Movies like Sad Boyfriend (2009)
The best movies like Sad Boyfriend (2009) are Ocean Waves (1993), Love Letter (1995) and I've Always Liked You (2016). If Sad Boyfriend hooked you with its drama and romance, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Sad Boyfriend
Quick picks
- Highest ratedLove Letter (1995)7.8/10 from 282 votes
- NewestKata Hati (2026)Released 2026
- In JapaneseOcean Waves (1993)Also in Japanese
Ocean Waves (1993)
At Kichijōji Station, Tokyo, Taku Morisaki glimpses a familiar woman on the platform opposite boarding a train. Later, her photo falls from a shelf as he exits his apartment before flying to Kōchi Prefecture. Picking it up, he looks at it briefly before leaving. As the aeroplane takes off, he narrates the events that brought her into his life...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove Letter (1995)
Hiroko attends the memorial service of her fiancé, Itsuki Fujii, who died in a mountain-climbing incident. Although Itsuki's mother says that their old house is gone, Hiroko records the address listed under his name in his yearbook and sends him a letter. Surprisingly, she receives a reply, and discovers it came from his old classmate, a girl who also happens to be called Itsuki Fujii.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI've Always Liked You (2016)
Love is blooming at Sakuragaoka High School. Natsuki Enomoto has finally mustered the courage to confess to her childhood friend, Yuu Setoguchi. However, in the final moments of her confession, an embarrassed Natsuki passes it off as a "practice confession." Oblivious to her true feelings and struggling with his own, Yuu promises to support Natsuki in her quest for love. While Natsuki deals with her failed confession, fellow classmate Koyuki Ayase struggles with his own feelings for Natsuki. Despite his timidness, he is determined to win over her heart. This movie follows Natsuki as she dreams of one day ending her practices and genuinely confessing to Yuu. Meanwhile, close friends also find themselves entangled in their own webs of unrequited love and unspoken affections.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRevenge Porn: PAIN OF LOVE (2019)
Rei is a college student in the midst of finding a job. She confesses her love to Mikio, a senior whom she admires. Mikio soon demands that she perform perverted acts.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisDolls (2002)
Dolls takes puppeteering as its overriding motif, which relates thematically to the action provided by the live characters. Chief among those tales is the story of Matsumoto and Sawako, a young couple whose relationship is about to be broken apart by the former's parents, who have insisted their son take part in an arranged marriage to his boss' daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLove Letter (1953)
Five years after the end of the Second World War, Reikichi, a repatriated veteran, translates love letters for Japanese women to American GIs, while searching for his lost love, Michiko.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHaru (1996)
A young Tokyo businessman joins an online movie forum and develops a special bond with one of its members through back and forth e-mails.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBlue Spring Ride (2014)
In middle school, Futaba Yoshioka was madly in love with Tanaka Kou but he moves away with his mother. She is reunited with him later in life but he is not the same person anymore.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Rainy Days (2009)
A cold and calculating high school student falls in love for the first time with a professor, but he's dying of brain cancer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNewness (2017)
In contemporary Los Angeles, two millennials navigating a social media–driven hookup culture begin a relationship that pushes both emotional and physical boundaries.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWheel of Fortune and Fantasy (2021)
An unexpected love triangle, a seduction trap, and a random encounter are the three episodes, told in three movements to depict three female characters and trace the trajectories between their choices and regrets.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Little House (2014)
Following the death of the unmarried and childless Taki, Takeshi, a young relative of hers, discovers several pages of closely written lines in which the old lady has recorded her memories. This is how he learns the truth about her youth working as a housemaid and nanny for the Hirai family in a little house in Tokyo with a red gabled roof.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWe Made a Beautiful Bouquet (2021)
Two people meet each other after missing the last train home, leading to a beautiful relationship over five years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisApril Story (1998)
In spring, a girl leaves the island of Hokkaido to attend university in Tokyo. Once there, she is asked to reveal why she wanted to go there in the first place.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between (2022)
Clare and Aidan make a pact to break up before college — no regrets, no broken hearts. But will one epic goodbye date offer them a last chance at love?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHis Motorbike, Her Island (1986)
Ko, a motorbike enthusiast from the city wandering the Japanese countryside, falls for the carefree local Miyo and teaches her how to ride. When Miyo proves herself a biker prodigy, Ko begins to fear she's destined to crash.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEven If This Love Disappears Tonight (2022)
