Movies like Park Hwa-young (2018)
The best movies like Park Hwa-young (2018) are Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story (2003), The Outsiders (1983) and Dog Pound (2010). If Park Hwa-young hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedA Brighter Summer Day (1991)8.2/10 from 417 votes
- NewestButterfly Knives (2021)Released 2021
- In KoreanSunflower (2006)Also in Korean
Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story (2003)
Based on a true story. Liz Murray is a young girl who is taken care of by her loving, but drug-addicted parents. Liz becomes homeless at 15 and after a tragedy comes upon her, she begins her work to finish high school.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Outsiders (1983)
In 1960s Tulsa, class divisions ignite a violent rivalry between the working-class Greasers and the privileged Socs. When a deadly encounter forces two Greasers, Ponyboy and Johnny, to flee, their struggle for survival and redemption exposes the fragile innocence and enduring bonds of youth on the wrong side of town.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDog Pound (2010)
Three juvenile delinquents arrive at a correctional center and are put under the care of an experienced guard.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe True Adventures of Wolfboy (2019)
Follows a young boy who runs away from home in the search of his estranged mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Wanderers (1979)
The streets of the Bronx are owned by '60s youth gangs where the joy and pain of adolescence is lived. Philip Kaufman tells his take on the novel by Richard Price about the history of the Italian-American gang ‘The Wanderers.’
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRocks (2020)
15-year-old Rocks fears that she and her little brother Emmanuel will be taken into care and forced apart if anyone finds out that their mother has left them. Against all odds, and with the help of her loyal friends, she evades the authorities and navigates the most defining days of her young life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSunflower (2006)
Tae-sik gets out of a prison after spending 10 years for killing a man and wishes nothing but an ordinary life. A local lady welcomes him into her household like a son and he gets a second chance in life. His former gang tries to destroy his new home in order to build a night club but he won’t let them destroy his new family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Public Enemy (1931)
Two young Chicago hoodlums, Tom Powers and Matt Doyle, rise up from their poverty-stricken slum life to become petty thieves, bootleggers and cold-blooded killers. But with street notoriety and newfound wealth, the duo feels the heat from the cops and rival gangsters both. Despite his ruthless criminal reputation, Tom tries to remain connected to his family, however, gang warfare and the need for revenge eventually pull him away.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Brotherhood of Justice (1986)
High-school students start a vigilante group in their neighbourhood but, as their power increases, they become more abusive and dangerous.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJonathan (2018)
Jonathan is a young man with a strange condition that only his brother understands. But when he begins to yearn for a different life, their unique bond becomes increasingly tested.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisRiot in Cell Block 11 (1954)
A prisoner leads his counterparts in a protest for better living conditions which turns violent and ugly.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Parts You Lose (2019)
An unlikely friendship unfolds between a young deaf boy, Wesley, and a fugitive criminal who takes refuge in an abandoned barn on the family’s rural North Dakota farm.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Dinner with Hervé (2018)
An unlikely friendship evolves over one wild night in LA between a struggling journalist and actor Hervé Villechaize, the world's most famous gun-toting dwarf, resulting in life-changing consequences for both.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll Together Now (2020)
An optimistic, talented teen clings to a huge secret: she's homeless and living on a school bus. When tragedy strikes, can she learn to accept a helping hand?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCruel Winter Blues (2006)
A gangster's quest for revenge is sidetracked by an encounter with his target's mother in this deeply-felt hybrid of a crime thriller and a family drama.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnconditional (2012)
Samantha Crawford is living a storybook life: she’s happily married, she lives on a ranch where she keeps her beloved horse, and the stories she’s told and illustrated since childhood have become published books. When her husband Billy is killed in a senseless act of violence, Sam loses her faith and her will to live. But a death-defying encounter with two children leads to a reunion with Joe, her oldest friend. As Sam watches “Papa” Joe care for and love the kids in his under-resourced neighborhood, she begins to realize that no matter life’s circumstances, the love of God is always reaching out to us.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2017)
An African-American woman becomes an unwitting pioneer for medical breakthroughs when her cells are used to create the first immortal human cell line in the early 1950s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHala (2019)
Seventeen-year-old Pakistani American teenager Hala struggles to balance desire with her family, cultural, and religious obligations. As she comes into her own, she grapples with a secret that threatens to unravel her family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlood and Ties (2013)
A young woman's happy life with her father takes a downward turn when she begins to suspect that he's a kidnapper.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Sound of Silence (2019)
A successful "house tuner" in New York City, who calibrates the sound in people's homes in order to adjust their moods, meets a client with a problem he can't solve.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like this36 Fillette (1988)
A 14-year-old pursues romance with a man while vacationing with her family in Switzerland.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisManic (2002)
In lieu of prison, Lyle, a violent adolescent, is placed in a juvenile mental institution where he encounters a group of equally troubled teens. This motley crew—abused, sexually confused, violent, and yet hanging on by their grit and anger—becomes Lyle's last lifeline as he fights to find meaning in a world that seems to defy understanding.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisButterfly Knives (2021)
Two best friends, Maggie and Angela, conduct interviews with strangers to recreate events from Maggie's shrouded past.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Vandalism (1953)
Two young high school boys spike the punch at a Halloween party, mischievously let the air out of car tires, and finally steal a car to go for a joyride. They're caught and thrown in jail, and, as the narrator says, this proves that pranks lead to "habit-forming wildness," and, of course, such anti-social behavior cannot be allowed to happen
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Brighter Summer Day (1991)
A boy experiences first love, friendships and injustices growing up in 1960s Taiwan.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisStray (TBA)
Dylan, a fatherless 17-year-old desperate for belonging, is groomed by a violent local kingpin offering protection, power, and a warped sense of family, pulling him into a brutal struggle between loyalty, survival, and the life he may never escape.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Miracle of the Heart: A Boys Town Story (1986)
A kindly but firm priest mentors a troubled young boy at the famous Boys Town, a residential care community for troubled youth.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Black Pearls (1958)
Reform school teacher tries to carry his class to the right path by teaching them diving.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Delinquent Parents (1938)
A woman is forced to keep her marriage and past indiscretions a secret from those she loves.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Almost Home (2019)
A teenage girl flees abuse at home to join a strong but troubled young woman that’s been living on the streets. She joins a de facto family of other homeless youth struggling to survive on the streets of Los Angeles.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Park Hwa-young?
The closest matches to Park Hwa-young are Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story (2003), The Outsiders (1983) and Dog Pound (2010). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Park Hwa-young?
Start with Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story (2003), the closest match to Park Hwa-young.
What is the highest-rated movie like Park Hwa-young?
A Brighter Summer Day (1991), rated 8.2/10 by 417 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Park Hwa-young?
Butterfly Knives (2021) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Korean movies like Park Hwa-young?
Yes: Sunflower (2006), Cruel Winter Blues (2006) and Blood and Ties (2013).
How are movies similar to Park Hwa-young chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Park Hwa-young, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.