Movies like Joy in Hong Kong (1992)
The best movies like Joy in Hong Kong (1992) are In Secret (2014), Killer Heat (2024) and Thieves (1996). If Joy in Hong Kong hooked you with its romance and crime, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedGabriel's Inferno: Part II (2020)8.3/10 from 1,569 votes
- NewestLove Me Love Me (2026)Released 2026
- In FrenchThieves (1996)Also in French
In Secret (2014)
In 1860s Paris, a young woman, Therese, is trapped in a loveless marriage to the sickly Camille by her domineering aunt, Madame Raquin. She spends her days behind the counter of a small shop and her evenings watching Madame play dominos with an eclectic group. After she meets her husband’s alluring friend, Laurent, she embarks on an illicit affair that leads to tragic consequences. Based on Emile Zola’s novel, Thérèse Raquin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKiller Heat (2024)
An expat PI is hired to investigate a suspicious death in Crete, Greece, where jealousies run deep amongst the victim's powerful family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThieves (1996)
In the middle of the night, someone brings Ivan's body home to his wife and his young son. Flashbacks reveal the relationships among Ivan and his brother Alex, a cop with a cleanliness fetish; siblings Juliette and Jimmy, Ivan's partners in a seedy nightclub; the love triangle of Alex, Juliette, and Marie, a professor of philosophy; and of Alex and his nephew, Ivan's dour, stoic son. Ivan's death changes every relationship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlue Story (2019)
Blue Story is a tragic tale of a friendship between Timmy and Marco, two young boys from opposing postcodes. Timmy, a shy, smart, naive and timid young boy from Deptford, goes to school in Peckham where he strikes up a friendship with Marco, a charismatic, streetwise kid from the local area. Although from warring postcodes, the two quickly form a firm friendship until it is tested and they wind up on rival sides of a street war. Blue Story depicts elements of Rapman's own personal experiences and aspects of his childhood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeating Hearts (2024)
Local rebellious teenager Clotaire falls for his schoolmate Jackie, but gang violence leads him to a darker destructive path. After years apart, the star-crossed lovers discover that every path they've taken leads them back together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFire with Fire (1986)
A tough, street-smart kid serving a sentence in a state youth reformatory meets a beautiful, innocent girl studying at a nearby convent. When forbidden love blossoms between them, they must fight the prison authorities, their parents and the law.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAn Affair of Love (1999)
A man and a woman meet to fulfill her sexual fantasy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Man from Elysian Fields (2001)
A failed novelist's inability to pay the bills strains relations with his wife and leads him to work at an escort service, where he becomes entwined with a wealthy woman whose husband is a successful writer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Enforcer (2022)
A noir thriller set in Miami, the film follows an enforcer who discovers his femme fatale boss has branched out into cyber sex trafficking, putting a young runaway he’s befriended at risk. He sacrifices everything to save the young girl from the deadly organization he’s spent his life building.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPasha (1968)
Six months before his retirement from the criminal police, inspector Joss finds his colleague Gouvion dead, in a poorly faked suicide attempt. Joss loses his temper, and investigates on his own, which leads him through the bas-fond of Paris...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTime Is Up (2021)
Vivien, an accomplished student with a passion for physics, and Roy, a troubled young man, are involved in an accident that forces them to reclaim their lives one minute at the time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisGabriel's Inferno: Part II (2020)
Professor Gabriel Emerson finally learns the truth about Julia Mitchell's identity, but his realization comes a moment too late. Julia is done waiting for the well-respected Dante specialist to remember her and wants nothing more to do with him. Can Gabriel win back her heart before she finds love in another's arms?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisMaria's Lovers (1984)
A World War II prisoner returns home to his childhood sweetheart. However, back home, he discovers that he has to compete to win her love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove Me Love Me (2026)
After her brother's death, June moves to Milan for a fresh start, finding comfort in Will, the perfect honor student at her new international school. But when his troubled best friend James—hiding a dangerous life in clandestine MMA fights—sparks a rivalry that quickly turns into irresistible attraction, June must choose between safety and a love that upends everything she thought she wanted.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChinese Box (1997)
