Movies like Midnight Diner (2014)
The best movies like Midnight Diner (2014) are Sweet Bean (2015), Ramen Shop (2018) and Little Forest: Winter/Spring (2015). If Midnight Diner hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedIn This Corner of the World (2016)7.9/10 from 664 votes
- NewestLes Misérables (2026)Released 2026
- In JapaneseSweet Bean (2015)Also in Japanese
Sweet Bean (2015)
The master of a dorayaki pastry store hires a 76-year-old woman whose talents attract customers from all over. But she's hiding a troubling secret. Life's joys are found in the little details, and no matter what may be weighing you down, everyone loves a good pastry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRamen Shop (2018)
Masato is a young ramen chef in Japan. When he finds his late mother's journal after the sudden death of his emotionally distant father, he takes it with him to her native country, Singapore, hoping to piece together the story of his family and his life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 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 thisSakuran (2006)
Kiyoha rises from the lowly courtesan ranks to the high class position of Oiran in the steamy red-light district of Yoshiwara. She is determined to stand on her own two feet and live life as she pleased.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRepast (1951)
In post-WWII Osaka, a middle-aged woman is forced to examine her dreary life and marriage when her husband's young and flirtatious cousin arrives for a brief stay to escape an arranged marriage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEast Side Sushi (2014)
Years of working in the food industry have made Juana, a working-class Latina, a chef of speed and skill. Searching for financial stability, she stumbles into a high-energy, male-dominated Japanese cuisine kitchen. The new atmosphere re-ignites her passions for food and life and makes her hungry to get mixed up in the flavors of this new world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCafé Lumière (2004)
In a distinctly contemporary Tokyo that looks backwards to the city’s disappearing past, Yoko is a writer investigating the life of a modernist composer of the 1930s. She is pregnant by a man she does not want to marry and has found a kindred spirit in a used bookstore owner who aids her research.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWinged Creatures (2009)
A psychotic man opens fire in a diner, murdering numerous people before killing himself. The survivors struggle in different ways following this horrendous event: a doctor doubts his own instincts and elects to use an experimental medical procedure on his wife, while a gambler believes he's on a lucky streak. A waitress begins engaging in promiscuous sex, and a young girl whose father is among the dead gains unexpected fame.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMildred Pierce (1945)
A hard-working mother inches towards disaster as she divorces her husband and starts a successful restaurant business to support her spoiled daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAristocrats (2021)
Hanako is looking for stability with her man. She gets dumped instead. She begins dating. Miki studied and worked hard to get to where she is and is holding down a job. They are introduced through an intermediary man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIrezumi (1966)
Otsuya, the daughter of a rich merchant, elopes with her lover Shinsuke, an employee of her father's. During their flight, Otsuya's beauty attracts the gaze of Seikichi, a mysterious master tattooist who sees her pristine white skin as the perfect canvas for his art. The image of the large demonic spider that he emblazons across Otsuya's back marks her as the property of another man, radically altering her relationships with all around her as her personality seems to transform under its influence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAdopt a Highway (2019)
Russ Millings has just been released from prison after serving 21 years for a 3rd strike conviction for possessing an ounce of marijuana. As he tries to adapt to a world he doesn’t recognize – including trying to learn how to use the internet – he finds an abandoned baby in a dumpster behind the fast food restaurant where he works as a dishwasher. Unsure of what to do, and caught between impulses of kindness and panic, Russ soon realizes this could be his chance at redemption.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Door into Summer (2021)
A pioneering roboticist awakens in 2025 after decades in cryosleep. To change the past and reunite with his adopted sister, he seeks a way back to 1995.
