Movies like The Kiyosu Conference (2013)
The best movies like The Kiyosu Conference (2013) are The Funeral (1984), Kubi (2023) and Achilles and the Tortoise (2008). If The Kiyosu Conference hooked you with its comedy and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks
- Highest ratedSeven Samurai (1954)8.5/10 from 4,461 votes
- NewestKubi (2023)Released 2023
- In JapaneseThe Funeral (1984)Also in Japanese
The Funeral (1984)
When Wabisuke's father-in-law unexpectedly dies, the family goes through a series of random events and occurrences as the funeral unfolds over three days in their home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKubi (2023)
Lord Oda Nobunaga plans to control Japan where rival warlords battle by waging war against several clans. His vassal Araki Murashige stages a rebellion and promptly disappears.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAchilles and the Tortoise (2008)
Machisu is a painter. He never had the success he thinks he is entitled to. Regardless of this, he always remains trying to be successful. His wife Sachiko keeps supporting him, despite all setbacks.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDeath by Hanging (1968)
A Korean man is sentenced to death in Japan but somehow survives his execution, sending the authorities into a panic about what to do next.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI Was Born, But... (1932)
Brothers Keiji and Ryoichi move to a new neighborhood in the Tokyo suburbs after their father, an office clerk, is promoted. The boys join the local gang as lowly new kids and emerge as natural leaders after defeating a bully. While visiting the home of their father's boss, the brothers witness the ridicule their father endures to please his superior. Angry and embarrassed, the boys find their naive ideas about power being challenged.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFamily Weekend (2013)
A 16-year-old girl takes her parents hostage after they miss her big jump-roping competition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSamurai Rebellion (1967)
The mother of a feudal lord's only heir is kidnapped by the lord. Her husband and his samurai father must decide whether to accept the unjust decision, or risk death to rescue her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisFrom Up on Poppy Hill (2011)
Yokohama, 1963. Japan is picking itself up from the devastation of World War II and preparing to host the 1964 Olympics—and the mood is one of both optimism and conflict as the young generation struggles to throw off the shackles of a troubled past. Against this backdrop of hope and change, a friendship begins to blossom between high school students Umi and Shun—but a buried secret from their past emerges to cast a shadow on the future and pull them apart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this13 Assassins (1963)
A sadistic Daimyo (feudal lord) rapes a woman and murders both her and her husband, but even when one of his own vassals commits suicide to bring attention to the crime, the matter is quickly hushed up. Not only will there be no punishment, but because the Daimyo is the Shogun's younger brother, he will soon be appointed to a high political position from which he could wreak even more havoc. Convinced that the fate of the Shogunate hangs in the balance, a plot is hatched to assassinate the Daimyo. The two most brilliant strategic minds of their generation find themselves pitted against each other; one is tasked to defend a man he despises, and has a small army at his disposal. The other is given a suicide mission, and has 12 brave men. They are the 13 Assassins.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSamurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple (1955)
After years on the road establishing his reputation as Japan's greatest fencer, Takezo returns to Kyoto. Otsu waits for him, yet he has come not for her but to challenge the leader of the region's finest school of fencing. To prove his valor and skill, he walks deliberately into ambushes set up by the school's followers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (1972)
Official Shogunate executioner Ogami Itto has been framed for disloyalty to the Shogunate by the Yagyu clan, against whom he now is waging a one-man war, along with his infant son, Daigoro.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCrayon Shinchan the Movie: Pursuit of the Balls of Darkness (1997)
The Noharas get caught between two rival clans when Himawari swallows a pretty bead that turns out to be a mysterious ball with hidden powers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Sun-Tribe Myth from the Bakumatsu Era (1957)
Saheji, a man-about-town, gets stuck at a high-class brothel when he can’t pay the bill. He makes the best of his situation by performing various tasks amidst the tumult of the end of the shogunate—but always by making sure to get a “commission” for his troubles.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSamurai I: Musashi Miyamoto (1954)
Struggling to elevate himself from his low caste in 17th century Japan, Miyamoto trains to become a mighty samurai warrior.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this13 Assassins (2010)
A bravado period action film set at the end of Japan's feudal era in which a group of unemployed samurai are enlisted to bring down a sadistic lord and prevent him from ascending to the throne and plunging the country into a war-torn future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOutrage Coda (2017)
Five years after the all-out war between the Sanno and Hanabishi crime families, former yakuza boss Otomo works in South Korea for Mr. Chang, a noted fixer. When tensions rise between Chang and the Hanabishi, and Chang's life is endangered, Otomo returns to Japan to settle things once and for all.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKill! (1968)
A pair of down-on-their-luck swordsmen arrive in a dusty, windblown town, where they become involved in a local clan dispute. One, previously a farmer, longs to become a noble samurai. The other, a former samurai haunted by his past, prefers living anonymously with gangsters. But when both men discover the wrongdoings of the nefarious clan leader, they side with a band of rebels who are under siege at a remote mountain cabin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOutrage (2010)
