Movies like Sleeping Man (1996)
The best movies like Sleeping Man (1996) are Tokyo Family (2013), The Ballad of Narayama (1983) and Female Yakuza Tale (1973). If Sleeping Man hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Ballad of Narayama (1983)7.5/10 from 213 votes
- NewestWe Are Aliens (2026)Released 2026
- In JapaneseTokyo Family (2013)Also in Japanese
Tokyo 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 thisThe Ballad of Narayama (1983)
In a small village in a valley everyone who reaches the age of 70 must leave the village and go to a certain mountain top to die. If anyone should refuse they would disgrace their family. Old Orin is 69. This winter it is her turn to go to the mountain. But first she must make sure that her eldest son Tatsuhei finds a wife.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFemale Yakuza Tale (1973)
Ocho is accidentally captured by a drug trafficking cartel who use Chinese women to smuggle drugs into Japan by hiding it in their vaginas. She is tortured, and manages to escape, fighting both the male yakuzas and a gang of female thieves.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBattles Without Honor and Humanity: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima (1973)
Repeatedly beat to a pulp by gamblers, cops, and gangsters, lone wolf Shoji Yamanaka finally finds a home as a Muraoka family hitman and falls in love with boss Muraoka's niece. Meanwhile, the ambitions of mad dog Katsutoshi Otomo draws our series' hero, Shozo Hirono, and the other yakuza into a new round of bloodshed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAbove the Rim (1994)
Story of a promising high school basketball star and his relationships with two brothers, one a drug dealer and the other a former basketball star fallen on hard times and now employed as a security guard.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLittle Forest: Summer/Autumn (2014)
Fleeing heartbreak in the big city, Ichiko returns to Komori, her rural hometown. She battles summer's rain and humidity, bakes her own bread, grows hothouse tomatoes and tills the fields. During autumn, the time for pickling and preserving fish and sweet potatoes, Ichiko begins reaping rice and recalls her departure five years before.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Young One (1960)
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKamui (2009)
A rebellious ninja in 17th century Japan takes refuge with a fisherman and his family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe River (1984)
Tom and Mae Garvey are a Tennessee farming couple battling violent floods to save their land. In addition to natural disasters, the Garveys fight to stop a selfish land developer and a local corporation from foreclosing on their farm. While Mae stays at home to care for their children and tend to the crops, Tom finds work as a scab at a steel mill to preserve his family's property.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHarmonium (2016)
Toshio hires Yasaka to work in his workshop. But then this old acquaintance, who has just been released from prison, begins to meddle in Toshio's family life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll Day and a Night (2020)
While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMaborosi (1995)
A tragedy strikes a young woman's life without warning or reason. She continues living while searching for meaning in a lonely world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLittle Forest: Winter/Spring (2015)
Ichiko bakes a cake for an end-of-year party with her friends. In the depths of winter, making mochi and curry keeps the people of Komori warm. Later, spring brings thoughts of her absent mother as well as rice planting and sakura, and she begins to think of leaving Komori behind again.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies 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 · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHouse of Bamboo (1955)
Eddie Kenner is given a special assignment by the Army to get the inside story on Sandy Dawson, a former GI who has formed a gang of fellow servicemen and Japanese locals.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHome Run (2013)
A pro ball player with a substance abuse problem is forced into rehab in his hometown, finding new hope when he gets honest about his checkered past, and takes on coaching duties for a misfit Little League team
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Good Neighbor (2022)
A nightmarish evening unfolds for neighbors David and Robert when they accidentally hit a woman on her bike and flee the scene. While David is increasingly plagued by feelings of guilt, Robert shows no remorse and becomes overbearing and possessive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlue Chips (1994)
Pete Bell, a college basketball coach is under a lot of pressure. His team isn't winning and he cannot attract new players. The stars of the future are secretly being paid by boosters. This practice is forbidden in the college game, but Pete is desperate and has pressures from all around.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTokyo Fist (1995)
A businessman, Tsuda, runs into a childhood friend, Kojima, on the subway. Kojima is working as a semiprofessional boxer. Tsuda soon begins to suspect that Kojima might be having an affair with his fiancée Hizuru. After an altercation, Tsuda begins training rigorously himself, leading to an extremely bloody, violent confrontation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFemale Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (1972)
After being used and betrayed by the detective she had fallen in love with, young Matsu is sent to a female prison full of sadistic guards and disobedient prisoners.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSuzaku (1997)
Depicts the life of a family in a remote Japanese timber village. Family head Tahara Kozo lives with his mother Sachiko, wife Yasuyo, nephew Eisuke and young daughter Michiru. Economic recession and failed development plans cause tragedy in the family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Taste of Tea (2004)
A spell of time in the life of the five-piece Haruno family in rural Tochigi Prefecture. Yoshiko is not an ordinary housewife, instead working on an animated film project. Uncle Ayano, a successful music producer, is looking to get his head together after living in Tokyo. Meanwhile, Sachiko is concerned with why she seems to be followed by a giant version of herself. As the lazy days pass by, each member of the family is followed in a series of episodic vignettes.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · 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: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWe Are Aliens (2026)
One summer in the third grade, a quiet boy named Tsubasa meets Gyotaro, a boy everyone in the class looked up to, and the two become close friends. Within their small world, they share irreplaceable moments—until a small incident suddenly tears them apart.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Side By Side (2023)
Mysterious young man Miyama has the ability to sense the thoughts of other people. The secrets of his background linger emerge when he confronts the thoughts of Kusaka, his junior in high school, and the past that he ran away from.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Here Is a Spring (1955)
The story of a group of young people who organise their own travelling symphony orchestra to provide music for people living in remote villages shortly after the war.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Letter from the Mountain (2002)
Husband and wife Michiko and Takao move from their urban existence in Tokyo to the isolated, rural farming village where Takao grew up.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Savage Fire (2017)
In the city of Cajamar, in the middle of ruined nature, lonely characters deal with the police, rodeos and mysterious fires.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Sindoor (1987)
Laxmi is half of a famous singing couple when both her relationship and career are destroyed by the jealous plotting of her husband , Vijay. Years later, Laxmi is widowed and raising a stepdaughter, Lalita, when Vijay returns to the scene to meddle in her new family's affairs and once again threaten her domestic happiness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Shesha Drushti (1997)
Kedar Babu is a freedom fighter since the days of Mahatma Gandhi's call for a Civil Disobedience Movement. Kedar Babu lost his wife at an early stage of his marriage. Since then, he has brought up his only son Sangram with all paternal affection. In town, Sangram stays in the house of a landlord, Bahadur Suryakant Singh, where there is a gradual moral decline. This puts him in a state of dilemma and delusion. In the last encounter with his father. Sangram experiences a new perception of life, illuminated with anxiety.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Sleeping Man and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Sleeping Man?
The closest matches to Sleeping Man are Tokyo Family (2013), The Ballad of Narayama (1983) and Female Yakuza Tale (1973). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Sleeping Man?
Start with Tokyo Family (2013), the closest match to Sleeping Man.
What is the highest-rated movie like Sleeping Man?
The Ballad of Narayama (1983), rated 7.5/10 by 213 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Sleeping Man?
We Are Aliens (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Sleeping Man?
Yes: Tokyo Family (2013), The Ballad of Narayama (1983) and Female Yakuza Tale (1973).
How are movies similar to Sleeping Man chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Sleeping Man, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.