Movies like Stowaway (2001)
The best movies like Stowaway (2001) are Once Upon a Time in China and America (1997), American Grindhouse (2011) and Shinjuku Incident (2009). If Stowaway hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedMulan (1998)7.9/10 from 10,798 votes
- NewestSketch (2025)Released 2025
Once Upon a Time in China and America (1997)
So goes to the U.S. to open a martial arts school. Around this time, many Chinese people were sold off to U.S. railroad companies, and were brutally treated by the Americans under the harsh working conditions. Thus, the American workers' hatred towards the Chinese immigrants is high. As a result, So gets into trouble with the Americans and the mob, and calls Master Wong for help.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisAmerican Grindhouse (2011)
This documentary explores the hidden history of the American Exploitation Film. The movie digs deep into this often overlooked category of U.S. cinema and unearths the shameless and occasionally shocking origins of this popular entertainment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShinjuku Incident (2009)
A simple Chinese immigrant wages a perilous war against one of the most powerful criminal organizations on the planet.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVulgaria (2012)
Struggling movie producer To Wai-chen needs money for child support, so he reluctantly agrees to film a softcore remake of a Chinese classic.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Joy Luck Club (1993)
Through a series of flashbacks, four Chinese women born in America and their respective mothers born in feudal China explore their pasts.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958)
All her life, Englishwoman Gladys Aylward knew that China was where she belonged. Unqualified to be sent as a missionary, Gladys works as a domestic to earn to send herself to a poor, remote village. There, she eventually lives a full and happy life: running the inn, acting as 'foot inspector', advising the local Mandarin, and even winning the heart of mixed-race Captain Lin Nan. Gladys discovers her real destiny when the country is invaded by Japan and the Chinese children need her to save their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDue West: Our Sex Journey (2012)
Set in contemporary Hong Kong, several young people are searching for romance and struggling to learn the difference between lust and love in an adventure that takes them to the mainland where pleasure is much more readily available.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Shift (2023)
Following a tense encounter with a mysterious stranger with otherworldly powers, a man finds himself banished to a parallel, tyrannical Earth, where he fights to get back to the woman he loves.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBorn to Defence (1988)
Jet, a young soldier at the end of the Second World War must overcome some abusive Americans who are bullying him as well as the Chinese people.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMulan (1998)
When Imperial China calls one man from every family to defend the empire from invading Huns, a young woman disguises herself as a soldier to take her ailing father’s place. Facing ruthless invaders, brutal training, and the risk of execution if discovered, she must decide who she truly is—and what she’s willing to fight for.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisEverything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
An aging Chinese immigrant is swept up in an insane adventure, where she alone can save what's important to her by connecting with the lives she could have led in other universes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Good Earth (1937)
China, during the rule of the Qing Dynasty. The arranged marriage between Wang Lung, a humble farmer, and O-Lan, a domestic slave, will endure the many hardships of life over the years; but the temptations of a fragile prosperity will endanger their love and the survival of their entire family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSketch (2025)
When a young girl’s sketchbook falls into a strange pond, her drawings come to life—chaotic, real, and on the loose. As the town descends into chaos, her family must reunite and stop the monsters they never meant to unleash.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDogville (2003)
A woman on the run from the mob is reluctantly accepted in a small Colorado community in exchange for labor, but when a search visits the town, she learns that their support has a price.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStill Human (2018)
A Hong Kong man with a disability hires a Filipino migrant worker to care for him. As they spend more time together through different seasons, they start learning about themselves.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisXiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998)
Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTales of the Black Freighter (2009)
A mariner survives an attack from the dreaded pirates of the Black Freighter, but his struggle to return home to warn it has a horrific cost.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBroken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl (1919)
A frail waif, abused by her brutal boxer father in London's seedy Limehouse District, is befriended by a sensitive Chinese immigrant with tragic consequences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe 33 (2015)
Based on the true story of the collapse of a mine in San Jose, Chile—that left 33 miners isolated underground for 69 days.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBig Trouble in Little China (1986)
Truck driver Jack Burton gets embroiled in a supernatural battle when his best friend Wang Chi's green-eyed fiancée is kidnapped by henchmen of the sorcerer Lo Pan, who must marry a girl with green eyes in order to return to the human realm.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Stowaway?
The closest matches to Stowaway are Once Upon a Time in China and America (1997), American Grindhouse (2011) and Shinjuku Incident (2009). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Stowaway?
Start with Once Upon a Time in China and America (1997), the closest match to Stowaway.
What is the highest-rated movie like Stowaway?
Mulan (1998), rated 7.9/10 by 10,798 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Stowaway?
Sketch (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Stowaway chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Stowaway, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.