When a tough yakuza gangster is betrayed by his bosses, it means all out war. Bodies pile up as he takes out everyone in his way to the top in a brutal quest for revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRan (1985)
Shakespeare's King Lear is reimagined as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan where an aging warlord divides his kingdom between his three sons.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisTenchu! (1969)
A ronin desperately seeks a way out of financial straits; he allies with the Tosa clan under the ruthless leader Takechi, who quickly takes advantage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUnder the Sky in Seoul (1961)
An oriental doctor Kim Hak-gyu is a cantankerous man who is the longest-term householder in a small village in Seoul. He often causes domestic trouble by being nasty to his wife and his children. Kim Hyeon-ok, a daughter of a young widow who runs Nahana Beauty Shop, is in love with Choi Du-yeol, an obstetrician across the street. Kim Hak-gyu has great distaste for western medicine, and at the same time, is jealous of the obstetrician. He always gets in the way of Choi Du-yeol. Kim's son, Hyeon-gu, dates Jeom-ryae, a daughter of a bar owner.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
Sanjuro (1962)
In this companion piece and sequel to "Yojimbo," jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan's evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a proper samurai on its ear.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisVengeance for Sale (2002)
In a world where vendettas are officially sanctioned, the people sometimes needed help in carrying out their vengeance. Sanada Hiroyuki stars as Sukeroku the Helper, a ‘cool and rambling yakuza’ that has made a business out of helping victims carry out their revenge. When he returns to his hometown to pay a visit to his mother’s grave he meets a deadly ronin who carries a secret which eventually leads him into a vendetta of his own.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining (1958)
Kostas (Dinos Iliopoulos), a small-time lawyer is tasked with accompanying Smaro (Smaroula Giouli), a young rich heiress, from the country to Athens where she wants to sell her estate. Kostas though starts a day late and Smaro goes to Athens by herself. In the end after much wandering and misunderstandings Kostas will meet Smaro who will fall in love with him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Yagyu Jubei: The Fate of the World (2015)
The fate of Tokugawa’s world hangs in the balance as Yagyu Jubei is sent on a mission to discover what happened to 10 of the shogun’s spies that never returned. Matsukata Hiroki, one of the last surviving members of the Golden Age of Japanese Cinema proves that he has not lost a step as he portrays an older and wiser Yagyu Jubei in a movie that brings the best of samurai filmmaking into the 21st century. Summoned from semi-retirement by Shogun Iemitsu, Jubei is asked to take to the road and investigate a clan rumored to be preparing explosives for a rebellion. With help from a beautiful female ninja they head into the Shirakawa domain where the fighting skills of both are tested time and again as they strive to destroy a conspiracy that could bring a new Warring States Era. In the 1960's Yagyu Jubei was the signature role of the great Konoe Jushiro, father of Matsukata Hiroki. This brings the character full circle.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Yojimbo (1961)
A nameless ronin, or samurai with no master, enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival businessmen are struggling for control of the local gambling trade. Taking the name Sanjuro Kuwabatake, the ronin convinces both silk merchant Tazaemon and sake merchant Tokuemon to hire him as a personal bodyguard, then artfully sets in motion a full-scale gang war between the two ambitious and unscrupulous men.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisKind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
When his mother eloped with an Italian opera singer, Louis Mazzini was cut off from her aristocratic family. After the family refuses to let her be buried in the family mausoleum, Louis avenges his mother's death by attempting to murder every family member who stands between himself and the family fortune. But when he finds himself torn between his longtime love and the widow of one of his victims, his plans go awry.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFools (TBA)
In 1553, England’s first Queen, Mary I, takes the throne. The country is on the brink of chaos, and ambitious Cardinal Pole plots to secure control. He has overlooked, however, a humble court jester, Jane Foole. The pious, and apparently humorless, Queen Mary finds relief in Foole's brilliant slapstick routines and the two women strike up an unlikely friendship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
The Contract (2018)
Sleazy director "auditioning" actresses for a movie and trying to get them to commit to more to get the part.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Seven Samurai (1954)
A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Kiyosu Conference?
The closest matches to The Kiyosu Conference are The Funeral (1984), Kubi (2023) and Achilles and the Tortoise (2008). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Kiyosu Conference?
Start with The Funeral (1984), the closest match to The Kiyosu Conference.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Kiyosu Conference?
Seven Samurai (1954), rated 8.5/10 by 4,461 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Kiyosu Conference?
Kubi (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like The Kiyosu Conference?
Yes: The Funeral (1984), Kubi (2023) and Achilles and the Tortoise (2008).
How are movies similar to The Kiyosu Conference chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Kiyosu Conference, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.




























