Movies like Summer Lights (2016)
The best movies like Summer Lights (2016) are Barefoot Gen 2 (1986), Black Rain (1989) and Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1973). If Summer Lights hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedHiroshima Mon Amour (1959)7.7/10 from 967 votes
- NewestStardom 5★STAR Special in Hiroshima (2023)Released 2023
- In JapaneseBarefoot Gen 2 (1986)Also in Japanese
Barefoot Gen 2 (1986)
Three years after the Hiroshima bombing, a teenager helps a group of orphans to survive and find their new life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBattles Without Honor and Humanity (1973)
In the teeming black markets of postwar Japan, Shozo Hirono and his buddies find themselves in a new war between factious and ambitious yakuza.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTokyo Family (2013)
An elderly couple journey to Tokyo to visit their grown children, only to find them preoccupied and self-involved.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStray Dog (1949)
A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMaborosi (1995)
A tragedy strikes a young woman's life without warning or reason. She continues living while searching for meaning in a lonely world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Young One (1960)
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOne Million Yen Girl (2008)
A 21-year-old girl is released from prison, only to deal with the neighborhood gossip about her and family conflicts. She decides to save one million yen, move to where no one knows her and keep repeating the process.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCall Me Crazy: A Five Film (2013)
A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Girl in the Book (2015)
The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisIron Jawed Angels (2004)
Defiant young activists take the women's suffrage movement by storm, putting their lives at risk to help American women win the right to vote.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove & Pop (1998)
Tokyo schoolgirl Hiromi and her friends engage in a practice known as enjo kosai, or "compensated dating", where older men pay young girls for dates. Hiromi plunges deeper into this world to raise money for an expensive ring.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Ballad of Narayama (1983)
In a small village in a valley everyone who reaches the age of 70 must leave the village and go to a certain mountain top to die. If anyone should refuse they would disgrace their family. Old Orin is 69. This winter it is her turn to go to the mountain. But first she must make sure that her eldest son Tatsuhei finds a wife.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHouse of Bamboo (1955)
Eddie Kenner is given a special assignment by the Army to get the inside story on Sandy Dawson, a former GI who has formed a gang of fellow servicemen and Japanese locals.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Dinner with Hervé (2018)
An unlikely friendship evolves over one wild night in LA between a struggling journalist and actor Hervé Villechaize, the world's most famous gun-toting dwarf, resulting in life-changing consequences for both.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Trials of Cate McCall (2013)
In order to be reinstated to the bar and recover custody of her daughter, a hotshot lawyer, now in recovery and on probation, must take on the appeal of a woman wrongfully convicted of murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGirl in the Box (2016)
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Truth About Emanuel (2013)
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Blood of Wolves (2018)
Set in 1988 in Hiroshima, Japan, prior to the enactment of the anti-organized crime law. A rumor exists that Detective Shogo Ogami has ties with the yakuza. He is partnered with Detective Shuichi Hioka and they investigate a missing person case involving a financial company employee. Conflicts between opposing yakuza groups become more serious.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Yakuza Code Still Lives (1976)
After spending eight years in prison for murder, Hiroshi leaves his yakuza family to start a new life as a labor racketeer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Même le vent semble pleurer (2016)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959)
The deep conversation between a Japanese architect and a French actress forms the basis of this celebrated French film, considered one of the vanguard productions of the French New Wave. Set in Hiroshima after the end of World War II, the couple -- lovers turned friends -- recount, over many hours, previous romances and life experiences. The two intertwine their stories about the past with pondering the devastation wrought by the atomic bomb dropped on the city.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHiroshima (1953)
Historical fiction about the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, on 6 August 1945, and its effects on various civilians, especially children, of that city.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Pride (1998)
Based on the International Military Tribunal for the Far East of 1946–48, depicts Japanese prime minister Hideki Tojo as a family man who fought to defend Japan and Asia from western colonialism but was ultimately hanged by a vengeful United States.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Stardom Hiroshima Goddess Festival ~Kinsai Stardom~ (2022)
Hiroshima Goddess Festival ~Kinsai Stardom~ was a professional wrestling event promoted by World Wonder Ring Stardom, held on November 3, 2022, at Hiroshima Sun Plaza in Hiroshima, Japan. In the main event, Syuri defended the World of Stardom Championship against her former stablemate and protégé, DDM's Maika.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Beginning or the End (1947)
The research, development, and deployment of the first atomic bomb, as well as the bombing of Hiroshima, are detailed in this docudrama.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Hiroshima (2005)
The documentary recounts the world's first nuclear attack and examines the alarming repercussions. Covering a three-week period from the Trinity test to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the program chronicles America's political gamble and the planning for the momentous event. Archival film, dramatizations, and special effects feature what occurred aboard the Enola Gay (the aircraft that dropped the bomb) and inside the exploding bomb.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStardom 5★STAR Special in Hiroshima (2023)
5★STAR Special in Hiroshima was a professional wrestling event promoted by World Wonder Ring Stardom, held on September 3, 2023 at Hiroshima Sun Plaza in Hiroshima, Japan. It was the fourteenth overall day of the company's annual round-robin singles tournament with three notable block matches, and featured several title matches as well. In the main event, Giulia defended the NJPW STRONG Women's Championship against long-time rival Risa Sera.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Summer Lights?
The closest matches to Summer Lights are Barefoot Gen 2 (1986), Black Rain (1989) and Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1973). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Summer Lights?
Start with Barefoot Gen 2 (1986), the closest match to Summer Lights.
What is the highest-rated movie like Summer Lights?
Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959), rated 7.7/10 by 967 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Summer Lights?
Stardom 5★STAR Special in Hiroshima (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Summer Lights?
Yes: Barefoot Gen 2 (1986), Black Rain (1989) and Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1973).
How are movies similar to Summer Lights chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Summer Lights, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.