Movies like On the Beach (1985)
The best movies like On the Beach (1985) are Tokyo Decadence (1992), Suburbia (1984) and Antiporno (2017). If On the Beach hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedFuneral Parade of Roses (1969)7.6/10 from 260 votes
- NewestMexicali (2026)Released 2026
- In JapaneseTokyo Decadence (1992)Also in Japanese
Tokyo 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 thisSuburbia (1984)
When household tensions and a sense of worthlessness overcome Evan, he finds escape when he clings with the orphans of a throw-away society. The runaways hold on to each other like a family until a tragedy tears them apart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAntiporno (2017)
Kyôko, a traumatized young Japanese girl, finds herself struggling with her self-confidence in her adult life. Growing up in a family without her mother and her sister, she constantly questions the rationale of sex and the notion of liberty in modern Japanese society.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisPimp (2018)
An urban love story set on the hard streets of the Bronx. A struggling female pimp, named Wednesday, grows up learning the game from her dad. Once he's gone she's left to look out for her prostitute mother and girlfriend Nikki.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFuneral Parade of Roses (1969)
In 1960s Tokyo, Gonda owns a bar in which the gay, cross-dresser, and trans scenes meet. Gonda is in a relationship with the madam of the bar, Leda. As the younger Eddie starts a passionate affair with Gonda, she ignites the jealousy of Leda, unaware of another kind of history between them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLockdown (2000)
Avery (Jones) returns to college as a competitive swimmer after getting his life back on track. But his life takes another unexpected turn when he and his two friends (Bonds, Casseus) are wrongly accused of murder and end up in prison.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Garden of Sinners: Remaining Sense of Pain (2008)
July 1998 - After a group of delinquents is found dead in their hangout place with all their limbs twisted and torn off, Aozaki Touko receives a request to find the murderer and asks Shiki for help. The main suspect is Asagami Fujino; a girl who was the boys' plaything until recently, who Shiki believes to be "one of her kind".
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHungry Hearts (2015)
The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMexicali (2026)
A former special forces contractor is forced out of retirement as an avocado farmer in Mexico when local gangsters try to force him and his family off their farm.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBelladonna of Sadness (1973)
An evil feudal lord rapes a village girl on her wedding night and proceeds to ruin her and her husband's lives. After she's eventually banished from her village, the girl makes a pact with the devil to gain magical ability and take revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisNymphomaniac: Vol. II (2013)
The continuation of Joe's sexually dictated life delves into the darker aspects of her adult life and what led to her being in Seligman's care.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShame (2011)
Brandon, a thirty-something man living in New York, eludes intimacy with women but feeds his deepest desires with a compulsive addiction to sex. When his younger sister temporarily moves into his apartment, stirring up bitter memories of their shared painful past, Brandon's life, like his fragile mind, gets out of control.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTo Write Love on Her Arms (2015)
The story follows 19-year-old Renee who has always loved fairy tales: the idea of a princess, a hero and a happily ever after. But Renee’s life is that of a darker tale: she’s a young woman battling addiction, depression and self-injury. In a creative blend of artistic fantasy balanced with harsh reality, the movie follows Renee on her courageous journey towards recovery.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRise of the Footsoldier 3 (2017)
In the late 1980s, Pat Tate journeys from peddling pills in Marbella to his time in prison, where he solidifies his power before his release to reclaim his turf.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJawbone (2017)
A former youth boxing champion, Jimmy McCabe is a man in search of hope but looking in all the wrong places. When he hits rock bottom he turns to his childhood boxing club and the only family he has left: gym owner Bill corner man Eddie and promoter Joe. Back in training, years after anyone thought he was a contender, he risks his life, as he tries to stand tall and regain his place in the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRomper Stomper (1992)
Nazi skinheads in Melbourne take out their anger on local Vietnamese, who are seen as threatening racial purity. Finally the Vietnamese have had enough and confront the skinheads in an all-out confrontation, sending the skinheads running. A woman who is prone to epileptic seizures joins the skins' merry band, and helps them on their run from justice, but is her affliction also a sign of impurity?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNo Retreat, No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers (1990)
