Movies like The End of Summer (1961)
The best movies like The End of Summer (1961) are Early Summer (1951), An Autumn Afternoon (1962) and The Ballad of Narayama (1958). If The End of Summer hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedIkiru (1952)8.3/10 from 1,429 votes
- NewestLike Father, Like Son (2013)Released 2013
- In JapaneseEarly Summer (1951)Also in Japanese
Early 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: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisAn Autumn Afternoon (1962)
Widower Shuhei Hirayama's caretaker is his 24-year-old daughter, Michiko. Gradually, he comes to realize that Michiko should not be obliged to look after him for the rest of his life, so he arranges a marriage for her.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Ballad of Narayama (1958)
In a remote village where food is scarce, elders who reach the age of 70 are carried by their children to the top of a nearby mountain to die in solitude. Orin, a vibrant 69-year-old grandmother, has accepted her fate — but struggles to prepare the rest of her family for the ritual.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSons and Lovers (1960)
The son of a working-class British mining family has dreams of pursuing an art career, but when he strikes up an affair with an older, married woman from the town it enrages his kind but possessive mother.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStill Walking (2008)
A family gathers together for a commemorative ritual whose nature only gradually becomes clear.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisYearning (1964)
War widow Reiko rebuilds and runs the grocery shop in the house of her husband's family. Many years later, their business is threatened by a newly built supermarket and Reiko's in-laws plan to convert their small shop into a supermarket, to her detriment.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies 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: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisFloating Weeds (1959)
A theater troupe master's visit with his old flame unintentionally sets off a chain of unexpected events with devastating consequences.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThere Was a Father (1942)
Shuhei Horikawa, a poor schoolteacher, struggles to raise his son Ryohei by himself, despite neither money nor prospects.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (1952)
The arranged marriage between a capricious woman from Tokyo high society and a quiet rustic man is tested by a marital crisis.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · 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: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisRecord of a Tenement Gentleman (1947)
A hard-hearted old woman in a bombed-out Tokyo neighborhood reluctantly takes in an abandoned boy, leading to a heartwarming bond between them.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEquinox Flower (1958)
Wataru's outwardly liberal views on marriage are severely tested when his daughter declares her love for a coworker and is adamant to live her own way, instead of agreeing to an arranged marriage. Outwitted by his female relatives, Hirayama stubbornly refuses to admit defeat.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhen a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960)
Keiko, whom everyone calls Mama, narrates her story: she's a hostess on the Ginza, 30, a widow. She describes life's vicious cycle: acting cheerful around drunks, dressing and living well to convey confidence, needing money for these expenses and for her demanding mother and brother, and knowing she's growing older.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisEarly Spring (1956)
A young salaryman and his wife struggle within the confines of their passionless relationship while he embarks on an extramarital affair.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Long, Hot Summer (1958)
Accused barn burner and conman Ben Quick arrives in a small Mississippi town and quickly ingratiates himself with its richest family, the Varners.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSound of the Mountain (1954)
An ingratiating bride develops warm ties to her father-in-law while her cold husband blithely slights her for another woman.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Only Son (1936)
A rural widow sends her only son to Tokyo to receive a better education. Years later, she visits him and finds he has become a night school teacher struggling to support his wife and son.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTwenty-Four Eyes (1954)
From 1928 to 1946, the lives of 12 young people and their school teacher in a poor Japanese village are profoundly affected by historical events and personal circumstances.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Story of Floating Weeds (1934)
An aging actor returns to a small town with his troupe and reunites with his former lover and illegitimate son, a scenario that enrages his current mistress and results in heartbreak for all.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBrothers and Sisters of the Toda Family (1941)
After the death of her husband, an elderly woman and her youngest, unmarried daughter are forced to sell their house to cover his debts and decide to move in with one of the former's children, each of whom is scarcely happy to accommodate.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Ikiru (1952)
Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisLike Father, Like Son (2013)
Ryota Nonomiya is a successful businessman driven by money. He learns that his biological son was switched with another child after birth. He must make a life-changing decision and choose his true son or the boy he raised as his own.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLightning (1952)
The story of Kiyoko, a young woman who has successfully managed to make a break with her dysfunctional family who have been trying to arrange a marriage for her with a disagreeable man whom she has rejected.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Tokyo Twilight (1957)
Two sisters learn about the existence of their long-lost biological mother, but the younger is unable to accept the fact that she was abandoned as a child.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLate Autumn (1960)
A woman and her daughter are each forced to contend with an increasing pressure to marry, particularly from three men who knew her late husband.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Life of Oharu (1952)
During the Edo Period, a noblewoman's banishment for her love affair with a lowly page signals the beginning of her inexorable fall.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRhapsody in August (1991)
An elderly Nagasaki hibakusha spends a summer caring for her four grandchildren, whose curiosity about the 1945 bombing stirs buried memories and moral questions. When an American nephew from Hawaii visits, the family confronts grief, guilt, and the possibility of reconciliation across generations.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOne Wonderful Sunday (1947)
Two broke sweethearts wander war-scarred Tokyo on a single Sunday, stretching 35 yen as they chase housing, small pleasures, and a little hope.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Insect Woman (1963)
A woman, Tome, is born to a lower class family in Japan in 1918. The title refers to an insect, repeating its mistakes, as in an infinite circle. Imamura, with this metaphor, introduces the life of Tome, who keeps trying to change her poor life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The End of Summer?
The closest matches to The End of Summer are Early Summer (1951), An Autumn Afternoon (1962) and The Ballad of Narayama (1958). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The End of Summer?
People who watched The End of Summer most often go on to Early Summer (1951), An Autumn Afternoon (1962) and The Ballad of Narayama (1958).
What is the highest-rated movie like The End of Summer?
Ikiru (1952), rated 8.3/10 by 1,429 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The End of Summer?
Like Father, Like Son (2013) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like The End of Summer?
Yes: Early Summer (1951), An Autumn Afternoon (1962) and The Ballad of Narayama (1958).
How are movies similar to The End of Summer chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The End of Summer, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.