Movies like The Rickshaw Man (1958)
The best movies like The Rickshaw Man (1958) are Late Autumn (1960), Equinox Flower (1958) and Record of a Tenement Gentleman (1947). If The Rickshaw Man hooked you with its drama and comedy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedTokyo Story (1953)8.1/10 from 1,288 votes
- NewestOmaha (2025)Released 2025
- In JapaneseLate Autumn (1960)Also in Japanese
Late Autumn (1960)
A woman and her daughter are each forced to contend with an increasing pressure to marry, particularly from three men who knew her late husband.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEquinox Flower (1958)
Wataru's outwardly liberal views on marriage are severely tested when his daughter declares her love for a coworker and is adamant to live her own way, instead of agreeing to an arranged marriage. Outwitted by his female relatives, Hirayama stubbornly refuses to admit defeat.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRecord of a Tenement Gentleman (1947)
A hard-hearted old woman in a bombed-out Tokyo neighborhood reluctantly takes in an abandoned boy, leading to a heartwarming bond between them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Taste of Tea (2004)
A spell of time in the life of the five-piece Haruno family in rural Tochigi Prefecture. Yoshiko is not an ordinary housewife, instead working on an animated film project. Uncle Ayano, a successful music producer, is looking to get his head together after living in Tokyo. Meanwhile, Sachiko is concerned with why she seems to be followed by a giant version of herself. As the lazy days pass by, each member of the family is followed in a series of episodic vignettes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Yellow Handkerchief (1977)
A convict, newly released from prison for murder, joins two strangers on a road trip through Hokkaido to visit his ex-wife, whom he hasn't seen in four years, knowing that if she puts a yellow handkerchief on the window, it would mean that she wants him back at home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShoplifters (2018)
In the outskirts of Tokyo, a poor but close-knit group living on the fringes of society survives through shoplifting and odd jobs. When Osamu and his son take in a neglected young girl, their already fragile existence begins to unravel. As the family grows attached to her, buried secrets surface, forcing them to confront the true meaning of love, belonging, and what makes a family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOmaha (2025)
A young girl and her brother are awoken by their father and loaded into the car on an early morning in 2008. As they road trip across the American West, she discovers the truth about their seemingly spontaneous journey.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Insect Woman (1963)
A woman, Tome, is born to a lower class family in Japan in 1918. The title refers to an insect, repeating its mistakes, as in an infinite circle. Imamura, with this metaphor, introduces the life of Tome, who keeps trying to change her poor life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Thing with Feathers (2025)
Following the death of his wife, a young father's hold on reality crumbles, and a strange presence begins to stalk him from the shadowy recesses of the apartment he shares with his two young sons.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAn Autumn Afternoon (1962)
Widower Shuhei Hirayama's caretaker is his 24-year-old daughter, Michiko. Gradually, he comes to realize that Michiko should not be obliged to look after him for the rest of his life, so he arranges a marriage for her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisLate Spring (1949)
Noriko is perfectly happy living at home with her widowed father, Shukichi, and has no plans to marry -- that is, until her aunt Masa convinces Shukichi that unless he marries off his 27-year-old daughter soon, she will likely remain alone for the rest of her life. When Noriko resists Masa's matchmaking, Shukichi is forced to deceive his daughter and sacrifice his own happiness to do what he believes is right.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Bad Sleep Well (1960)
In this loose adaptation of "Hamlet," illegitimate son Kôichi Nishi climbs to a high position within a Japanese corporation and marries the crippled daughter of company vice president Iwabuchi. At the reception, the wedding cake is a replica of their corporate headquarters, but an aspect of the design reminds the party of the hushed-up death of Nishi's father. It is then that Nishi unleashes his plan to avenge his father's death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe End of Summer (1961)
The family of an older man who runs a small sake brewery become concerned with his finances and his health after they discover him visiting an old mistress from his youth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFloating Weeds (1959)
A theater troupe master's visit with his old flame unintentionally sets off a chain of unexpected events with devastating consequences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTokyo Story (1953)
The elderly Shukishi and his wife, Tomi, take the long journey from their small seaside village to visit their adult children in Tokyo. Their elder son, Koichi, a doctor, and their daughter, Shige, a hairdresser, don't have much time to spend with their aged parents, and so it falls to Noriko, the widow of their younger son who was killed in the war, to keep her in-laws company.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies 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 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 thisRepast (1951)
