Movies like Come, Come, Come Upward (1989)
The best movies like Come, Come, Come Upward (1989) are Everyone Is There (2020), Hounddog (2008) and Girl in the Box (2016). If Come, Come, Come Upward hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- NewestBelonging Syndrome (2026)Released 2026
- In KoreanEveryone Is There (2020)Also in Korean
Everyone Is There (2020)
Soo Yeon decides to commit suicide to end the bullying she goes through at school, when a savior appears. A woman punishes the bullies on behalf of Soo Yeon and saves her from the reality of hell.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies 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 · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGirl in the Box (2016)
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972)
Middle-aged widow Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters Ruth and Matilda are struggling to survive in a society they barely understand. Beatrice dreams of opening an elegant tea room but does not have the wherewithal to achieve her lofty goal. Epileptic Ruth is a rebellious adolescent, while shy but highly intelligent and idealistic Matilda seeks solace in her pets and school projects, including one designed to show how small amounts of radium affect marigolds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSalomé (2013)
After the lewd and frenetic Dance of the Seven Veils, and with the solemn pledge from the very lips of Herod himself that she could have whatever her heart desires up to half his kingdom, wanton and proud young Salomé comes before her king with an unreasonable demand. Beguiled by John the Baptist, and then scorned for the sake of his god, lascivious Salomé—encouraged by her mother, the vindictive, Herodias—commands that John be executed and his head delivered on a silver platter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBastard Out of Carolina (1996)
A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOmaha (2025)
A young girl and her brother are awoken by their father and loaded into the car on an early morning in 2008. As they road trip across the American West, she discovers the truth about their seemingly spontaneous journey.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHoly Lands (2019)
When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSkin (2009)
Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCall Me Crazy: A Five Film (2013)
A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIron Jawed Angels (2004)
Defiant young activists take the women's suffrage movement by storm, putting their lives at risk to help American women win the right to vote.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCardboard Boxer (2016)
Gentle and broken, a homeless man fights others on video for money but soon finds comfort in an unlikely friend and the lost diary of a young girl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWon't Back Down (2012)
Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
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 · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNobody's Daughter Haewon (2013)
Facing her mother’s departure and the weight of a secret affair with her professor, college student Haewon drifts through a series of encounters and dreams, blurring the lines between her desires and reality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIdol Seungha's R-Rated Film Shooting (2021)
Film producer Na-eun and director Yeong-tae are on the verge of shelving out cash for an adult film production. They're too busy blaming each other for the messed-up filming. Before another filming begins, Na-eun suggests Yeong-tae to become an actor himself and practice filming. Na-eun leads the shy Yeong-tae very skillfully. How far will the practice go...?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Day a Pig Fell Into the Well (1996)
The lives of 4 interconnected South Koreans – a married couple, a novelist the wife is having an affair with, and a second woman the novelist is simultaneously involved with.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977)
A disturbed and institutionalized 16-year-old girl struggles between fantasy and reality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Girl in the Book (2015)
The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisCheaters (2000)
In the fall of 1994, a teacher at Chicago's run-down Steinmetz High conspires with the school's academic decathlon team to cheat on an academic competition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBelonging Syndrome (2026)
Belonging Syndrome is a short documentary that follows Duang, a second-generation Italian-Thai girl. Duang, during a period of stay in a monastery. Through her inner diary, the film explores a suspended phase of life: the one in which identity it is not yet defined and belonging becomes an open question. The monastery becomes the physical and symbolic place where Duang observes herself. Immersed in a daily life marked by rituals, silences and repeated gestures, the protagonist goes through an experience of deep listening, in which time slows down and perception is refined. Belonging Syndrome talks about hybrid identities, cultural legacies that coexist without completely merging, the difficulty and possibility of inhabiting multiple worlds without having to choose just one. It is an intimate and contemplative story about the search for balance in a fragile and open phase of existence.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Steel Helmet (1951)
A ragtag group of American stragglers battles against superior Communist troops in an abandoned Buddhist temple during the Korean War.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisParadise (2025)
A young man visits a Buddhist temple in the hopes of quenching his thirst.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Fancy Dance (1989)
Yohei, a punk rocker, becomes a Buddhist monk in order to inherit a mountain temple. Though initially rebelling against the tough monastic discipline, he learns to adjust. Then his girlfriend shows up, enticing him to return to his rock 'n' roll roots.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Conflagration (1958)
Learning of his family's collapse, acolyte Goichi, sent to study silently at the Temple of the Golden Pavilion, must endure acute psychological distress.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
An Artisan's Legacy: Tsunekazu Nishioka (2012)
In-depth look at the twilight years, spent training apprentices, of temple builder Nishioka Tsunekazu, who was called the "devil" as he devoted his life to temple architecture. His insistence on the gargantuan timescale of linking life to the next millennium emerges from people who knew him. Remarkable as well for showing the unknown backstage of temple architecture. Nishioka, known as "the last temple carpenter," handled the major Showa-era repairs of Horyuji temple, and in 1990 was at the scene of the reconstruction work for Yakushi temple.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Shadowless Pagoda (1957)
On the eighth of April of King Gyoeng-deok's 10th year of the reign of the Unified Silla Period, Guseulagi, a daughter of Yu Jong, joins the king's parade to Bulguksa Temple, where she meets a stonemason named Asadal from Buyeo. Having a crush on him, she visits Sakyamuni Pagoda, a masonic site; only to find that Asadal had broken down from exhaustion. While she takes care of him, her love for him grows. But Asadal misses his wife who is waiting for him in Buyeo. Meanwhile, Geum Seong who has a crush on Guseulagi, asks his father, Geum Ji, to propose on behalf of him. But Yu Jong is so dissatisfied with Geum Ji because he is a treacherous subject, that he turns down the proposal, instead of hurrying up his daughter's marriage with Gyeongsin, a faithful subject. Asanyeo who has been waiting for her husband Asadal in Buyeo goes to Bulguksa Temple after her father-in-law had died.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Miracles of Luang Pu Suk (2013)
About the merits of Luang Pu Suk, a Buddhist monk who lived from 1847-1923.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Chatter (2022)
A single parent nurse and her two daughters each find their own way to navigate the first lock-down. The film uniquely integrates audio description into the script and soundtrack.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Five (2023)
Four close friends cram into a car in the middle of the night and drive deep into the forest. They arrive at the spot where their lost friend Annie died, under the same tree. Camille, Flora, Lucie and Marion hold a ritual to ensure that Annie's spirit appears to them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Come, Come, Come Upward?
The closest matches to Come, Come, Come Upward are Everyone Is There (2020), Hounddog (2008) and Girl in the Box (2016). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Come, Come, Come Upward?
Start with Everyone Is There (2020), the closest match to Come, Come, Come Upward.
What is the newest movie like Come, Come, Come Upward?
Belonging Syndrome (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Korean movies like Come, Come, Come Upward?
Yes: Everyone Is There (2020), Nobody's Daughter Haewon (2013) and Idol Seungha's R-Rated Film Shooting (2021).
How are movies similar to Come, Come, Come Upward chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Come, Come, Come Upward, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.