Movies like Tombstone of the Fireflies (2008)
The best movies like Tombstone of the Fireflies (2008) are The Most Beautiful (1944), Grave of the Fireflies (1988) and Devils on the Doorstep (2001). If Tombstone of the Fireflies hooked you with its drama and war, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedGrave of the Fireflies (1988)8.4/10 from 6,958 votes
- NewestOnoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle (2021)Released 2021
- In JapaneseThe Most Beautiful (1944)Also in Japanese
The Most Beautiful (1944)
Young women at a precision optics factory in wartime Japan push to exceed production quotas, enduring illness, injury, and personal hardship to “serve the country.” Led by Tsuru Watanabe, they fight fatigue and setbacks to keep their line moving—even when duty collides with grief.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
SnoozefestMovies like thisGrave of the Fireflies (1988)
In the final months of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his sister Setsuko are orphaned when their mother is killed during an air raid in Kobe, Japan. After a falling out with their aunt, they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. With no surviving relatives and their emergency rations depleted, Seita and Setsuko struggle to survive.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisDevils on the Doorstep (2001)
During the Japanese occupation of China, two prisoners are dumped in a peasant's home in a small town. The owner is bullied into keeping the prisoners until the next New Year, at which time they will be collected. The village leaders convene to interrogate the prisoners. The townspeople then struggle to accommodate the prisoners. One is a bellicose Japanese nationalist, the other a nervous translator. Will the townspeople manage to keep the prisoners until the New Year?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Absolute CinemaMovies like this1944 (2015)
The events of the war in 1944, from the Blue Hills to Sõrve Peninsula. Shown through the eyes of Estonian soldiers who had to pick sides and fight against fellow brothers. Choices have to be made, not only by the soldiers, but also by their loved ones.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLittle Boy (2015)
An eight-year-old boy is willing to do whatever it takes to end World War II so he can bring his father home. The story reveals the indescribable love a father has for his little boy and the love a son has for his father.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisInstrument of War (2017)
When U.S. B-24 bomber pilot Clair Cline is shot down and captured in northern Germany, one war ends and another begins -- to keep hope alive. Now behind Nazi barbed wire and oppression, Cline and his fellow POW's must find a way to bond together to not just survive but transcend their captivity. Inspired by true events.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & drama
Unknown Soldier (2017)
The film follows Finnish army machine gun company in Continuation War against Soviet Union, 1941–1944. Based on Väinö Linna's best selling novel Tuntematon Sotilas (The Unknown Soldier) and the novel's uncensored version, Sotaromaani (A War Novel).
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHell to Eternity (1960)
Based on the story about Guy Gabaldon, a Los Angeles Hispanic boy raised in the 1930s by a Japanese-American foster family. After Pearl Harbor, his foster family is interned at the Manzanar camp for Japanese Americans, while he enlists in the Marines, where his ability to speak Japanese becomes a vital asset. During the Battle of Saipan, he convinces 800 Japanese to surrender after their general commits suicide.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Grave of the Fireflies (2005)
Hisako loses her home in Tokyo to Allied bombing. With her husband fighting somewhere in Asia, she and her two children evacuate to a suburb of Kobe, where they share a house with Hisako's cousin, Kyoko. Kobe is bombed and Kyoko is killed. Hisako is forced to take care of Kyoko's two children in addition to her own, but there is not enough food for everyone.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisYamato (2005)
Directed by Junya Sato and based on a book by Jun Henmi, "Yamato" has a framing story set in the present day and uses flashbacks to tell the story of the crew of the World War II Japanese battleship Yamato. The film was never released in the United States, where reviewers who have seen it have compared the military epic to "Titanic" and "Saving Private Ryan."
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war
SnoozefestMovies like thisAmbush (1999)
It is the summer of 1941 and the Finnish army has been mobilized along the border with Russia. A platoon led by Lt. Eero Perkola is waiting for orders to go on the offensive. The platoon receives orders for a recon mission through the wilderness around the Lieksa lake to search for possible Russian defensive positions.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Burmese Harp (1956)
In Burma during the closing days of WWII, a Japanese soldier separated from his unit disguises himself as a Buddhist monk to escape imprisonment as a POW.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisArmy (1944)
Though plagued by ill health all his life, a young Japanese man is obligated to fulfill his family's longstanding military tradition.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
My Way (2011)
During the invasion of Normandy the photograph of a slim Korean man in German uniform was found. It transpired that the man had served as a soldier in the Japanese, Russian and German armies. His incredible story inspired director Kang Je-Gyu to create this epic war drama.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisWarsaw Uprising (2014)
It tells the story of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 through the eyes of a US airman, escaper from the Nazi Stalag camp and two young reporters, cameramen for the Bureau of Information and Propaganda of the Polish Home Army. Their mission: documenting the Uprising by shooting newsreels for the “Palladium” cinema. Looking for the right shots, they go deeper and deeper – literally and figuratively – into the heart of the Uprising. Traumatic truth becomes obvious. Aware of being witnesses of indescribable events, they realize their duties: to document them and preserve the rolls of film at any cost…
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & drama
The Chinese Widow (2017)
It’s 1941 and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor has destroyed America’s morale. The US President Franklin D. Roosevelt then decides to risk it all by bombing Tokyo and raise more hope for his citizens. After completing its mission, a unit of the US Air Force is forced to make an emergency landing in China. Its commander Jack Turner (Emilie Hirsch) barely survives but gets rescued by Ying (Crystal Liu), a local widow who will stop at nothing to hide him from the Japanese occupant.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Fighting Sullivans (1944)
The lives of a close-knit group of brothers growing up in Iowa during the days of the Great Depression and of World War II and their eventual deaths in action in the Pacific theater are chronicled in this film based on a true story.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
The Eternal Zero (2013)
A brother and sister learn their biological grandfather was a kamikaze pilot who died during World War II. During their research into his life, they get conflicting accounts from his former comrades about his character and how he joined his squadron.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFires on the Plain (2015)