A high school girl wakes up each day with no memory of the day before. When she agrees to date a shy classmate, Toru, he begins to fall for her—despite her rule against falling in love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRadiance (2017)
The story follows the social intercourse between a cameraman, Masaya, with a visual impairment, and Misako who disconnects from the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIt Feels So Good (2019)
When it rains it pours. Kenji divorced his wife, lost his job and his old squeeze Naoko is getting married back home in the north of Japan, specifically in Akita. He returns there in order to attend her wedding. Naoko surprises him by proposing that they have sex again. The one night stand is the new beginning.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAir Doll (2009)
A life-size, inflatable sex doll suddenly comes to life one day. Without her owner knowing, she goes for a walk around town and falls in love with Junichi. She starts to date Junichi and gets a job at the same store where he works. Everything seems to be going perfectly for her until something unexpected happens.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDirty Dancing (1987)
Expecting the usual tedium that accompanies a summer in the Catskills with her family, 17-year-old Frances 'Baby' Houseman is surprised to find herself stepping into the shoes of a professional hoofer—and unexpectedly falling in love.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUndercover Angel (1999)
With his landlord breathing down his neck and his writing career stagnant, the last thing Harrison Tyler (Dean Winters) needs is a kid hanging around. But he's in for a surprise when his ex-girlfriend (Lorraine Ansell) leaves her precocious 6-year-old (Emily Mae Young) in his care for a few weeks. It turns out the girl possesses remarkable matchmaking skills, and soon Tyler's professional and romantic fortunes begin to turn around.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
A 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 & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Lost Husband (2020)
Trying to put her life back together after the death of her husband, Libby and her children move to her estranged Aunt's goat farm in central Texas.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRoma (2004)
Joaquín Góñez, a novelist in his sixties recalls his emotions, his wild years in Buenos Aires, the memories of old friends, the meaning of loyalty and the intimate relationship with his mother, Roma.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Geerbtes Glück (2004)
Hamburg landscape architect Ulrike inherits a vineyard near Barcelona, where she falls in love with Pablo. Her fatherly friend Joe advises her to be careful, because Pablo is the son of a real estate shark. Is the Spaniard just after her property? Until this is clarified, the drama takes many a bumpy turn.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
Words of Devotion: To the End of the World (2010)
IT guy meets corporate golden boy. They can’t stand each other—until they maybe can’t stop thinking about each other.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Beyond the Boundary: I'll Be Here – Past (2015)
It all began quite suddenly. Akihito, who appears human but is actually half yomu with the power to quickly heal himself, sees a freshman girl who appears ready to jump from the school rooftop. The girl, Mirai, who has the ability to manipulate blood, which is unique even among members of the spirit world, continues to fight her isolation. Akihito decides at that moment to save Mirai, but disturbing events soon begin to unfold.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGidget Goes Hawaiian (1961)
Francis is desperate: her parents want to force her to come with them on vacation to Hawaii - just during the two weeks when her beloved "Moondoggy" is home from College. When he suggests her to go for it, she's even more in panic - doesn't he care to be with her? So she sets out for Hawaii in the worst mood. On the plane she meets the sociable Abby, who gives her the advice to forget about Jeff - and regrets it shortly after, when Francis follows the advice and steals her boyfriend Eddie, a famous dancer. But then Jeff discovers he's missing Francis...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance
Kata Hati (2026)
When a humiliated celebrity actress flees a viral public disaster and hires a reluctant e-hailing driver as her personal chauffeur to manage the fallout, their transactional arrangement blossoms into a genuine romance that threatens to shatter her carefully orchestrated public image.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Sad Boyfriend?
The closest matches to Sad Boyfriend are Ocean Waves (1993), Love Letter (1995) and I've Always Liked You (2016). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Sad Boyfriend?
Start with Ocean Waves (1993), the closest match to Sad Boyfriend.
What is the highest-rated movie like Sad Boyfriend?
Love Letter (1995), rated 7.8/10 by 282 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Sad Boyfriend?
Kata Hati (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Sad Boyfriend?
Yes: Ocean Waves (1993), Love Letter (1995) and I've Always Liked You (2016).
How are movies similar to Sad Boyfriend chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Sad Boyfriend, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.