Movies like Ai to kanashimi ni nurete (1990)
The best movies like Ai to kanashimi ni nurete (1990) are Making 'The Shining' (1980), Catch and Release (2006) and Autumn in New York (2000). If Ai to kanashimi ni nurete hooked you, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks
- Highest ratedMalcolm & Marie (2021)7.0/10 from 1,494 votes
- NewestSometimes I Think About Dying (2024)Released 2024
- In JapaneseOne Million Yen Girl (2008)Also in Japanese
Making 'The Shining' (1980)
Directed and edited by Stanley Kubrick's daughter Vivian Kubrick, this film offers a look behind the scenes during the making of The Shining.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCatch and Release (2006)
For a grieving fiancée, learning to love again requires the help of her late love's three best friends.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisAutumn in New York (2000)
Will Keane, a Manhattan restaurateur, is content with his playboy lifestyle until he meets Charlotte Fielding, a free-spirited young woman. Together the pair pursue a passionate affair that forces them both to reevaluate what they want out of life, even as fate threatens to steal away their future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Safety of Objects (2002)
In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Souvenir (2019)
A shy but ambitious film student falls into an intense, emotionally fraught relationship with a charismatic but untrustworthy older man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReal Women Have Curves (2002)
In East Los Angeles, an 18-year-old struggles between her ambitions of going to college and the desires of her domineering mother for her to get married, have children, and oversee the small, rundown family-owned textile factory.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLucky Them (2013)
More interested in partying and flirting with young musicians than work, veteran rock journalist Ellie Klug has one last chance to prove her value to her magazine’s editor: a no-stone-unturned search to discover what really happened to long lost rock god, Matt Smith, who also happens to be her ex-boyfriend. Teaming up with an eccentric amateur documentary filmmaker, Ellie hits the road in search of answers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn Good Company (2004)
Dan Foreman is a seasoned advertisement sales executive at a high-ranking publication when a corporate takeover results in him being placed under naive supervisor Carter Duryea, who is half his age. Matters are made worse when Dan's new supervisor becomes romantically involved with his daughter an 18 year-old college student Alex.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSometimes I Think About Dying (2024)
Fran likes to think about dying. It brings sensation to her quiet life. When she makes the new guy at work laugh, it leads to more: a date, a slice of pie, a conversation, a spark. The only thing standing in their way is Fran herself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Assistant (2020)
A searing look at a day in the life of an assistant to a powerful executive. As Jane follows her daily routine, she grows increasingly aware of the insidious abuse that threatens every aspect of her position.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStardust Memories (1980)
While attending a retrospect of his work, a filmmaker recalls his life and his loves: the inspirations for his films.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMalcolm & Marie (2021)
As a filmmaker and his girlfriend return home from his movie premiere, smoldering tensions and painful revelations push them toward a romantic reckoning.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004)
The turbulent personal and professional life of actor Peter Sellers (1925-1980), from his beginnings as a comic performer on BBC Radio to his huge success as one of the greatest film comedians of all time; an obsessive artist so dedicated to his work that neglected his loved ones and sacrificed part of his own personality to convincingly create that of his many memorable characters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Souvenir: Part II (2021)
In the aftermath of her tumultuous relationship with a charismatic and manipulative older man, Julie begins to untangle her fraught love for him in making her graduation film, sorting fact from his elaborately constructed fiction.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWaiting for Forever (2010)
A Hollywood-set romantic tale of a guy who is content to live his life without a job yet with the love of his life, a young actress.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisStrange Weather (2016)
Years after her son's suicide, a woman longs to confront both the past and a friend of his who took his business idea.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisPalm Trees and Power Lines (2023)
Seventeen-year-old Lea spends her summer break tanning in her backyard, and drifting between tiptoeing around her needy mother, and aimlessly trailing her best friend and boys from school. This monotony is interrupted by a chance encounter with Tom, a seductive man twice her age who promises an alternative to Lea's unsatisfying adolescent life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRestless (2011)
Two outsiders, both shaped by the circumstances that have brought them together, forge a deep and lasting love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOne Million Yen Girl (2008)
A 21-year-old girl is released from prison, only to deal with the neighborhood gossip about her and family conflicts. She decides to save one million yen, move to where no one knows her and keep repeating the process.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMarried Woman Boutique: Women Indulging in Scandalous Love Affair (2002)
Kimie steps into a boutique each day to support her household in place of her husband, who is unable to work due to heart disease—while her own spirit aches with longing. She surrenders willingly to the irresistible pull of Tsukuda, the dashing apparel‐maker’s salesman whose whispered promises slip between her legs like silk. Kenji, burning to reclaim his former glory, watches his world unravel when he discovers the affair that simmered beneath Kimie’s restraint. And as the truth of Kimie’s glowing secret—her pregnancy—dawns on him, his reproaches choke in his throat, meeting instead a startling, fervent embrace from the woman he thought he knew…
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Lewd Adulterous Wife (1992)
Haruko, a 19-year-old young wife, has an abnormal love for sex and spends all her time having extramarital affairs. She has sex with her husband, Akihiko, at least twice a week, but Haruko is far from satisfied with that...
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
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
Drops of Eros (1999)
Ito, a film director with no money and no woman, is agonizing every night over a violent love affair he hears from a neighbor who has recently moved in. One day, his neighbor, Honda, comes to visit Ito. He had apparently eloped with the daughter of a yakuza and was asking Ito to hide her for him. Ito tried to say no to the dangerous offer, but the 300,000 yen was too much to resist, and he ended up accepting the offer...
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Like Ai to kanashimi ni nurete and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Ai to kanashimi ni nurete?
The closest matches to Ai to kanashimi ni nurete are Making 'The Shining' (1980), Catch and Release (2006) and Autumn in New York (2000). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Ai to kanashimi ni nurete?
Start with Making 'The Shining' (1980), the closest match to Ai to kanashimi ni nurete.
What is the highest-rated movie like Ai to kanashimi ni nurete?
Malcolm & Marie (2021), rated 7.0/10 by 1,494 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Ai to kanashimi ni nurete?
Sometimes I Think About Dying (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Ai to kanashimi ni nurete?
Yes: One Million Yen Girl (2008), Married Woman Boutique: Women Indulging in Scandalous Love Affair (2002) and Agony!! A Shameful Act (1995).
How are movies similar to Ai to kanashimi ni nurete chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Ai to kanashimi ni nurete, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.



























