Movies like I Live in Fear (1955)
The best movies like I Live in Fear (1955) are Grave of the Fireflies (2005), Black Rain (1989) and The Nest (2020). If I Live in Fear hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedTokyo Story (1953)8.1/10 from 1,290 votes
- NewestA Man (2022)Released 2022
- In JapaneseGrave of the Fireflies (2005)Also in Japanese
Grave of the Fireflies (2005)
Hisako loses her home in Tokyo to Allied bombing. With her husband fighting somewhere in Asia, she and her two children evacuate to a suburb of Kobe, where they share a house with Hisako's cousin, Kyoko. Kobe is bombed and Kyoko is killed. Hisako is forced to take care of Kyoko's two children in addition to her own, but there is not enough food for everyone.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBlack Rain (1989)
Shigematsu Shizuma, who lives with his family in a village near Fukuyama, was in Hiroshima with his wife and niece just after the devastating atomic bombing, a tragedy that cruelly took the lives of thousands of people and forever marked the harsh existence of the survivors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Nest (2020)
Rory is an ambitious entrepreneur who brings his American wife and kids to his native country, England, to explore new business opportunities. After abandoning the sanctuary of their safe American suburban surroundings, the family is plunged into the despair of an archaic '80s Britain and their unaffordable new life in an English manor house threatens to destroy the family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThrow Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets (1971)
An experimental, psychedelic odyssey through Japanese subculture experienced via the eyes of a disillusioned young man, who must contend with intense familial dysfunction, psychosexual alienation, and existentialist malaise.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Man (2022)
Akira works as a lawyer. One day, he meets with his former client Rie, who asks Akira to perform a background check on her late husband Daisuke.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIntentions of Murder (1964)
The neglected common-law wife of a Japanese librarian is repeatedly harassed by a young man with a heart condition who seduces her with the prospect of a better life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLate Spring (1949)
Noriko is perfectly happy living at home with her widowed father, Shukichi, and has no plans to marry -- that is, until her aunt Masa convinces Shukichi that unless he marries off his 27-year-old daughter soon, she will likely remain alone for the rest of her life. When Noriko resists Masa's matchmaking, Shukichi is forced to deceive his daughter and sacrifice his own happiness to do what he believes is right.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisAfter the Storm (2016)
Ryota is an unpopular writer although he won a literary award 15 years ago. Now, Ryota works as a private detective. He is divorced from his ex-wife Kyoko and he has an 11-year-old son Shingo. His mother Yoshiko lives alone at her apartment. One day, Ryota, his ex-wife Kyoko, and son Shingo gather at Yoshiko's apartment. A typhoon passes and the family must stay there all night long.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJohn Q (2002)
John Quincy Archibald is a father and husband whose son is diagnosed with an enlarged heart and then finds out he cannot receive a transplant because HMO insurance will not cover it. Therefore, he decides to take a hospital full of patients hostage until the hospital puts his son's name on the donor's list.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Lighthouse (2019)
Two lighthouse keepers try to maintain their sanity while living on a remote and mysterious New England island in the 1890s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Land of Hope (2012)
An old couple, their only son, the son's wife, a young man and his lover live peacefully in a village. Then, a terrifying earthquake strikes that causes a nearby nuclear station to explode. The residents must evacuate, but the family lives on a farm, with only half of the area designated as an evacuation area.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEarly Summer (1951)
In postwar Tokyo, Noriko lives with her extended family. Although she enjoys her career and her social life, her more traditional family worries about her single marital status at the advanced age of 28. 40-year-old business associate Takako proposes, Noriko's family press her into accepting, but when her widowed childhood friend Kenkichi returns to the neighborhood, she finds her heart leading in another direction.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Sea of Trees (2016)
In Japan's Aokigahara Forest, a troubled teacher meets a mysterious lost stranger who takes him on a life-changing journey of love and redemption.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Gift (2015)
Simon and Robyn are a young married couple whose life is going as planned until a chance run-in with Simon's high school acquaintance sends their world into a tailspin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTokyo Story (1953)
