Movies like Painful Bliss: Final Twist (1977)
The best movies like Painful Bliss: Final Twist (1977) are Glory to the Filmmaker! (2007), The House of Tomorrow (2019) and In the Soup (1992). If Painful Bliss: Final Twist hooked you with its drama and comedy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWhy Don't You Play in Hell? (2013)7.3/10 from 338 votes
- NewestThe House of Tomorrow (2019)Released 2019
- In JapaneseGlory to the Filmmaker! (2007)Also in Japanese
Glory to the Filmmaker! (2007)
Takeshi Kitano plays a version of himself in which he's a struggling director cycling through a number of different genres in an effort to complete his latest project.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe House of Tomorrow (2019)
The film tells futurist, architect, and inventor R. Buckminster Fuller's incredible story through two teens hoping to get laid, become punk gods, and survive high school.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn the Soup (1992)
An aspiring young filmmaker gets involved with an eccentric gangster for the financing of his first film.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlmost Friends (2017)
A man in his mid-20s, still living at home with his mother and stepfather, puts all his eggs in one basket: the girl who works at his local coffee shop. The problem is, she has a serious boyfriend. As they become closer, the line between friendship and intimacy is blurred, and the situation forces both to examine where they are in their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFudoh: The New Generation (1996)
In order to settle a business dispute, a mob leader murders one of his own teenage sons. The surviving son vows to avenge his brother's death, and organizes his own gang of teenage killers to destroy his father's organization.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGiants and Toys (1958)
Nishi is an advertising executive for a caramel company that is planning to launch a new product, in fierce competition with two other companies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhy Don't You Play in Hell? (2013)
In Japan, gonzo filmmakers hatch a three-pronged plan to save an actress's career, end a yakuza war and make a hit movie.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
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 thisClass (1983)
Naive Midwestern prep student Jonathan bonds with his more worldly roommate, Skip, who takes the small-town boy under his wing. At Skip's urging, the inexperienced Jonathan is emboldened to seek out older women in the cocktail lounges of nearby Chicago, where he meets and beds the alluring Ellen, who unfortunately turns out to be Skip's mother. The division between the friends is further deepened when a cheating scandal engulfs the school.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLady Windermere's Fan (1925)
A society woman believes her husband is having an affair, a misconception which may have dire personal consequences for all involved.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBetter Living Through Chemistry (2014)
A straight-laced pharmacist's uneventful life spirals out of control when he starts an affair with a trophy wife customer who takes him on a joyride involving sex, drugs and possibly murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisCQ (2001)
A young filmmaker in 1960s Paris juggles directing a cheesy sci-fi debacle, directing his own personal art film, coping with his crumbling relationship with his girlfriend, and a new-found infatuation with the sci-fi film's starlet.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies 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 thisTokyo Decadence (1992)
A submissive hooker goes about her trade, suffering abuse at the hands of Japanese salarymen and Yakuza types. She's unhappy about her work, and is apparently trying to find some sort of appeasement for the fact that her lover has married.
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 thisGraveyard of Honor (2002)
A barkeeper saves a yakuza boss' life and thus makes his way up in the organization. However, his fear of nothing soon causes problems.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSympathy for the Underdog (1971)
A yakuza gang gets driven out of Yokohama by a big gang from Tokyo. They relocate to Okinawa to violently start over.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIn Full Bloom (2019)
Set shortly after the end of World War II, a philosophical boxing drama of two fighters from opposite worlds (USA and Japan) who are pulled together for a questionable fight arranged by their unscrupulous managers and the Yakuza.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBLAME! (2017)
In the distant technological future, civilization has reached its ultimate Net-based form. An "infection" in the past caused the automated systems to spiral out of order, resulting in a multi-leveled city structure that replicates itself infinitely in all directions. Now humanity has lost access to the city's controls, and is hunted down and purged by the defense system known as the Safeguard. In a tiny corner of the city, a little enclave known as the Electro-Fishers is facing eventual extinction, trapped between the threat of the Safeguard and dwindling food supplies. A girl named Zuru goes on a journey to find food for her village, only to inadvertently cause doom when an observation tower senses her and summons a Safeguard pack to eliminate the threat. With her companions dead and all escape routes blocked, the only thing that can save her now is the sudden arrival of Killy the Wanderer, on his quest for the Net Terminal Genes, the key to restoring order to the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Magic Hour (2008)
A hustler who gets in trouble with a gang boss in the port town of Sukago agrees to make good with the don by putting him in contact with a mysterious hitman — an assassin the hustler has no idea how to contact. Instead, he hires an actor to play the role, though the thespian has no idea what he's getting into.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisChikan densha: Oshiri o futte onedari (1988)
A section chief is unable to get it up with his wife, and even worse, is dying. He then learns BDSM, soon joined by a male and female employee (who is a "true masochist").
