barrymore and he's, well, Brian Herzlinger, a broke 27-year-old aspiring filmmaker from New Jersey.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisDirty Teacher (2013)
When a high school senior discovers her teacher is seducing her boyfriend, events turn deadly after the teacher tries to cover it up.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisChild's Play (1972)
At an exclusive boys' school, a new gym teacher is drawn into a feud between two older instructors, and he discovers that everything at the school is not quite as staid, tranquil and harmless as it seems.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisImprint (2006)
An American journalist travels through 19th-century Japan to find the prostitute he fell in love with but instead learns of the physical and existential horror that befell her after he left.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSubmission (2018)
A well-respected professor who is a celebrated novelist and loving husband loses himself when he becomes obsessed with an ambitious and talented student.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Rewrite (2014)
An Oscar-winning writer in a slump leaves Hollywood to teach screenwriting at a college on the East Coast, where he falls for a single mom taking classes there.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMiller's Girl (2024)
A talented young writer embarks on a creative odyssey when her teacher assigns a project that entangles them both.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShanghaied (1915)
A shipowner intends to scuttle his ship on its last voyage to get the insurance money. Charlie, a tramp in love with the owner's daughter, is grabbed by the captain and promises to help him shanghai some seamen. The daughter stows away to follow Charlie. Charlie assists in the galley and attempts to serve food during a gale.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Kissing Booth (2018)
When teenager Elle's first kiss leads to a forbidden romance with the hottest boy in high school, she risks her relationship with her best friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Rainy Days (2009)
A cold and calculating high school student falls in love for the first time with a professor, but he's dying of brain cancer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Best of Me (2014)
A pair of former high school sweethearts reunite after many years when they return to visit their small hometown.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)
A headstrong young teacher in a private school in 1930s Edinburgh ignores the curriculum and influences her impressionable 12-year-old charges with her over-romanticized worldview.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMelody (1971)
Two youngsters declare to their parents that they want to get married. Not sometime in the future but as soon as possible.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Tutor (2023)
When a professional tutor takes a job at a remote manor, he soon finds himself battling his disturbed student’s obsessions, which threaten to expose his darkest secrets and unravel his carefully crafted persona.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGo, Go Second Time Virgin (1969)
Go, Go, Second Time Virgin is the story of two damned and abused teenagers who meet and fall in mutant love on a Tokyo rooftop. Their only hope is to cement their love with an escape into oblivion.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSky of Love (2007)
Mika is a fresh high school student who starts texting a mysterious boy. She is shocked when he reveals who he is - Hiro, a delinquent attending her school. What she doesn't know is that Hiro isn't as bad as he seems.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStalked by My Doctor (2015)
When a teenage girl is miraculously saved by a heart surgeon, the doctor begins to flirt with her. Her father doesn’t believe her and unbeknownst to all, the doctor is obsessed with the girl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGoodbye, Mr. Chips (1969)
Academy Award-honoree Peter O'Toole stars in this musical classic about a prim English schoolmaster who learns to show his compassion through the help of an outgoing showgirl. O'Toole, who received his fourth Oscar-nomination for this performance, is joined by '60s pop star Petula Clark and fellow Oscar-nominee Michael Redgrave.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChikan densha: Oshiri o futte onedari (1988)
A section chief is unable to get it up with his wife, and even worse, is dying. He then learns BDSM, soon joined by a male and female employee (who is a "true masochist").
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Extracurricular Activity: Rape! (1989)
Three bad high school students who are preparing for the graduation ceremony are caught up in a battle with Yakuza after encountering a Korean in Japan and Yuki Yappa who has been married to him. A youth adventure drama with a powerful depiction of "Japan" and "Asia" that emerges from various nationalities.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
No Man's Land (1991)
Parisian Rita Kato follows a letter from her friend Masao Sato to Tokyo, but discovers that a new tenant is already living at the sender's address, the slacker Takeshi, called Golgo after the contract killer protagonist from Takao Saitō's long-lived manga series Golgo 13. Apathetically, the two squats on each other for a few days until Rita sets off again and is bagged on the way back by the petty criminal Kiyomi in a stolen car. In the Tokyo swampland, the two meet Golgo again...
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Amazon Garden: Uniform Lesbians (1992)
A lesbian teacher (Kanako Kishi) comes to Tokyo in search of her student (Ichiko Kamata), who has dropped out of high school and started living with a bomb-making terrorist (Takeshi Ito).
Why it matches: Similar story and style
The Monk Farted (1993)
The story is about Nagatoshi, a handsome and sexy monk played by Kazuhiro Sano, who is struggling for the widow he loves. Foreshadowing the prophecy of the Great Kanto Earthquake, the film is a highly entertaining theatrical spectacle that depicts the human condition of a downtown area undergoing development and the efforts of men and women who rebel against it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Angel in September (1994)
One day, Hitomi observes her classmate Eriko stealing lipstick in a drugstore and follows her home. The two young women get to know and love each other. While the withdrawn Hitomi believes herself and Eriko to be reincarnations of angel warriors who once fought demon armies, her emancipated and apathetic friend wanders through life between sex contacts with older men and fear of falling into a boring bourgeois existence. The different futures of the two soon lead to tensions.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
End of the World (1995)
A fugitive man and woman (Kawase, Kawana) come to an island to retrieve their son (Iwasaki), who the woman has given to a foster family, but the son's foster parents are policemen (Ito)... The suspense surrounding the retrieval of the son is made unusual by the location shooting on the vast and desolate Miyakejima Island and leads to an allegorical drama about the essential desires of human beings. This was Kawase Yota's first appearance in a Zeze film, and he has since become a regular actor. The title of the film at the time of its first release was Sukebe Tenkomori.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
No Good Men (1995)
No Good Men follows Kumiko, a young and attractive woman that works at a travel agency, and moonlights as an insatiable, sex-hungry mistress.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Sex Angel: From the Underground Videos, with Love (1988)
A fantasy erotic work in which a woman who appears in an adult video actually appears in front of various people who watch the video and fulfills their desires. Omori stops by a video rental store on his way home from work and casually picks up a video in a black package. When he plays it at home, it's just boring. Disappointed, Omori tries to turn off the video, but a woman calls out to him from inside the TV, saying, "Don't turn it off. I love you."
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Pachinko Battle (2004)
Sara arrives in a deserted town and hears that a pachinko tournament is being held there. There are 100 participants and a total prize pool of 100 million yen. Sara ends up participating in the tournament by chance, but it is a nefarious plot by Jinno, who controls the town, and all the prize money is rigged up for him to keep.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Like A Shyness for the Real Thing and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like A Shyness for the Real Thing?
The closest matches to A Shyness for the Real Thing are Close Range Love (2014), How to Fall in Love (2012) and My Date with Drew (2005). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after A Shyness for the Real Thing?
Start with Close Range Love (2014), the closest match to A Shyness for the Real Thing.
What is the highest-rated movie like A Shyness for the Real Thing?
The Best of Me (2014), rated 7.5/10 by 2,775 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like A Shyness for the Real Thing?
Miller's Girl (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like A Shyness for the Real Thing?
Yes: Close Range Love (2014), Imprint (2006) and My Rainy Days (2009).
How are movies similar to A Shyness for the Real Thing chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside A Shyness for the Real Thing, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.



