Two feuding brothers of differing political views, one a policeman, the other a martial artist, join forces to avenge the death of their father, a retired agent who was brutally murdered by the mafia.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJun Marumo's Slut Legend (1984)
A woman frustrated by her fiancé's reluctance for premarital sex sends her on a round of boozing and remembrances of bad sexual encounters. Meanwhile someone is drugging young men late at night and doing unspeakable things to them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Prey (1990)
An eighteen year old beautiful and restless girl runs away from home to find freedom which she much dreamed of. She come across, instead, is the unsavory characters that start on the road to prostitution.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Gangnam Daughter-in-law (2019)
Ah-yeong, who wants to free herself from poverty and live in Gangnam, coincidentally meets the rich Man-soo, who introduces her to his son, Tae-min. Not long after they start dating, the contract on the house Ah-yeong lives in is terminated and she moves in with Tae-min and Man-soo, just a few months before they get married. However, Ah-yeong starts feeling more attracted to Man-soo, who truly cares for her, instead of Tae-min, who’s incompetent and abusive.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Kind Affair (2017)
A housewife who has presenile Alzheimer's feels romance with a young man. She has hot intercourse with him and not her husband who embraces her rachet sex life and holds her with dear love. She feels physical pleasure and delight during intercourse that she's never felt with her husband before! Her affair with the young man starts like that.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Beastie Girls (2017)
About the life in the celebrity and prostitution world. Only those who have been there know what it's like with the relationships with people, misunderstandings, conflicts, worries and sadness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Unfaithful Wife: In Front of Her Husband's Eyes (1994)
Mayumi Hirose lived with her husband Yasuhiro and younger sister Miki. Her girlfriend Yasuhiro, who was in the prime of his career, was busy every day, had many business trips overseas, and often returned home late at night. One day, my cousin Tadao came to Tokyo from his hometown. Tadao, who lost his family, ends up staying at Mayumi's house.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Female Teacher's Dangerous Lust (1996)
Yuko becomes a teacher at an all-boys school. She just spends her days going back and forth between her home and school in vain. And then there was her 30th birthday, which she celebrated alone. At a boutique she stops at to relieve her loneliness, she meets Seiichi, a young clerk. Coincidentally, she is revealed to be the lover of Hideko's younger sister, and before she knows it, they begin to spend sweet nights together.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Forced Indecency Sisters (1994)
Mai Kuraishi was attacked by two young men on the banks of the Chikuma River. They see her face and try to strangle her to death, but she is saved by Ota, who was just passing by in his car, and takes her home. When Mai's helpers jump out at Mai's strange behavior, she takes her in their arms. When Ota is surprised at how big Mai's house is, the people come out and thank her and ask her name, so Ota gives her his business card.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Black Erogenous Zone: Mourning Wife's Thighs (1995)
Noriko Murakami's vermilion-stained body welcomed Toshio Kuze's cock. Kuze moves violently as if fascinated by Noriko's body. The two had just gotten engaged and were planning to hold their wedding in three months. The north wind blew against Kimiko Sakuraba's cheek as she stood in front of her grave.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Woman Who Wants to Be Raped ~ Requiem for Masochism ~ (1992)
Keiharu Suzuki’s body was set ablaze by a bondage rape soaked in blood! The woman who could never forget that pleasure eventually… An unexpected twist and a chilling conclusion. The entire piece is stained with twisted ecstasy…
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like On the Beach and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like On the Beach?
The closest matches to On the Beach are Tokyo Decadence (1992), Suburbia (1984) and Antiporno (2017). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after On the Beach?
Start with Tokyo Decadence (1992), the closest match to On the Beach.
What is the highest-rated movie like On the Beach?
Funeral Parade of Roses (1969), rated 7.6/10 by 260 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like On the Beach?
Mexicali (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like On the Beach?
Yes: Tokyo Decadence (1992), Antiporno (2017) and Female Yakuza Tale (1973).
How are movies similar to On the Beach chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside On the Beach, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.