In the final days of World War II, occupying Japanese forces in the Philippines face resistance from the local population and the American offensive. The dwindling Japanese soldiers attempt to survive through the horrors of war.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHiroshima (1995)
Hiroshima is a 1995 Japanese / Canadian film directed by Koreyoshi Kurahara and Roger Spottiswoode about the decision-making processes that led to the dropping of the atomic bombs by the United States on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki toward the end of World War II. Except as actors, no Americans took part in the production. The three-hour film was made for television and evidently had no theatrical release, but is available on DVD for home viewing. A combination of dramatisation, historical footage, and eyewitness interviews, the film alternates between documentary footage and the dramatic recreations. Both the dramatisations and most of the original footage are presented as sepia-toned images, serving to blur the distinction between them. The languages are English and Japanese, with subtitles, and the actors are largely Canadian and Japanese.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
The Emperor in August (2015)
In July 1945, during the end of World War II, Japan is forced to accept the Potsdam Declaration. A cabinet meeting has continued through days and nights, but a decision cannot be made. The U.S. drops atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. General Korechika Anami is torn over making the proper decision and the Emperor of Japan worries about his people. Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki leads the cabinet meeting, while Chief Secretary Hisatsune Sakomizu can't do anything, but watch the meeting. At this time, Major Kenji Hatanaka and other young commissioned officers, who are against Japan surrendering, move to occupy the palace and a radio broadcasting station. The radio station is set to broadcast Emperor Hirohito reading out the Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & drama
Kabei: Our Mother (2008)
Set in Tokyo in 1940, the peaceful life of the Nogami Family suddenly changes when the father, Shigeru, is arrested and accused of being a Communist. His wife Kayo works frantically from morning to night to maintain the household and bring up her two daughters with the support of Shigeru's sister Hisako and Shigeru's ex-student Yamazaki, but her husband does not return. WWII breaks out and casts dark shadows on the entire country, but Kayo still tries to keep her cheerful determination, and sustain the family with her love. This is an emotional drama of a mother and an eternal message for peace.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJapan's War in Colour (2005)
Using never-before-seen footage, Japan's War In Colour tells a previously untold story. It recounts the history of the Second World War from a Japanese perspective, combining original colour film with letters and diaries written by Japanese people. It tells the story of a nation at war from the diverse perspectives of those who lived through it: the leaders and the ordinary people, the oppressors and the victims, the guilty and the innocent. Until recently, it was believed that no colour film of Japan existed prior to 1945. But specialist research has now unearthed a remarkable colour record from as early as the 1930s. For eight years the Japanese fought what they believed was a Holy War that became a fight to the death. Japan's War In Colour shows how militarism took hold of the Japanese people; describes why Japan felt compelled to attack the West; explains what drove the Japanese to resist the Allies for so long; and, finally, reveals how they dealt with the shame of defeat.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war
Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle (2021)
Japan, 1944. Trained for intelligence work, Hiroo Onoda, 22 years old, discovers a philosophy contrary to the official line: no suicide; stay alive whatever happens; the mission is more important than anything else. Sent to Lubang, a small island in the Philippines where the Americans are about to land, this role will be to wage a guerrilla war until the return of the Japanese troops. The Empire will surrender soon after; Onoda, 10,000 days later.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFires on the Plain (1959)
In the closing days of WWII, a Japanese soldier afflicted with tuberculosis is abandoned by his company and left to wander the Philippine island of Leyte.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEmpire of the Sun (1987)
Jamie Graham, a privileged English boy, is living in Shanghai when the Japanese invade and force all foreigners into prison camps. Jamie is captured with an American sailor, who looks out for him while they are in the camp together. Even though he is separated from his parents and in a hostile environment, Jamie maintains his dignity and youthful spirit, providing a beacon of hope for the others held captive with him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTo End All Wars (2001)
Based on a real-life story, this drama focuses on a small group of Allied soldiers in Burma who are held captive by the Japanese. Capt. Ernest Gordon, Lt. Jim Reardon and Maj. Ian Campbell are among the military officers kept imprisoned and routinely beaten and deprived of food. While Campbell wants to rebel and attempt an escape, Gordon tries to take a more stoic approach, an attitude that proves to be surprisingly resonant.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBarefoot Gen (1983)
A story about the effect of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on a boy's life and the lives of the Japanese people.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Worth the HypeMovies 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: Fans watch both · both drama & war
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBlack Rain (1989)
Shigematsu Shizuma, who lives with his family in a village near Fukuyama, was in Hiroshima with his wife and niece just after the devastating atomic bombing, a tragedy that cruelly took the lives of thousands of people and forever marked the harsh existence of the survivors.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
Like Tombstone of the Fireflies and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Tombstone of the Fireflies?
The closest matches to Tombstone of the Fireflies are The Most Beautiful (1944), Grave of the Fireflies (1988) and Devils on the Doorstep (2001). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Tombstone of the Fireflies?
People who watched Tombstone of the Fireflies most often go on to The Most Beautiful (1944), Grave of the Fireflies (1988) and Devils on the Doorstep (2001).
What is the highest-rated movie like Tombstone of the Fireflies?
Grave of the Fireflies (1988), rated 8.4/10 by 6,958 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Tombstone of the Fireflies?
Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle (2021) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Tombstone of the Fireflies?
Yes: The Most Beautiful (1944), Grave of the Fireflies (1988) and Grave of the Fireflies (2005).
How are movies similar to Tombstone of the Fireflies chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Tombstone of the Fireflies, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.