Movies like The Scent of Green Papaya (1993)
The best movies like The Scent of Green Papaya (1993) are Love Everlasting (2016), Blind (2017) and Ali and Nino (2016). If The Scent of Green Papaya hooked you with its drama and romance, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedLife in a Year (2020)8.2/10 from 2,028 votes
- NewestIkaw Pa Rin Ang Pipiliin Ko (2024)Released 2024
Love Everlasting (2016)
Bridger is a young outsider who's always wanted more. He and his mother flee an abusive home, eventually finding a small town in the middle of nowhere. Once there, Bridger finds true acceptance with another misfit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlind (2017)
A novelist is blinded in a car crash that killed his wife and several years later rediscovers his passion for life and writing when he embarks on an affair with the neglected wife of an indicted businessman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAli and Nino (2016)
Muslim prince Ali and Georgian aristocrat Nino have grown up in the Russian province of Azerbaijan. Their tragic love story sees the outbreak of the First World War and the world’s struggle for Baku’s oil. Ultimately they must choose to fight for their country’s independence or for each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNot Easily Broken (2009)
A car accident and shifting affections test the bond between a married couple.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPurple Hearts (2022)
An aspiring musician agrees to a marriage of convenience with a soon-to-deploy Marine, but a tragedy soon turns their fake relationship all too real.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Bridges of Madison County (1995)
Photographer Robert Kincaid wanders into the life of housewife Francesca Johnson for four days in the 1960s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHumoresque (1947)
A classical musician from a working class background is sidetracked by his love for a wealthy, neurotic socialite.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGoodbye Again (1961)
Middle-aged businesswoman Paula Tessier rejects the advances of her client's amusing 25-year-old son, Philip Van der Besh, but reconsiders when her longtime philandering partner begins yet another casual affair with a younger woman. She soon learns that May-December romances with older women are frowned upon in society.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLife in a Year (2020)
A 17 year old finds out that his girlfriend is dying, so he sets out to give her an entire life, in the last year she has left.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Absolute CinemaMovies 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 thisNobody Has to Know (2022)
After a stroke and no memories from his past, Phil encounters Millie who inhabits a desert part of Isle of Lewis. She will shortly entrust him with his deepest secret : they were in love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUntamed Heart (1993)
Caroline, a young waitress who seems to have bad taste in men, is on her way home one night when thugs attempt to rape her. Adam, the mysterious busboy who works at the same diner, helps fight off the assailants, and she begins a relationship with him -- but not all their fellow Minnesotans are happy for them. Meanwhile, the couple face their own difficulties when Caroline finds about Adam's past, including his unique health condition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNine Lives (2005)
Captives of the very relationships that define and sustain them, nine women resiliently meet the travails and disappointments of life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOur Daily Bread (1934)
John and Mary Sims are city-dwellers hit hard by the financial fist of The Depression. Driven by bravery (and sheer desperation) they flee to the country and, with the help of other workers, set up a farming community - a socialist mini-society. The newborn community suffers many hardships - drought, vicious raccoons and the long arm of the law - but ultimately pull together to reach a bread-based Utopia.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
A married farmer falls under the spell of a slatternly woman from the city, who tries to convince him to drown his wife.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLove Finds You in Valentine (2016)
Kennedy Blaine, a Californian girl, inherits a ranch in the small town of Valentine in Nebraska. Before she sells the property, she decides to spend the summer in her house and learn more about her family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Magic of Ordinary Days (2005)
Pregnant out of wedlock, an educated young woman is pressured by her father into an arranged marriage with a lonely farmer in this drama set during WWII.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMoonlight Mile (2002)
As he copes with the death of his fiancee along with her parents, a young man must figure out what he wants out of life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEndless (2020)
When madly in love high school graduates Riley and Chris are separated by a tragic car accident, Riley blames herself for her boyfriend's death while Chris is stranded in limbo. Miraculously, the two find a way to connect. In a love story that transcends life and death, both Riley and Chris are forced to learn the hardest lesson of all: letting go.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (2023)
After a Vietnamese woman dies in a car crash in Saigon, her brother-in-law and her young son transport her body back to the former’s hometown in rural Vietnam, where they plan to give her a funeral.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIkaw Pa Rin Ang Pipiliin Ko (2024)
Music gives her life. Music is his life. This is a story that will make our hearts skip a beat this season of love. Ikaw Pa Rin ang Pipiliin Ko, a May-December romance, promises the fresh tandem of Aga and Julia, who portray a musical conductor and chorister, respectively.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
Intacto (2001)
An enigmatic tale of four people whose lives are intertwined by destiny are subject to the laws of fate. They discover that luck is something they cannot afford to be without as they gamble with the highest stakes possible in a deadly game from which only one of them will emerge intact.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSingles (1992)
A group of young adults in their twenties, who share an apartment in the city of Seattle, ponder on love and face all the challenges of adulthood.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIdiocies (2023)
"Four boys drinking tomato juice and beer for God knows why..."
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Scarborn (2024)
Spring of 1794, Poland is in a state of unrest. General Tadeusz ‘Kos’ Kościuszko returns to the country, planning to ignite an uprising against the Russians by mobilising Polish gentry and peasants. He is accompanied by his faithful friend and former slave, Domingo. Kościuszko is being tracked down by a merciless Russian cavalry captain, Dunin, who wants to do whatever it takes to capture the general before he starts a national revolt.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Seven Year Itch (1955)
When his family goes away for summer vacation, a hitherto faithful publishing executive with an overactive imagination is tempted by an attractive new neighbor.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Clearing (2004)
When affluent executive Wayne Hayes is kidnapped by a disgruntled employee and held for ransom in a forest, Wayne’s wife is forced to reckon with the FBI agents as they negotiate with the kidnapper.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisTattoo Bar (2000)
Although she's still hung up on the man who broke her heart, club dancer Simona pledges to eradicate all memories of him by removing the tattoos he put on her body. Complicating matters is Mariel, the owner of a Barcelona tattoo shop whose obsession with Simona's undulating form leads him to steal the money to help her pay for the necessary laser treatments.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Wonder Boys (2000)
Grady is a 50-ish English professor who hasn't had a thing published in years—not since he wrote his award winning 'Great American Novel' 7 years ago. This weekend proves even worse than he could imagine as he finds himself reeling from one misadventure to another in the company of a new wonder boy author.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLena will es endlich wissen (2011)
Twenty-three-year-old Lena lands a lead in Sartre’s “No Exit” while endlessly seeking love. Her call‐girl friend Becky convinces her to try prostitution, plunging Lena into a bizarre free‐love world of surreal encounters. Complicating matters, she falls for her director, Dex White, and cares for her grieving, balloon‐making father.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Scent of Green Papaya?
The closest matches to The Scent of Green Papaya are Love Everlasting (2016), Blind (2017) and Ali and Nino (2016). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Scent of Green Papaya?
Start with Love Everlasting (2016), the closest match to The Scent of Green Papaya.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Scent of Green Papaya?
Life in a Year (2020), rated 8.2/10 by 2,028 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Scent of Green Papaya?
Ikaw Pa Rin Ang Pipiliin Ko (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to The Scent of Green Papaya chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Scent of Green Papaya, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.