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 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 thisIn This Corner of the World (2016)
Japan, 1943, during World War II. Young Suzu leaves her village near Hiroshima to marry and live with her in-laws in Kure, a military harbor. Her creativity to overcome deprivation quickly makes her indispensable at home. Inhabited by an ancestral wisdom, Suzu impregnates the simple gestures of everyday life with poetry and beauty. The many hardships, the loss of loved ones, the frequent air raids of the enemy, nothing alters her enthusiasm…
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisUndead Lovers (2024)
Rino believes that "the man of her destiny" is Jun who always disappears from her whenever she feels their love for each other. In their lifetime, they meet many times and Rino is 100% focused on him every time. These encounters and separations are repeated in many circumstances. What could be the miraculous result of her persistent love for him?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Sendai Girls' Pro-Wrestling in Shinjuku FACE ~Acceleration~ (2026)
Sendai Girls' Pro-Wrestling in Shinjuku FACE ~Acceleration~ was a professional wrestling event promoted by Sendai Girls' Pro-Wrestling, held on February 8, 2026, at Shinjuku FACE in Tokyo, Japan.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Edge of Darkness (2010)
As a seasoned homicide detective, Thomas Craven has seen the bleakest side of humanity. But nothing prepares him for the toughest investigation of his life: the search for his only daughter Emma's killer. Now, he is on a personal mission to uncover the disturbing secrets surrounding her murder, including corporate corruption, government collusion and Emma's own mysterious life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNoise (2022)
Shishikari is a remote island, which is behind the times. The island suffers from a decreasing population and declining industries. Keita Izumi (Tatsuya Fujiwara) begins to produce black fig on Shishikari Island. Because of his well received product, the island is close to receiving a 5 billion yen grant from the government, which is part of the goverment's policy to reinvigorate rural economy. The residents of the island are excited, but their peaceful days changes by the appearance of Mutsuo Komisaka. Keita Izumi and his friends Jun Tanabe (Kenichi Matsuyama) and Rookie Police Officer Shinichiro Moriya are suspicious about him. One night, Keita Izumi's daughter goes missing. Due to that, Keita Izumi, Jun Tanabe and Shinichiro Moriya happen to kill Mutsuo Komisaka. They decide to hide Mutsuo Komisaka’s murder to protect the future of the island and their families. It turns out Mutsuo Komisaka was a psycho killer. Police officers come to Shishikari Island to catch Mutsuo Komisaka.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Apartment (1996)
Max is a former playboy who has decided to settle down by marrying his current love, Muriel. However, when Max catches a glimpse of the great lost love of his life, he becomes obsessed with rekindling their relationship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIzo (2004)
Izo is an assassin in the service of a Tosa lord and Imperial supporter. After killing dozens of the Shogun's men, Izo is captured and crucified. Instead of being extinguished, his rage propels him through the space-time continuum to present-day Tokyo. Here Izo transforms himself into a new, improved killing machine.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLes Misérables (2026)
After enduring 19 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread, Jean Valjean emerges a hardened man. He seeks redemption by reinventing himself as a respected dignitary under a new identity. He promises Fantine, a dying factory worker, to rescue and protect her daughter Cosette, who is being exploited and mistreated by the deceitful Thénardier family. As Valjean raises Cosette as his own, he is relentlessly pursued by Inspector Javert. Admist the social unrest shaking France, the fates of Valjean, Cosette, her lover Marius, and Javert become intertwined in a turbulent, revolutionary Paris. Through struggles, sacrifices, and a deep yearning for justice, Valjean strives to complete his journey of redemption and offer Cosette a future of love and freedom.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI Carry You with Me (2021)
An epic love story spanning decades is sparked by a chance encounter between two men in provincial Mexico. Based on a true story, ambition and societal pressure propel an aspiring chef to leave his soulmate and make the treacherous journey to New York, where life will never be the same.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisChinpira (2000)
Osamu rescues a girl who was being chased by two punks and is soon mixed up with the Yakuza
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Nina's Heavenly Delights (2006)
A feisty young woman returns to Glasgow to run her deceased father's curry house.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Midnight Diner?
The closest matches to Midnight Diner are Sweet Bean (2015), Ramen Shop (2018) and Little Forest: Winter/Spring (2015). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Midnight Diner?
Start with Sweet Bean (2015), the closest match to Midnight Diner.
What is the highest-rated movie like Midnight Diner?
In This Corner of the World (2016), rated 7.9/10 by 664 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Midnight Diner?
Les Misérables (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Midnight Diner?
Yes: Sweet Bean (2015), Ramen Shop (2018) and Little Forest: Winter/Spring (2015).
How are movies similar to Midnight Diner chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Midnight Diner, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.