Movies like Joyce Chen's China (1975)
The best movies like Joyce Chen's China (1975) are The Joy Luck Club (1993), Samsara (2011) and Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain (2021). If Joyce Chen's China hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedSamsara (2011)8.1/10 from 719 votes
- NewestBlue Heron (2026)Released 2026
The Joy Luck Club (1993)
Through a series of flashbacks, four Chinese women born in America and their respective mothers born in feudal China explore their pasts.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSamsara (2011)
Filmed over nearly five years in twenty-five countries on five continents, and shot on seventy-millimetre film, Samsara transports us to the varied worlds of sacred grounds, disaster zones, industrial complexes, and natural wonders.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisRoadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain (2021)
An intimate, behind-the-scenes look at how an anonymous chef became a world-renowned cultural icon. This unflinching look at Anthony Bourdain reverberates with his presence, in his own voice and in the way he indelibly impacted the world around him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisToast (2010)
Young Nigel Slater has big culinary aspirations, even though all his mother knows how to make is toast. When his mother dies, relations grow strained between Nigel and his father, especially when he remarries a woman who wins his heart with a lemon meringue pie. Nigel enters culinary school, starts working in a pub, and finds himself competing with his stepmother - both in the kitchen and for his father's attention.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlways Be My Maybe (2019)
Reunited after 15 years, famous chef Sasha and hometown musician Marcus feel the old sparks of attraction, but struggle to adapt to each other's worlds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlready Tomorrow in Hong Kong (2016)
Ruby, a Chinese American toy designer from LA, visits Hong Kong for the first time on business. Finding herself stranded, she meets Josh, an American expat who shows her the city.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCuba and the Cameraman (2017)
This revealing portrait of Cuba follows the lives of Fidel Castro and three Cuban families affected by his policies over the last four decades.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOne Child Nation (2019)
Through interviews with both victims and instigators, Nanfu Wang, a first-time mother, breaks open decades of silence on a vast, unprecedented social experiment that shaped — and destroyed — countless lives in China.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCrazy Rich Asians (2018)
An American-born Chinese economics professor accompanies her boyfriend to Singapore for his best friend's wedding, only to get thrust into the lives of Asia's rich and famous.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI Remember Mama (1948)
Norwegian immigrant Marta Hanson keeps a firm but loving hand on her household of four children, a devoted husband and a highly-educated lodger who reads great literature to the family every evening. Through financial crises, illnesses and the small triumphs of everyday life, Marta maintains her optimism and sense of humor, traits she passes on to her aspiring-author daughter, Katrin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958)
All her life, Englishwoman Gladys Aylward knew that China was where she belonged. Unqualified to be sent as a missionary, Gladys works as a domestic to earn to send herself to a poor, remote village. There, she eventually lives a full and happy life: running the inn, acting as 'foot inspector', advising the local Mandarin, and even winning the heart of mixed-race Captain Lin Nan. Gladys discovers her real destiny when the country is invaded by Japan and the Chinese children need her to save their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie (1988)
Marcel Ophuls' riveting film details the heinous legacy of the Gestapo head dubbed "The Butcher of Lyon." Responsible for over 4,000 deaths in occupied France during World War II, Barbie would escape—with U.S. help—to South America in 1951, where he lived until a global manhunt led to his 1983 arrest and subsequent trial.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLife in a Day (2011)
A documentary shot by filmmakers all over the world that serves as a time capsule to show future generations what it was like to be alive on the 24th of July, 2010.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlue Heron (2026)
A family of six's fresh start on 1990s Vancouver Island unravels as their youngest child, Sasha, witnesses the increasingly dangerous behavior of her older brother, Jeremy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisXiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998)
Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisZ Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004)
A documentary on the Z Channel, one of the first pay cable stations in the US, and its programming chief, Jerry Harvey. Debuting in 1974, the LA-based channel's eclectic slate of movies became a prime example of the untapped power of cable television.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Ramen Girl (2008)
An American woman is stranded in Tokyo after breaking up with her boyfriend. Searching for direction in life, she trains to be a ramen chef under a tyrannical Japanese master.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTigertail (2020)
A man reflects on the lost love of his youth and his long-ago journey from Taiwan to America as he begins to reconnect with his estranged daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Walking Dead: The Return (2024)
Stars of "The Walking Dead," Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira, walk down memory lane and visit iconic locations where pivotal moments between their characters, Rick and Michonne, were filmed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNothing Like a Dame (2018)
BBC Arena's documentary on the Dames of British Theatre and film featuring Maggie Smith, Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench and Joan Plowright on screen together for the first time as they reminisce over a long summer weekend in a house Joan once shared with Sir Laurence Olivier.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Joyce Chen's China?
The closest matches to Joyce Chen's China are The Joy Luck Club (1993), Samsara (2011) and Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain (2021). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Joyce Chen's China?
Start with The Joy Luck Club (1993), the closest match to Joyce Chen's China.
What is the highest-rated movie like Joyce Chen's China?
Samsara (2011), rated 8.1/10 by 719 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Joyce Chen's China?
Blue Heron (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Joyce Chen's China?
Yes: The Joy Luck Club (1993), Samsara (2011) and Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain (2021).
How are movies similar to Joyce Chen's China chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Joyce Chen's China, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.