Movies like Shanghai Kiss (2007)
The best movies like Shanghai Kiss (2007) are My Awkward Sexual Adventure (2012), Sex and Death 101 (2007) and Arthur (1981). If Shanghai Kiss hooked you with its comedy and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedKnockin' on Heaven's Door (1997)7.7/10 from 643 votes
- NewestThe Wrong Paris (2025)Released 2025
My Awkward Sexual Adventure (2012)
A hyper-repressed and schlubby accountant (Jonas Chernick) strikes a deal with a worldly but disorganized stripper (Emily Hampshire): he'll help her with her crushing debt if she helps him become a better lover.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSex and Death 101 (2007)
A guy's life is turned around by an email, which includes the names of everyone he's had sex with and ever will have sex with. His situation gets worse when he encounters a femme fatale who targets men guilty of sex crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisArthur (1981)
Arthur is a 30-year-old child who will inherit $750 million if he complies with his family's demands and marries the woman of their choosing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Shape of Things (2003)
Quiet, unassuming Adam is changing in a major way, thanks to his new girlfriend, art student Evelyn. Adam's friends are a little freaked by the transformation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNew York Stories (1989)
Three tales of love, ambition, and neurosis unfold in the city that never sleeps. In "Life Lessons" (Martin Scorsese), a tormented painter channels heartbreak into his art. In "Life Without Zoë" (Francis Ford Coppola), a precocious 12-year-old navigates privilege and loneliness in a Manhattan hotel. And in "Oedipus Wrecks" (Woody Allen), a man’s domineering mother literally becomes a looming presence over New York.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHappythankyoumoreplease (2011)
Six New Yorkers navigate love, commitment, and adulthood. When struggling novelist Sam takes in an abandoned boy he meets on the subway, his life begins to intertwine with a talented singer who challenges his bachelor ways. Meanwhile, his best friend Annie battles alopecia while torn between two drastically different men, and a long-term couple faces a crossroads that could alter their future together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOther People's Money (1991)
When a corporate raider threatens a hostile takeover of a 'mom and pop' company, the patriarch of the company enlists the help of his wife's attractive daughter—who is a lawyer—to stop the takeover. However, the raider soon becomes infatuated with her, and enjoys the legal manoeuvring as he tries to win her heart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNappily Ever After (2018)
After an accident at the hair salon, Violet realizes she's not living life to the fullest. A soulful barber helps her put the pieces back together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRisky Business (1983)
Meet Joel Goodson, an industrious, college-bound 17-year-old and a responsible, trustworthy son. However, when his parents go away and leave him home alone in the wealthy Chicago suburbs with the Porsche at his disposal he quickly decides he has been good for too long and it is time to enjoy himself. After an unfortunate incident with the Porsche Joel must raise some cash, in a risky way.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMilk Money (1994)
Three young boys pool their money and pay V, a kindhearted prostitute, to strip for them. Afterward, she drives them home to the suburbs -- but then her car breaks down. It's just as well, though, because a mobster named Waltzer is after her, and V realizes the suburbs are the perfect place to hide. But things get a lot more complicated when V falls in love with Tom, a single father who is unaware of her real profession.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove & Sex (2000)
When her rather explicit copy is rejected, magazine journalist Kate is asked by her editor to come up with an article on loving relationships instead, and to do so by the end of the day. This gets Kate thinking back over her own various experiences, and to wondering if she is in much of a position to write on the subject.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Wrong Paris (2025)
Dawn thinks she's joining a dating show in Paris, France, only to land in Paris, Texas. She has an exit plan — until sparks fly with the cowboy bachelor.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHeartbreakers (2001)
Max and Page are a brilliant mother/daughter con team who have their grift down to a fine science. Max targets wealthy, willing men and marries them. Page then seduces them, and Max catches her husband in the act. Then it's off to palimony city and the next easy mark.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Man from Elysian Fields (2001)
A failed novelist's inability to pay the bills strains relations with his wife and leads him to work at an escort service, where he becomes entwined with a wealthy woman whose husband is a successful writer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisEasy Virtue (2008)
A young Englishman marries a glamorous American. When he brings her home to meet the parents, she arrives like a blast from the future - blowing their entrenched British stuffiness out the window.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOnly the Lonely (1991)
Danny Muldoon, a Chicago policeman, still lives with his overbearing mother Rose. He meets and falls in love with Theresa Luna, whose father owns the local funeral parlour. Naturally, his mother objects to the relationship, and Danny and Theresa must either overcome her objections or give up the romance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMe and You and Everyone We Know (2005)
