Movies like Susanne Brink's Arirang (1991)
The best movies like Susanne Brink's Arirang (1991) are Like Dandelion Dust (2009), A Home of Our Own (1993) and Mommie Dearest (1981). If Susanne Brink's Arirang hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedTae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War (2004)8.0/10 from 811 votes
- NewestSound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot (2024)Released 2024
- In KoreanA Brand New Life (2009)Also in Korean
Like Dandelion Dust (2009)
Rip Porter is sentenced to seven years in prison for beating his wife, Wendy. When he is released, he discovers that Wendy gave up their child, and the privileged Campbell family adopted him. The two families are soon in a legal battle for the child they both love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Home of Our Own (1993)
In 1960s Los Angeles an energetic widow and her six children try to make a dream of theirs come true: to have a home of their own. They leave L.A. and head for the countryside, all the while facing numerous difficulties and obstacles during their journey.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMommie Dearest (1981)
Renowned film star Joan Crawford's abuse towards Christina, her adopted daughter, intensifies as her professional and romantic relationships turn sour.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLosing Isaiah (1995)
Khaila Richards, a crack-addicted single mother, accidentally leaves her baby in a dumpster while high and returns the next day in a panic to find he is missing. In reality, the baby has been adopted by a warm-hearted social worker, Margaret Lewin, and her husband, Charles. Years later, Khaila has gone through rehab and holds a steady job. After learning that her child is still alive, she challenges Margaret for the custody.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSecrets & Lies (1996)
After her adoptive mother dies, Hortense, a successful black optometrist, seeks out her birth mother. She's shocked when her research leads her to Cynthia, a working class white woman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Brand New Life (2009)
Abandoned by her father, a girl adjusts to life in an orphanage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMoebius (2013)
A wife, overwhelmed with hatred for her husband, inflicts an unspeakable wound on their son, as the family heads towards horrific destruction.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSkin (2009)
Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShort Term 12 (2013)
Grace, a compassionate young supervisor at a foster care facility, helps at-risk teens. But when a new charge dredges up memories of her own troubled past, Grace's tough exterior begins eroding.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAny Day Now (2012)
In the late 1970s, when a mentally handicapped teenager is abandoned, a gay couple takes him in and becomes the family he's never had. But once the unconventional living arrangement is discovered by authorities, the men must fight the legal system to adopt the child.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLittle Lord Fauntleroy (1980)
Young Cedric Errol and his widowed mother live in genteel poverty in 1880s Brooklyn after the death of his father. Cedric's grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt, has long ago disowned his son for marrying an American. But after the death of the Earl's remaining son, he decides to accept Cedric as his heir.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Poker House (2008)
Agnes and her two sisters struggle through a day in a home overrun by gamblers, thieves, and johns.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnne of Green Gables (2016)
Anne Shirley, an orphan, is fostered by farmer Matthew Cuthbert and his sister Marilla, who were expecting a boy to be sent them to help with their farm work. They accept Anne, who quickly endears herself to them and to the local villagers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Girl at My Door (2014)
Sent from Seoul to serve in a remote coastal village, a policewoman gets involved in the life of a mysterious teenage girl who is abused by both her father and her grandmother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSleepwalking (2008)
When her boyfriend is arrested for marijuana possession, Joleen Reedy and her 11-year-old daughter, Tara, take refuge with Joleen's aimless brother, James. Joleen soon runs off with a truck driver, and James is unable to meet his responsibilities. After Child Protective Services takes possession of Tara, James abducts her from a foster home, and the two travel from California to Utah, where his abusive father lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLadybird Ladybird (1994)
Maggie has had four children, by four different fathers, removed by social services because of a previous violent relationship. When she meets Jorge, a gentle Latin American refugee, she gradually sees her chance for happiness, but her past still haunts her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhat Maisie Knew (2013)
In New York City, six-year-old Maisie is caught in the middle of a bitter custody battle between her self-absorbed parents—an aging rock singer mother and a distracted art dealer father. As both quickly marry new partners to strengthen their legal standing, Maisie is shuttled back and forth in an endless game of emotional point-scoring. Yet amid the chaos and upheaval, Maisie begins to find true comfort and affection in her new step-parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot (2024)
