Movies like The Summer in Nanjing (2009)
The best movies like The Summer in Nanjing (2009) are Blind Massage (2014), Come Sunday (2018) and Caught by the Tides (2024). If The Summer in Nanjing hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedCity of Life and Death (2009)7.4/10 from 250 votes
- NewestEleanor the Great (2025)Released 2025
- In ChineseBlind Massage (2014)Also in Chinese
Blind Massage (2014)
The employees of a massage parlour share a close bond with each other as they all share a trait in common, they are all visually impaired.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCome Sunday (2018)
Evangelist Carlton Pearson is ostracized by his church for preaching that there is no Hell.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisCaught by the Tides (2024)
Years after her boyfriend left her for the big city and promised to bring her there after he’s settled down, a Chinese woman sets out on a journey to be reunited with him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHands of Stone (2016)
The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDwelling in the Fuchun Mountains (2020)
In the Chinese town of Fuyang, four brothers go about their day-to-day lives, their destinies shaped by love and challenges.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOne Second (2020)
A movie fan escapes from a labour camp during the Chinese Cultural Revolution and strikes up a relationship with a homeless female vagabond.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMost (2003)
A poetic and powerful story of a father forced to choose between love and duty.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTigertail (2020)
A man reflects on the lost love of his youth and his long-ago journey from Taiwan to America as he begins to reconnect with his estranged daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUpstream (2024)
A moment of impulsiveness turns Gao Zhilei into a "stay-at-home" individual, but he never expected his life to take a turn in the opposite direction. A series of changes compel him to take on his responsibilities as the head of the family. When life's burdens hit hard, he must confront himself and start anew.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004)
The story of golf icon and legend, Bobby Jones, who retired from competition at the tender age of 28.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisBlack Dog (2024)
Released from jail, Lang returns to his hometown in Northwest China. As part of a dog patrol tasked with clearing stray dogs before the 2008 Olympics, he bonds with a black stray. The two lonely souls embark on a new journey together.
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 thisIp Man: Kung Fu Master (2019)
Ip Man’s promising career as a Policeman is ruined after he is framed for murder and targeted by a mob boss’s daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Safety of Objects (2002)
In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll Day and a Night (2020)
While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisO.G. (2018)
Louis Menkins is five weeks away from being released after 26 years in prison. He is faced with the decision to put his own release at risk in order to protect a young man named Beecher from growing gang controversies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisImperial Dreams (2014)
A 21-year-old reformed gangster's devotion to his family and his future is put to the test when he is released from prison and returns to his old stomping grounds in Watts, Los Angeles.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHardball (2001)
An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.
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 thisEleanor the Great (2025)
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDead to Rights (2025)
During the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, a postman poses as a photo developer, helping Japanese forces while secretly sheltering Chinese refugees. He later risks his life evacuating them and revealing evidence of the atrocities.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEchoes of Encounter (TBA)
2040 Nanjing is full of green and has become the "big eyes of animals" heaven. Ban Xia insists on using radio stations to contact the world every day. In 2019, high school student Bai Yang became a radio enthusiast under his father's influence. When he made independent communication for the first time, he accidentally receives a signal from Ban Xia in 2040. The two embark on a communication journey across time and space.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
City of Life and Death (2009)
In 1937, during the height of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Imperial Japanese Army has just captured Nanjing, then-capital of the Republic of China. What followed was known as the Nanking Massacre, or the Rape of Nanking, a six week period wherein tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians were killed.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Refugee (1955)
A Chinese medical student named Gan Shosho finds himself cut off from his homeland as he is studying in Japan during the outbreak of the war. Despite his difficult circumstances, he finds love in the form of Sachiko and the two marry. They later travel to Nanjing to live a new life together where Sachiko and Shaochang cooperate with the Japanese-backed government. Their ultimate hope is to secure peace but their idealism is not enough to keep them together through brutal times and with the end of the war the two find themselves facing a divorce... --Osaka Asian Film Festival
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
I Belonged to You (2016)
A romantic tale revolving around two radio disc jockeys and the world they inhabit. They find the audience they reach reflects their love and heartbreak, forcing them to deal with issues larger than just their own lives.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
So Young (2013)
Although new friendships and new love await her, a college freshman discovers that university life is not as simple as she had hoped.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSoulMate (2016)
The film spans two decades, as the story unfolds in a series of flashbacks that begin when Qiyue and Ansheng were just thirteen. The two became inseparable, until they met a boy who ended up tearing their lives apart.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSamaj Ko Badal Dalo (1947)
1947 film by Vijay Bhatt
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Summer in Nanjing?
The closest matches to The Summer in Nanjing are Blind Massage (2014), Come Sunday (2018) and Caught by the Tides (2024). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Summer in Nanjing?
Start with Blind Massage (2014), the closest match to The Summer in Nanjing.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Summer in Nanjing?
City of Life and Death (2009), rated 7.4/10 by 250 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Summer in Nanjing?
Eleanor the Great (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Chinese movies like The Summer in Nanjing?
Yes: Blind Massage (2014), Caught by the Tides (2024) and Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains (2020).
How are movies similar to The Summer in Nanjing chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Summer in Nanjing, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.