Movies like The Map Against the World (2016)
The best movies like The Map Against the World (2016) are War of the Arrows (2011), The Book of Fish (2021) and The Hill (2023). If The Map Against the World hooked you with its history and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Hill (2023)7.7/10 from 327 votes
- NewestThe King's Warden (2026)Released 2026
- In KoreanWar of the Arrows (2011)Also in Korean
War of the Arrows (2011)
After the death of their father, two siblings are raised by their father's best friend. However, when one gets kidnapped just before her wedding, the other rises against the Manchus.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Book of Fish (2021)
When the scholar Jeong Yak-jeon is exiled to Heuksando Island during the Catholic Persecution of 1801, he decides to write a fish-based encyclopaedia.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Hill (2023)
The story of Rickey Hill, who overcomes his physical disability and repairs his relationship with his father in a quest to become a major league baseball (MLB) player.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMasquerade (2012)
Though it places his own life in danger, a look-alike commoner secretly takes the place of a poisoned king to save his country from falling into chaos.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Throne (2015)
Ancient Korea, July 4, 1762. The Crown Prince Hyojang, posthumously named Sado, son of King Yeongjo of Joseon, is accused of treason. Thus, the king asks him to commit suicide, but his closest vassals prevent it, so the king orders the prince to get inside a wooden rice chest, where he suffers deprivation of food and water.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Last Rifleman (2023)
A WWII veteran escapes his care home in Northern Ireland and embarks on an arduous but inspirational journey to France to attend the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, finding the courage to face the ghosts of his past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)
An award-winning cynical journalist, Lloyd Vogel, begrudgingly accepts an assignment to write an Esquire profile piece on the beloved television icon Fred Rogers. After his encounter with Rogers, Vogel's perspective on life is transformed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMay 18 (2007)
The citizens of Gwangju lead a relatively peaceful life, until one day the military takes over the city, accusing the residents of conspiracy and claiming that they are communist sympathisers preparing a revolution against the current government. Seeing as the soldiers beat defenceless people, mainly students, to death, the citizens are in for retaliation and form a militia.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisZulu (1964)
In 1879, during the Anglo-Zulu War, man-of-the-people Lt. Chard and snooty Lt. Bromhead are in charge of defending the isolated and vastly outnumbered Natal outpost of Rorke's Drift from tribal hordes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJimmy's Hall (2014)
In Depression-era Ireland, Jimmy Gralton returns home after a decade's exile in America. Witnessing the levels of poverty and oppression, his inner activist reawakens and he seeks to reopen the dance hall that led to his deportation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this1987: When the Day Comes (2017)
In 1987 Korea under an oppressive military regime, the unlawful interrogation and death of a college student ignite ordinary citizens to fight for the truth and bring about justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Cardinal (1963)
A young Catholic priest from Boston confronts bigotry, Nazism, and his own personal conflicts as he rises to the office of cardinal.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJonathan (2018)
Jonathan is a young man with a strange condition that only his brother understands. But when he begins to yearn for a different life, their unique bond becomes increasingly tested.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Quiller Memorandum (1966)
After two British Secret Intelligence Service agents are murdered at the hands of a cryptic neo-Nazi group known as Phoenix, the suave agent Quiller is sent to Berlin to investigate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like this2009: Lost Memories (2002)
A failed assassination attempt in Harbin, China in 1909 changes the course of history. Now two JBI agents must find the connections between it and an ancient Korean artifact.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhere the Red Fern Grows (1974)
Billy Coleman works hard and saves his earnings for two years to achieve his dream of buying two red-bone coonhound pups. He develops a new trust in life as he faces overwhelming challenges in adventure and tragedy roaming the river bottoms of Cherokee country with his dogs, Old Dan and Little Ann.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVoice of a Murderer (2007)
After Gyeong-bae's son is kidnapped, he receives a call from the kidnapper asking for 100 million won. The detectives are teamed up for the case, yet the culprit gets away at every opportunity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrand Upon the Brain! (2007)