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
The Monk Farted (1993)
The story is about Nagatoshi, a handsome and sexy monk played by Kazuhiro Sano, who is struggling for the widow he loves. Foreshadowing the prophecy of the Great Kanto Earthquake, the film is a highly entertaining theatrical spectacle that depicts the human condition of a downtown area undergoing development and the efforts of men and women who rebel against it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Angel in September (1994)
One day, Hitomi observes her classmate Eriko stealing lipstick in a drugstore and follows her home. The two young women get to know and love each other. While the withdrawn Hitomi believes herself and Eriko to be reincarnations of angel warriors who once fought demon armies, her emancipated and apathetic friend wanders through life between sex contacts with older men and fear of falling into a boring bourgeois existence. The different futures of the two soon lead to tensions.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
End of the World (1995)
A fugitive man and woman (Kawase, Kawana) come to an island to retrieve their son (Iwasaki), who the woman has given to a foster family, but the son's foster parents are policemen (Ito)... The suspense surrounding the retrieval of the son is made unusual by the location shooting on the vast and desolate Miyakejima Island and leads to an allegorical drama about the essential desires of human beings. This was Kawase Yota's first appearance in a Zeze film, and he has since become a regular actor. The title of the film at the time of its first release was Sukebe Tenkomori.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
No Good Men (1995)
No Good Men follows Kumiko, a young and attractive woman that works at a travel agency, and moonlights as an insatiable, sex-hungry mistress.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Brother (2000)
A Japanese Yakuza gangster's deadly existence in his homeland gets him exiled to Los Angeles, where he is taken in by his little brother and his brother's gang.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Bad Boss (1968)
The first in what would become Toei's most successful, longest-running bosozoku film series. It lasted from 1968 till 1972 through sixteen films.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Lupin the 3rd: Goemon's Blood Spray (2017)
A yakuza boss hires Goemon Ishikawa, a modern day samurai, to protect him aboard his cruise ship casino. Everything goes sideways when the famous thief, Lupin the Third, tries to rob the vessel. Lupin's being hunted by a powerful and mysterious man: the so called “Ghost of Bermuda.” With Goemon's employer dead in the ensuing chaos, his honor is at stake, and the only way to preserve it is with blood. But this opponent is like no other, and to make things right, Goemon may need to sharpen not only his sword, but himself as well!
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMen's Nightless Castle (1998)
There is Miyoshi, who is extremely attached to Billy dolls (gay toys) in Shinjuku 2-chome. Every night, he invites men with Billy doll in hand. Fellow Billy doll lovers and sadists with a fish fetish caress Miyoshi. And before Miyoshi realizes he wants to become a Billy doll...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Parade (1995)
Mitsuhiro, an erotic manga artist, is instructed by editor-in-chief Shioda to write an erotic manga aimed at gays. He reluctantly agrees, but is unable to tell his father, Yumihiko, who lives with him. Yumihiko raised Mitsuhiro single-handedly while working at the village office. Mitsuhiro is grateful to his father. In reality, Mitsuhiro was gay. He has a faint crush on his best friend, Yutaka, but in the countryside he can't openly say he's gay, so he keeps it to himself. Mitsuhiro is daydreaming while watching Yutaka fishing in the river today. The two of them indulge in playing in the river naked with Yutaka...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Painful Bliss: Final Twist and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Painful Bliss: Final Twist?
The closest matches to Painful Bliss: Final Twist are Glory to the Filmmaker! (2007), The House of Tomorrow (2019) and In the Soup (1992). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Painful Bliss: Final Twist?
Start with Glory to the Filmmaker! (2007), the closest match to Painful Bliss: Final Twist.
What is the highest-rated movie like Painful Bliss: Final Twist?
Why Don't You Play in Hell? (2013), rated 7.3/10 by 338 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Painful Bliss: Final Twist?
The House of Tomorrow (2019) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Painful Bliss: Final Twist?
Yes: Glory to the Filmmaker! (2007), Fudoh: The New Generation (1996) and Giants and Toys (1958).
How are movies similar to Painful Bliss: Final Twist chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Painful Bliss: Final Twist, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.