Single dad Richard meets Christine, a starving artist who moonlights as a cabbie. They awkwardly attempt to start a romance, but Richard’s divorce has left him emotionally damaged. Meanwhile, Richard’s sons—one a teenager, the other 6-years-old—take part in clumsy experiments with the opposite sex.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSplendor (1999)
Veronica is a white-bread beauty searching for a good man in Los Angeles. While slam dancing at a Halloween rave, she meets Abel, a sensitive poet. Then she meets Zed, a supersexy tattooed drummer with incredible biceps. Who will she choose? Does she go for true love or cheap sex? She can't decide so she chooses both. But after managing to nurture a picture-perfect threesome, along comes Ernest, a rich movie director with deep baby blues that sweep Veronica off her feet. What's a girl to do now?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlashdance (1983)
Alex Owens, a young woman juggling between two odd jobs, aspires to become a successful ballet dancer. Nick, who is her boss and lover, supports and encourages her to fulfil her dream.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWatching the Detectives (2007)
Neil, a self-proclaimed film geek and owner of Gumshoe video, has always been content to live vicariously through his favorite films noir. But when he meets Violet, a real-life femme fatale, his mundane world gets turned upside down and the line between reality and the movies quickly begins to blur.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEdge of Seventeen (1999)
1984, Sandusky, Ohio. A naive 17-year-old navigates heartbreak and self-expression as he explores his sexuality.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBolero (1983)
Pete is no stranger to success, delivering hit series as a musician in a rock group. When he parts ways with his band and produces his first solo LP, he learns for the first time what a flop means. He did not expect this. He is insecure and desperate, while Lena, his wife, accepts this low blow as a challenge. Jealously, Pete observes that Lena is becoming more and more independent and self-confident in her surroundings. At home there are arguments until everyone packs his bags. Alone with his longing and tenderness for Lena, Pete composes the "Bolero" on his white grand piano that calls her back.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
A Night in Heaven (1983)
Faye Hanlon is a community-college professor with an emotionally depressed husband and an abundance of sexual frustration. Her sister drags her to a male strip-club for a girls-night out, where she discovers that one of the dancers is her failing student Rick Monroe, a.k.a. "Ricky the Rocket". A heated affair between teacher & student ensues, as Faye struggles to reconcile her emotions and make consequential life choices: Continue her lustful sessions with the studly-but-shallow teen stripper? Or break it off with Ricky & work to salvage her marriage to the loving-but-distant husband?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Hannah Takes the Stairs (2007)
Hannah is a recent college graduate interning at a Chicago production company. She is crushing on two writers at work, Matt and Paul, who share an office and keep her entertained. Will a relationship with one of them disrupt the delicate balance of their friendship?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisTable for Five (1983)
J.P. Tannen (Jon Voight) wants a second chance to be a father to his children ... but someone else has taken his place. Determined not to just be a friendly 'uncle' in their lives, he gets permission from his ex-wife Kathleen (Millie Perkins) and her new husband (Richard Crenna) to take the kids on a Mediterranean cruise. On the journey he comes to realise it's not that easy and, feeling overwhelmed, begins to doubt his abilities until a tragedy back home forces him to become the father he always hoped to be.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Knockin' on Heaven's Door (1997)
Two young men, Martin and Rudi, both suffering from terminal cancer, get to know each other in a hospital room. They drown their desperation in tequila and decide to take one last trip to the sea. Drunk and still in pajamas they steal the first fancy car they find, a 60's Mercedes convertible. The car happens to belong to a bunch of gangsters, which immediately start to chase it, since it contains more than the pistol Martin finds in the glove box.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTransamerica (2005)
A transgender woman takes an unexpected journey when she learns that she had a son, now a teenage runaway hustling on the streets of New York.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Invisible Worm (2016)
The love of two young artists is put to the test when unsympathetic adults force the couple into isolation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
The Band's Visit (2007)
A small Egyptian police band travels to Israel to play at the inaugural ceremony of an Arab arts center, only to find themselves stuck in the wrong town.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHotel Very Welcome (2007)
Five young Europeans (German, English, and Irish) try to find answers to life's questions in India and Thailand.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Shanghai Kiss and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Shanghai Kiss?
The closest matches to Shanghai Kiss are My Awkward Sexual Adventure (2012), Sex and Death 101 (2007) and Arthur (1981). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Shanghai Kiss?
Start with My Awkward Sexual Adventure (2012), the closest match to Shanghai Kiss.
What is the highest-rated movie like Shanghai Kiss?
Knockin' on Heaven's Door (1997), rated 7.7/10 by 643 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Shanghai Kiss?
The Wrong Paris (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Shanghai Kiss?
Yes: My Awkward Sexual Adventure (2012), Sex and Death 101 (2007) and Arthur (1981).
How are movies similar to Shanghai Kiss chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Shanghai Kiss, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.