After returning home to his long-estranged mother upon a request from her deathbed, a man raised by his parents in an orphanage has to confront the childhood memories that have long haunted him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Classified File (2015)
A detective and a fortune teller join forces to find a kidnapped child whom no one expects to be alive. Based on a true story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWaiting for Anya (2020)
During the harrows of WWII, Jo, a young shepherd along with the help of the widow Horcada, helps to smuggle Jewish children across the border from southern France into Spain.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Admiral: Roaring Currents (2014)
Admiral Yi Sun-sin faces a tough challenge when he is forced to defend his nation with just 13 battleships against 300 Japanese enemy ships in the Battle of Myeongryang.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChihwaseon (2002)
Jang Seung-eop, also known as "Chihwaseon," drinks and paints all day. Through Mae-hyang, he learns the meaning of fate, sees art beyond even the smallest things, and sets out for the path he seeks.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNoryang: Deadly Sea (2023)
The Imjin War reaches its seventh year in December of 1598. Admiral Yi Sun-shin learns that the Wa invaders in Joseon are preparing for a swift withdrawal following the deathbed orders of their leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Determined to destroy the enemy once and for all, Admiral Yi leads an allied fleet of Joseon and Ming ships to mount a blockade and annihilate the Wa army. However, once Ming commander Chen Lin is bribed into lifting the blockade, Wa lord Shimazu Yoshihiro and his Satsuma army sail to the Wa army's rescue at Noryang Strait.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKing and the Clown (2005)
Two clowns living in Korea's Chosun Dynasty get arrested for staging a play that satirizes the king. They are dragged to the palace and threatened with execution but are given a chance to save their lives if they can make the king laugh.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLost Flower: Eo Woo-dong (2015)
A triangular relationship between Eo Woo-dong, her husband Lee Dong, and fantasy character Moo-gong, highlights on the first half of the Joseon Dynasty and portrays the contradicted life of the high class people, criticizing the modern day Korean society.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Canvas of Blood (TBA)
Dedicating his days to art, Prince Anpyeong leaves matters of the kingdom to his elder brothers, King Munjong and Prince Suyang. But after dreaming of a utopia in a peach grove and commissioning a painting of it, Anpyeong begins involving himself in politics, driven by the desire to turn his dream into reality for his nation. When Suyang steps in to manifest his own dreams for Joseon, the fate of the kingdom and their own lives hang in the balance, testing their brotherhood to the breaking point.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & drama
The King's Warden (2026)
In a remote mountain village of 15th-century Joseon, humble headman Heung-do hears a rumor that any village hosting an exiled nobleman will be blessed with abundance and fortune. Hoping to bring prosperity to his impoverished community, he eagerly submits a petition to host one—unaware that his guest is none other than the fallen monarch, deposed boy-king Danjong.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & drama
Seong Chun-hyang (1961)
Chun-hyang, the only daughter of an old gisaeng named Wolmae, falls in love with Lee Mong-nyong and promises to marry him. But Lee leaves for Seoul with his father who's an aristocrat, and the new governor, Byeon Hakdo, covets Chun-hyang because she is the most beautiful girl in town. When Chun-hyang rejects his order to serve him at night, Governor Byeon sends her to jail. In the mean time, Lee passes the state exam and becomes a special undercover agent of the king. He comes back to where Chun-hyang lives to save her and punishes Governor Byeon.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Sino-Japanese War and Queen Min the Heroine (1965)
Queen Min makes regent Prince Daewon withdraw from ruling with the help of the Min Seung-ho Party.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history
Limbo (2025)
Trapped in a recurring cycle of sleep paralysis, a man desperately searches for a way to break free.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Map Against the World?
The closest matches to The Map Against the World are War of the Arrows (2011), The Book of Fish (2021) and The Hill (2023). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Map Against the World?
Start with War of the Arrows (2011), the closest match to The Map Against the World.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Map Against the World?
The Hill (2023), rated 7.7/10 by 327 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Map Against the World?
The King's Warden (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Korean movies like The Map Against the World?
Yes: War of the Arrows (2011), The Book of Fish (2021) and Masquerade (2012).
How are movies similar to The Map Against the World chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Map Against the World, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.