Movies like Kanon (2016)
The best movies like Kanon (2016) are The Truth About Emanuel (2013), Still Alice (2014) and Sons and Lovers (1960). If Kanon hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedStill Alice (2014)7.5/10 from 3,379 votes
- NewestKnot (2025)Released 2025
- In JapaneseMaborosi (1995)Also in Japanese
The 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 thisStill Alice (2014)
Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children, is a renowned linguistics professor who starts to forget words. When she receives a devastating diagnosis, Alice and her family find their bonds tested.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSons and Lovers (1960)
The son of a working-class British mining family has dreams of pursuing an art career, but when he strikes up an affair with an older, married woman from the town it enrages his kind but possessive mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisWon't Back Down (2012)
Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHead Full of Honey (2018)
A young girl tries to help her grandfather, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, navigate his increasing forgetfulness, and ends up going on a remarkable adventure with him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisSleep, My Love (1948)
A woman wakes up in the middle of the night on board a train, but she can't remember how she got there. Danger and suspense ensue.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLike Someone in Love (2012)
An old man and a young woman meet in Tokyo. She knows nothing about him, he thinks he knows her. He welcomes her into his home, she offers him her body. But the web that is woven between them in the space of twenty four hours bears no relation to the circumstances of their encounter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisClose-Knit (2017)
After being neglected by her mother, a little girl is taken in by her uncle and his transgender girlfriend, who create a loving home for her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFlowers in the Attic (2014)
After the sudden death of their father, four children face cruel treatment from their ruthless grandmother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlack or White (2015)
A grieving widower is drawn into a custody battle over his granddaughter, whom he helped raise her entire life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhere the Red Fern Grows (2003)
Set in the Ozark Mountains during the Great Depression, Billy Coleman works hard and saves his earnings for 2 years to achieve his dream of buying two coonhound pups. He develops a new trust in God as he faces overwhelming challenges in adventure and tragedy roaming the river bottoms of Cherokee country with "Old Dan" and "Little Ann."
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 thisThe Christmas Shoes (2002)
Two separate stories mesh - in the first, a young music teacher, Maggie Andrews, begins dying of a heart condition and her son Nathan tries to get a pair of Christmas shoes for her before she dies. In the second, lawyer Robert Layton and his wife Kate are slowly drifting apart and the matter comes to a head during Christmas when Kate takes over for Maggie for the school choir.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisElizabeth Is Missing (2019)
Maud's best friend Elizabeth has disappeared, but as she tries to solve the mystery, dementia threatens to erase all the clues, giving the search a poignant urgency.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGood Day, Ramon (2013)
After five failed attempts to go to the United States, 18-year-old Ramón decides to look for a friend’s aunt in Germany, but never finds her. With no papers or money, and without knowing the language, he barely survives living on the street until he meets Ruth, an old retired nurse who doesn’t speak Spanish. Beyond language barriers and prejudices, they discover that solidarity and humanity make life bearable.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisHeidi (2005)
Swiss girl Adelheid 'Heidi' is orphaned young. Aunt Detie brings her to grandpa Alp and his wife, who live isolated in the Alps since his murder charge. Heidi soon takes to the wild country, especially accompanying young goatherd Peter. Grandpa refuses to send her to school in the city, but aunt Detie returns and forces him to give in. She's sent to a posh lady in Frankfurt, where she'll be a companion for crippled daughter Clara after school hours.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFlicka (2006)
Katy McLaughlin desires to work on her family's mountainside horse ranch, although her father insists she finish boarding school. Katy finds a mustang in the hills near her ranch. The headstrong 16 year old then sets her mind to tame a mustang and prove to her father she can run the ranch. But when tragedy happens, it will take all the love and strength the family can muster to restore hope.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAngel Passing (1998)
An aging concert pianist in a nursing home, suffering from Alzheimers, revisits his past. When he comes back to his home, now occupied by an artist, a touching bond develops for a few moments between them. Two strangers, one asking for forgiveness about his past, the other with the ability to forgive in her own life. A touching short, with very few words but deeply portrayed feelings.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Woman Deceived (2017)
It’s been one year since Elizabeth’s husband, Bill, died in a tragic horseback riding accident and she is starting to move on. When she runs into Travis Brown, the cowboy she met the same weekend Bill died, the two immediately hit it off. Travis is just what Elizabeth needed to come into her life and they soon get married. When new evidence surfaces implying that Bill’s death wasn’t an accident, Elizabeth must find a way to protect herself and her son from the man she married.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Princess (2021)
When his younger sister, a single parent, moves into the second apartment with her 5-year-old daughter Nina, an unexpected friendship develops between Josef and the uncared-for little girl.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Fierce People (2006)
A massage therapist looking to overcome her addictions and reconnect with her son, whose father is an anthropologist in South America studying the Yanomani people, moves in with a wealthy ex-client in New Jersey.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Players Club (1998)
Single mother Diana struggles to provide for her child and pay for her college education. When she meets two dancers from a nearby gentlemen's club, Diana's convinced there's fast money to be made stripping.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKnot (2025)
Each knot on a red string marks a man’s journey through life and the sacrifices he makes. Far from home, he struggles to balance duty, dreams, and family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Credimi! (2022)
Vittoria lives in the suburbs with her son Salvatore, a great fan of superheroes. Salvatore shape the harsh reality that surrounds him by imagining himself as the protagonist of the adventures of Astroman, the idol of his favorite web series.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Afonya (1975)
Afonya Borshev is a plumber who drinks a lot, flirts a lot and doesn't care too much about tomorrow. His wife left him, his boss placed him on probation, his whole life is falling apart, but he doesn't realize it. When Afonya met Katya at a dance club he didn't pay her much attention, yet she may be the only one who can help him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShe's Scorned (2022)
Symphony doesn't seem to know whether she wants to be angry or fair, having developed an enormous hate for her ex, Tyler. Tyler's frustration as he tries his best to remain calm throughout the agony he's had to endure comes to light.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
She Is Alive (2016)
At the one side of the inner yard lives a mother, who is left alone by her husband, with a little boy and his sister. At the other side lives a wife with her husband, a geologist in pension, who has suffered a heavy stroke and now lives at the edge between life and death. These two women are trying to find ways to deal with their loneliness. The mother is desperately trying to find a man, and she becomes addicted of latinoamerican sope operas. On the other hand, the wife is trying to die along with her husband, and she's trying to kill every bit of sensuality left in her.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Kanon and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Kanon?
The closest matches to Kanon are The Truth About Emanuel (2013), Still Alice (2014) and Sons and Lovers (1960). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Kanon?
Start with The Truth About Emanuel (2013), the closest match to Kanon.
What is the highest-rated movie like Kanon?
Still Alice (2014), rated 7.5/10 by 3,379 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Kanon?
Knot (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Kanon?
Yes: Maborosi (1995), Like Someone in Love (2012) and The Ballad of Narayama (1983).
How are movies similar to Kanon chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Kanon, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.