In post-WWII Osaka, a middle-aged woman is forced to examine her dreary life and marriage when her husband's young and flirtatious cousin arrives for a brief stay to escape an arranged marriage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNomadland (2021)
A woman in her sixties embarks on a journey through the western United States after losing everything in the Great Recession, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWidows (2018)
A police shootout leaves four thieves dead during an explosive armed robbery attempt in Chicago. Their widows have nothing in common except a debt left behind by their spouses' criminal activities. Hoping to forge a future on their own terms, they join forces to pull off a heist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBack Street (1961)
Ambitious but thwarted, Rae Smith meets handsome U.S. Marine Paul Saxon, of the Saxon department store chain, as he passes through Lincoln, Nebraska, on his way home from World War II. There's a definite spark between them but circumstances intervene and he leaves town without her. Later she learns he's married. Determined to make it as a fashion designer, Rae moves to New York City and becomes a great success. One day she happens to meet Paul again and again there's that spark but he's still married so, as a form of escape, Rae moves to Rome to set up shop. Once again she meets Paul and finally they begin an actual affair since Paul's shrewish, drunken wife, Liz, won't give him a divorce. Time passes, the affair continues whenever time and place permit, but then, Paul's young son finds out about Rae and Rae's back-street world begins to crumble.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Escape (1914)
A dramatic comparison between the mating habits of animals and the way humans choose their own partners. The film is now considered to be a lost film.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Orphans of the Storm (1921)
France, on the eve of the French Revolution. Henriette and Louise have been raised together as sisters. When the plague that takes their parents' lives causes Louise's blindness, they decide to travel to Paris in search of a cure, but they separate when a lustful aristocrat crosses their path.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Man and a Woman (1966)
A man and a woman meet by accident on a Sunday evening at their childrens' boarding school. Slowly, they reveal themselves to each other, finding that they have something deeply in common.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisVaruskunnan "pikku" morsian (1943)
Wholesaler Paavo Markkanen faces a month in prison for drunk driving. Accustomed to an easy life, he avoids prison by switching places with his doppelgänger, the vagrant Knip, but ends up having to do strenuous physical training in his place. Meanwhile, Markkanen's new housekeeper Kaisa Kankkunen spends her days enjoying herself with her male friends.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
The Hired Heart (1997)
A small-town, country doctor has been a widow for two years but is still in love with her dead husband, Michael. The week-long county fair is approaching and her father-in-law traps her into an unfair deal involving the feeding of her bull in return for her attendance at the fair with a suitable escort. She decides to call his bluff by hiring a male escort to attend the fair as her lover. However, things don't go quite according to plan as he smells a rat!
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Little Miss Marker (1934)
Big Steve Halloway, gambler and proprietor of New York's Horseshoe Cabaret, is in desperate need of money. He arranges for his fellow bookies, especially Sorrowful Jones, to each pay him $1,000 for his racehorse, Dream Prince, to lose. With all bets being placed at the window, Sorrowful encounters a gambler, having lost $500, wanting to place his bet but unable to come up with $20. Instead, he places his little girl, Marthy Jane, as security, or in bookie's terms a "marker". "Marky", as she comes to be known, winds up under the care of Sorrowful Jones and his lady friend, singer Bangles Carson.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Young at Heart (1954)
The lives and romances of three sisters in a musical family; the youngest daughter's life is complicated by the subsequent arrival of a charming composer and a cynical music arranger.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Dark Past (1948)
A gang hold a family hostage in their own home. The leader of the escaped cons is bothered by a recurring dream that the doctor of the house may be able to analyze.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Life of Oharu (1952)
During the Edo Period, a noblewoman's banishment for her love affair with a lowly page signals the beginning of her inexorable fall.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Rickshaw Man?
The closest matches to The Rickshaw Man are Late Autumn (1960), Equinox Flower (1958) and Record of a Tenement Gentleman (1947). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Rickshaw Man?
Start with Late Autumn (1960), the closest match to The Rickshaw Man.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Rickshaw Man?
Tokyo Story (1953), rated 8.1/10 by 1,288 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Rickshaw Man?
Omaha (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like The Rickshaw Man?
Yes: Late Autumn (1960), Equinox Flower (1958) and Record of a Tenement Gentleman (1947).
How are movies similar to The Rickshaw Man chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Rickshaw Man, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.