Movies like Tokyo Notes (1998)
The best movies like Tokyo Notes (1998) are The Teahouse of the August Moon (1957), Giovanni's Island (2014) and Tokyo Family (2013). If Tokyo Notes hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedMonster (2023)7.9/10 from 1,001 votes
- NewestRental Family (2025)Released 2025
- In JapaneseGiovanni's Island (2014)Also in Japanese
The Teahouse of the August Moon (1957)
In post-WWII Japan, an American captain is brought in to help build a school, but the locals want a teahouse instead.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGiovanni's Island (2014)
In the aftermath of the most devastating conflict mankind had ever experienced, the tiny island of Shikotan became part of the Sakhalin Oblast... and on the unhealed border in this remote corner of the world, friendship among children from two different countries timidly blossomed, striving to overcome language barriers and the waves of history. Inspired by true events.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies 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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDrive My Car (2021)
Yusuke Kafuku, a stage actor and director, still unable, after two years, to cope with the loss of his beloved wife, accepts to direct Uncle Vanya at a theater festival in Hiroshima. There he meets Misaki, an introverted young woman, appointed to drive his car. In between rides, secrets from the past and heartfelt confessions will be unveiled.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShoplifters (2018)
In the outskirts of Tokyo, a poor but close-knit group living on the fringes of society survives through shoplifting and odd jobs. When Osamu and his son take in a neglected young girl, their already fragile existence begins to unravel. As the family grows attached to her, buried secrets surface, forcing them to confront the true meaning of love, belonging, and what makes a family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe History of Love (2016)
The story of a long-lost book that mysteriously reappears and connects an old man searching for his son with a girl seeking a cure for her mother's loneliness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGhostlight (2024)
When melancholic construction worker Dan finds himself drifting from his wife and daughter, he discovers community and purpose in a local theater's production of Romeo and Juliet. As the drama onstage starts to mirror his own life, he and his family are forced to confront a personal loss.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHouse of Bamboo (1955)
Eddie Kenner is given a special assignment by the Army to get the inside story on Sandy Dawson, a former GI who has formed a gang of fellow servicemen and Japanese locals.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this50/50 (2011)
Inspired by a true story, a comedy centered on a 27-year-old guy who learns of his cancer diagnosis and his subsequent struggle to beat the disease.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMemoirs 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOcean Waves (1993)
At Kichijōji Station, Tokyo, Taku Morisaki glimpses a familiar woman on the platform opposite boarding a train. Later, her photo falls from a shelf as he exits his apartment before flying to Kōchi Prefecture. Picking it up, he looks at it briefly before leaving. As the aeroplane takes off, he narrates the events that brought her into his life...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDivine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002)
In a sleepy Louisiana parish, a group of lifelong friends stage a rather unorthodox intervention to help a young playwright unravel the truth about her complicated mother and let go of her painful past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMuch Ado About Nothing (2011)
Two young lovers, Claudio and Hero, are to be married imminently but the devious scheming of a resentful Prince looks set to thwart the nuptials. Meanwhile, marriage seems inconceivable for reluctant lovers Beatrice and Benedick whose endless witty sparring threatens to keep them apart forever. Directed by Josie Rourke, Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse, Much Ado About Nothing is one of Shakespeare’s great plays and reminds us all of the failings and triumphs of the human condition in our never ending search for perfect love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisMonster (2023)
After an outburst at school involving her son, a concerned single mother demands answers, triggering a sequence of deepening suspicion and turmoil.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisWoman in Gold (2015)
Maria Altmann, an octogenarian Jewish refugee, takes on the government to recover artwork she believes rightfully belongs to her family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJulia (1977)
At the behest of an old and dear friend, playwright Lillian Hellman undertakes a dangerous mission to smuggle funds into Nazi Germany.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRental Family (2025)
An American actor in Tokyo struggles to find purpose until he lands an unusual gig: working for a Japanese 'rental family' agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers. As he immerses himself in his clients' worlds, he begins to form genuine bonds that blur the lines between performance and reality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMuseum (2016)
In Tokyo, Japan, several grotesque murders take place on rainy days. Detective Sawamura, who is in charge of the case, soon discovers that his own family is connected to the crimes.
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 thisTokyo Twilight (1957)
Two sisters learn about the existence of their long-lost biological mother, but the younger is unable to accept the fact that she was abandoned as a child.
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 Tokyo Notes?
The closest matches to Tokyo Notes are The Teahouse of the August Moon (1957), Giovanni's Island (2014) and Tokyo Family (2013). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Tokyo Notes?
Start with The Teahouse of the August Moon (1957), the closest match to Tokyo Notes.
What is the highest-rated movie like Tokyo Notes?
Monster (2023), rated 7.9/10 by 1,001 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Tokyo Notes?
Rental Family (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Tokyo Notes?
Yes: Giovanni's Island (2014), Tokyo Family (2013) and Drive My Car (2021).
How are movies similar to Tokyo Notes chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Tokyo Notes, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.