Movies like Picaresque (2002)
The best movies like Picaresque (2002) are River's Edge (2018), Millennium Actress (2002) and Battle Royale (2000). If Picaresque hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedMillennium Actress (2002)7.9/10 from 1,111 votes
- NewestAsakusa Kid (2021)Released 2021
- In JapaneseRiver's Edge (2018)Also in Japanese
River's Edge (2018)
High schooler Haruna befriends loner Yamada, then is drawn into the tangled relationship between him, a model and the girl who loves him unreasonably.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMillennium Actress (2002)
Documentary filmmaker Genya Tachibana has tracked down the legendary actress Chiyoko Fujiwara, who mysteriously vanished at the height of her career. When he presents her with a key she had lost and thought was gone forever, the filmmaker could not have imagined that it would not only unlock the long-held secrets of Chiyoko’s life... but also his own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBattle Royale (2000)
In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAsakusa Kid (2021)
Before he hit it big, Takeshi Kitano got his start apprenticing with comedy legend Fukami of Asakusa. But as his star rises, his mentor's declines.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAn Actor's Revenge (1963)
In Edo Japan, a kabuki actor seeks revenge against the three men who drove his parents to their deaths years ago.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMadadayo (1993)
In postwar Tokyo, beloved writer-professor Hyakken Uchida retires and is buoyed through hardship by the fierce devotion of his former students, who honor him each year with a raucous “Not yet!” birthday toast. Told in warm, gently comic vignettes, Kurosawa’s farewell celebrates aging, friendship, and the sustaining ritual of teacher and pupils refusing to say goodbye.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMaborosi (1995)
A tragedy strikes a young woman's life without warning or reason. She continues living while searching for meaning in a lonely world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDolls (2002)
Dolls takes puppeteering as its overriding motif, which relates thematically to the action provided by the live characters. Chief among those tales is the story of Matsumoto and Sawako, a young couple whose relationship is about to be broken apart by the former's parents, who have insisted their son take part in an arranged marriage to his boss' daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Asadas! (2020)
Masashi is a photographer. He has his parents and an older brother Yukihiro. Through the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, Masashi begins to take staged photos of his family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNorwegian Wood (2010)
Toru recalls his life in the 1960s, when his friend Kizuki killed himself and he grew close to Naoko, Kizuki's girlfriend, and another woman, the outgoing, lively Midori.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAsako I & II (2018)
Asako lives in Osaka. She falls in love with Baku, a free-spirit. One day, Baku suddenly disappears. Two years later, Asako now lives in Tokyo and meets Ryohei. He looks just like Baku, but has a completely different personality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFloating Clouds (1955)
A married Japanese forester during WWII is sent to Indochina to manage forests. He meets a young Japanese typist and promises to leave his wife. He doesn't and after the war, she turns up and the affair resumes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHachiko (1987)
The tragic, true story about Hachikō, an Akita dog who was loyal to his master, Professor Ueno, even after Ueno's death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisColorful (2010)
Upon reaching the train station to death, a dejected soul is informed that he is lucky and will have another chance at life. He is placed in the body of a 14-year-old boy named Kobayashi Makoto, who has just committed suicide. Watched over by a neutral spirit named Purapura, the soul must figure out what his greatest sin and mistake in his former life was, before his time limit in Makoto's body runs out. He also has a number of other lesser duties he must complete, such as understanding what led Makoto to commit suicide in the first place and learning how to enjoy his second chance at life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Dry (2021)
Aaron Falk returns to his drought-stricken hometown to attend a tragic funeral. But his return opens a decades-old wound - the unsolved death of a teenage girl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Blood of Wolves (2018)
Set in 1988 in Hiroshima, Japan, prior to the enactment of the anti-organized crime law. A rumor exists that Detective Shogo Ogami has ties with the yakuza. He is partnered with Detective Shuichi Hioka and they investigate a missing person case involving a financial company employee. Conflicts between opposing yakuza groups become more serious.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Castle of Sand (1974)
Two detectives are tasked to investigate the murder of an old man, found bludgeoned to death in a Tokyo rail yard.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMidsummer's Equation (2013)
Masaharu Fukuyama reprises his role from 2008's "Suspect X," playing the physicist-cum-detective Manabu Yukawa. The scientist-sleuth arrives in an oceanside town to speak on a panel. But when a man turns up dead outside the inn where he's staying, Yukawa begins to unravel the connections that tie the victim to the activist daughter of the innkeepers, and a precocious boy who first appears on a train—and keeps popping up. It's a Sherlock Holmes mystery with an environmental twist, and one that should please fans of a classic whodunnit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFukushima 50 (2020)
Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi facility in Japan risk their lives and stay at the nuclear power plant to prevent total destruction after the region is devastated by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFrom Up on Poppy Hill (2011)
Yokohama, 1963. Japan is picking itself up from the devastation of World War II and preparing to host the 1964 Olympics—and the mood is one of both optimism and conflict as the young generation struggles to throw off the shackles of a troubled past. Against this backdrop of hope and change, a friendship begins to blossom between high school students Umi and Shun—but a buried secret from their past emerges to cast a shadow on the future and pull them apart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Picaresque?
The closest matches to Picaresque are River's Edge (2018), Millennium Actress (2002) and Battle Royale (2000). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Picaresque?
Start with River's Edge (2018), the closest match to Picaresque.
What is the highest-rated movie like Picaresque?
Millennium Actress (2002), rated 7.9/10 by 1,111 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Picaresque?
Asakusa Kid (2021) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Picaresque?
Yes: River's Edge (2018), Millennium Actress (2002) and Battle Royale (2000).
How are movies similar to Picaresque chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Picaresque, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.