Led by Donna and Reverend W.C. Martin, 22 families from a rural Black church in the small East Texas town of Possum Trot adopt 77 of the most difficult-to-place kids in the foster system and kickstart a movement in the process.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBroker (2022)
When a young mother reconsiders abandoning her baby, she discovers a scheme selling foundlings for adoption.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGoodnight, Mister Tom (1998)
A shy and quiet World War II evacuee is housed by a disgruntled old man, and they soon develop a close bond.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDecember Boys (2007)
For many years, four teenage orphans at an Australian outback convent have watched their younger comrades find new parents, and realize that they may never be adopted. The Reverend Mother sends the four boys away on a seaside vacation, where they meet Teresa and Fearless, a couple who would make perfect parents. The youths compete with one another to be the one Teresa and Fearless decide to adopt.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959)
Ralph Burton is a miner who is trapped for several days as a result of a cave-in. When he finally manages to dig himself out, he realizes that all of mankind seems to have been destroyed in a nuclear holocaust. He travels to New York City only to find it deserted. Making a life for himself there, he is flabbergasted to eventually find Sarah Crandall, who also managed to survive. Together, they form a close friendship until the arrival of Benson Thacker who has managed to pilot his small boat into the city's harbor. At this point, tensions rise between the three, particularly between Thacker, who is white, and Burton, who is black.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Sugarland Express (1974)
Married small-time crooks Lou-Jean and Clovis Poplin lose their baby to the state of Texas and resolve to do whatever it takes to get him back. Lou-Jean gets Clovis out of jail, and the two steal their son from his foster home, in addition to taking a highway patrolman hostage. As a massive dragnet starts to pursue them across Texas, the couple become unlikely folk heroes and even start to bond with the captive policeman.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMartian Child (2007)
A recently-widowed science fiction writer considers whether to adopt a hyper-imaginative 6-year-old abandoned and socially-rejected boy who says he's really from Mars.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEnemy Mine (1985)
A soldier from Earth crashlands on an alien world after sustaining battle damage. Eventually he encounters another survivor, but from the enemy species he was fighting; they band together to survive on this hostile world. In the end the human finds himself caring for his enemy in a completely unexpected way.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Off-Road Girl (1973)
A successful advertising journalist, embarks on a journey to Egypt where he encounters Maryam, a striking Eritrean woman whose beauty is matched only by her enigmatic presence. What begins as a chance meeting gradually evolves into a layered emotional connection that challenges Giorgio’s worldview and highlights cultural and racial divides.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War (2004)
When two brothers are forced to fight in the Korean War, the elder decides to take the riskiest missions if it will help shield the younger from battle.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisElizabeth's Gift (2012)
When a precious little girl dies tragically of a rare heart condition, her grieving parents are left to pick up the pieces of their once perfect life. In a sequence of events influenced by faith (and perhaps miracles), they are guided to a homeless girl on the streets, and a battle ensues to reunite as a family and heal their broken hearts.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
My Life Partner (2014)
My Life Partner deals with the deep and intricate emotional relationship between two men. The movie narrates the story of two friends-turned-lovers, Richard and Kiran, who were both born and brought up in different cultural backgrounds. Issues crop up when they plan to add a baby to their lives, reinforcing their mutual bond as the Indian law does not allow a man to adopt a child on his own. To find a way around this, Richard, who is a bisexual, marries an orphan, Pavithra. Their life goes topsy-turvy, when Pavithra discovers Richard and Kiran's relationship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Vaselinetjie (2017)
At the age of 8, Vaselinetjie is taken away by the Welfare and send to the orphanage. It's a strange, hard, dangerous world of rebel children, fierce house mothers,friends, first loves and where she finally finds true self-acceptance.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Susanne Brink's Arirang?
The closest matches to Susanne Brink's Arirang are Like Dandelion Dust (2009), A Home of Our Own (1993) and Mommie Dearest (1981). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Susanne Brink's Arirang?
Start with Like Dandelion Dust (2009), the closest match to Susanne Brink's Arirang.
What is the highest-rated movie like Susanne Brink's Arirang?
Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War (2004), rated 8.0/10 by 811 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Susanne Brink's Arirang?
Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Korean movies like Susanne Brink's Arirang?
Yes: A Brand New Life (2009), Moebius (2013) and A Girl at My Door (2014).
How are movies similar to Susanne Brink's Arirang chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Susanne Brink's Arirang, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.