The story of Hong Kong, from New Year's Day to June 30th, 1997, when the British left their colony and turned it over to the People's Republic of China.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisNo Limit (2022)
Roxana Aubrey decides to drop her studies and escape her life in Paris for a free diving course in the south of France. She is quickly pulled into a life that reaches new depths brought by the weight of an ocean's descent.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAbove the Rim (1994)
Story of a promising high school basketball star and his relationships with two brothers, one a drug dealer and the other a former basketball star fallen on hard times and now employed as a security guard.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDirt Music (2020)
Georgie is slowly suffocating in a loveless marriage to fishing tycoon Jim Buckridge. Handsome poacher Lu is an irresistible symbol of the excitement she craves. A passionate affair follows that reveals the dark secrets in Lu’s past and forces him to take flight into the blistering heat of the outback. Georgie follows, determined to find him and bring him back.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Grissom Gang (1971)
Violent crime caper set in 1930s Kansas in which a gang kidnap an heiress and attempt to recover a ransom. However, the scheme is jeopardised when the leader falls in love with their beautiful captive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Belt (1989)
Vittorio, an American novelist teaching in Rome, meets the beautiful but damaged Bianca and they rapidly fall into an urgent, tempestuous affair. He's hesitant over their relationship since she seems to thrive on conflict and is constantly baiting him into physical altercation. Bianca gives Vittorio an exquisite leather belt as a gift; he knows immediately that she wants him to whip her with it. Driven by his craving for her, Vittorio complies to Bianca's desire. Their relationship escalates into a dark realm of S&M which becomes more and more self-destructive.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Tropical Ecstasy (1970)
A woman who makes her living as a prostitute must decide her fate between two totally different men.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
Treibgut der Großstadt (1967)
A young woman works in a Berlin hotel while her husband, a commercial art student, drives a cab. They are 3600 DM in debt. In order to pay the rates, the woman agrees to work as an entertainer in a bar against her husband's wishes...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Emmanuelle (1974)
An employee at the French Embassy in Bangkok invites his wife to join him – and enjoy the benefits of their open marriage.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCarnal Cravings (2006)
A sex therapist shows women how to please their mates and how to get more pleasure in return. Their male counterparts aren't quite sure about the transformations, they are unsure about the fantasies their women are bringing home. Putting lust back into the relationship becomes the priority for these beautiful couples. Along the way, they learn more about each other.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
Scandalous Gilda (1985)
A woman catches her husband in bed with a much younger lady. Shocked and distraught, the woman leaves her husband. She decides to embark on a road trip of erotic self discovery. The woman meets a cartoonist during her sensual pilgrimage and gets involved in a torrid sexual affair with him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Caligula (1979)
After the death of the paranoid emperor Tiberius, Caligula, his heir, seizes power and plunges the empire into a bloody spiral of madness and depravity.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEine Frau für gewisse Stunden (1985)
Liza Hofer is a luxury prostitute and drug addict who works at the nightclub of William Ackermann. One day, Liza walking her friend's dog, meets a student Hinrich in a wheelchair in the park. Love begins to develop between them, but will Liza's profession do not stop her?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Half Past Ten (2008)
An alcoholic married man discovers he has fallen out of love with his moody wife.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Torremolinos 73 (2003)
Set in 1973 Spain, a struggling encyclopedia salesman and his wife take advantage of an offer to make adult films. The act turns him into an aspring legit filmmaker and her into an international sex symbol.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
Like Joy in Hong Kong and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Joy in Hong Kong?
The closest matches to Joy in Hong Kong are In Secret (2014), Killer Heat (2024) and Thieves (1996). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Joy in Hong Kong?
Start with In Secret (2014), the closest match to Joy in Hong Kong.
What is the highest-rated movie like Joy in Hong Kong?
Gabriel's Inferno: Part II (2020), rated 8.3/10 by 1,569 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Joy in Hong Kong?
Love Me Love Me (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like Joy in Hong Kong?
Yes: Thieves (1996), Beating Hearts (2024) and An Affair of Love (1999).
How are movies similar to Joy in Hong Kong chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Joy in Hong Kong, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.