The elderly Shukishi and his wife, Tomi, take the long journey from their small seaside village to visit their adult children in Tokyo. Their elder son, Koichi, a doctor, and their daughter, Shige, a hairdresser, don't have much time to spend with their aged parents, and so it falls to Noriko, the widow of their younger son who was killed in the war, to keep her in-laws company.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Machinist (2004)
Trevor, an insomniac lathe operator, experiences unusual occurrences at work and home. A strange man follows him everywhere, but no one else seems to notice him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKabei: Our Mother (2008)
Set in Tokyo in 1940, the peaceful life of the Nogami Family suddenly changes when the father, Shigeru, is arrested and accused of being a Communist. His wife Kayo works frantically from morning to night to maintain the household and bring up her two daughters with the support of Shigeru's sister Hisako and Shigeru's ex-student Yamazaki, but her husband does not return. WWII breaks out and casts dark shadows on the entire country, but Kayo still tries to keep her cheerful determination, and sustain the family with her love. This is an emotional drama of a mother and an eternal message for peace.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
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 · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTokyo Sonata (2008)
The winds of change blow as a family grapples with unemployment, alienation, mistrust and a lack of communication. When a Japanese salaryman loses his job to outsourcing to China, it's simply the beginning of a series of shattering incidents, leading to the implosion of the family unit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Long Way Home (2003)
Family members struggle to heal their emotional wounds after an incident of sexual abuse.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Spellbound (1945)
When Dr. Anthony Edwardes arrives at a Vermont mental hospital to replace the outgoing hospital director, Dr. Constance Peterson, a psychoanalyst, discovers Edwardes is actually an impostor. The man confesses that the real Dr. Edwardes is dead and fears he may have killed him, but cannot recall anything. Dr. Peterson, however is convinced his impostor is innocent of the man's murder, and joins him on a quest to unravel his amnesia through psychoanalysis.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFinal Analysis (1992)
A psychiatrist becomes romantically involved with the sister of one of his patients, but the influence of her controlling gangster husband threatens to destroy them both.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisBurn After Reading (2008)
When a disc containing memoirs of a former CIA analyst falls into the hands of gym employees, Linda and Chad, they see a chance to make enough money for Linda to have life-changing cosmetic surgery. Predictably, events whirl out of control for the duo, and those in their orbit.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDead Angle (1979)
Elite college graduates commit perfect financial crimes though loopholes in the law during the 1950s.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Hagazussa (2018)
In the 15th century, a young goatherd living alone in a mountain hut feels a dark presence in the woods.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisWhite Noise (2005)
An architect's desire to speak with his wife from beyond the grave using EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon), becomes an obsession with supernatural repercussions.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisA Pain in the Ass (1973)
Ralf Milan, a hitman, arrives in Montpellier to kill an important witness. He checks in a hotel without knowing that his neighbour has become neurotic after his wife left him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPink Floyd: The Wall (1982)
A troubled rock star descends into madness in the midst of his physical and social isolation from everyone.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisSinful Obsession (1999)
A sexually unfulfilled housewife begins working in a high class brothel and starts a mutually obsessive relationship with a creepy regular customer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like I Live in Fear?
The closest matches to I Live in Fear are Grave of the Fireflies (2005), Black Rain (1989) and The Nest (2020). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after I Live in Fear?
Start with Grave of the Fireflies (2005), the closest match to I Live in Fear.
What is the highest-rated movie like I Live in Fear?
Tokyo Story (1953), rated 8.1/10 by 1,290 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like I Live in Fear?
A Man (2022) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like I Live in Fear?
Yes: Grave of the Fireflies (2005), Black Rain (1989) and Shoplifters (2018).
How are movies similar to I Live in Fear chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside I Live in Fear, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.