Movies like An Elephant Sitting Still (2018)
The best movies like An Elephant Sitting Still (2018) are The World (2004), Beijing Bicycle (2001) and Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains (2020). If An Elephant Sitting Still hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedYi Yi (2000)8.0/10 from 727 votes
- NewestCaught by the Tides (2024)Released 2024
- In ChineseThe World (2004)Also in Chinese
The World (2004)
At Beijing World Park, a bizarre cross-pollination of Las Vegas and Epcot Center where visitors can interact with famous international monuments without ever leaving the city’s suburbs, a security guard betrays his dancer girlfriend by pursuing another woman.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeijing Bicycle (2001)
A seventeen-year-old country boy working in Beijing as a courier has his bicycle stolen, and finds it with a schoolboy his age.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDwelling in the Fuchun Mountains (2020)
In the Chinese town of Fuyang, four brothers go about their day-to-day lives, their destinies shaped by love and challenges.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSo Long, My Son (2019)
Two married couples adjust to the vast social and economic changes taking place in China from the 1980s to the present.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPlatform (2001)
China’s rapid changes from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, as seen through the lives of four performers in a theater troupe.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRiding Alone for Thousands of Miles (2005)
Takada, a Japanese fisherman has been estranged from his son for many years, but when the son is diagnosed with terminal cancer his daughter-in-law, Rie, summons him to the hospital. Through a series of obstacles and relationships, he is brought unexpectedly closer to both an understanding of himself and of his son.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisYi Yi (2000)
Each member of a family in Taipei asks hard questions about life's meaning as they live through everyday quandaries. NJ is morose: his brother owes him money, his mother is in a coma, his wife suffers a spiritual crisis when she finds her life a blank and his business partners make bad decisions.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisStill Life (2006)
A town in Fengjie county is gradually being demolished and flooded to make way for the Three Gorges Dam. A man and woman visit the town to locate their estranged spouses, and become witness to the societal changes.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPickpocket (1997)
A small town pickpocket whose friends have moved on to higher trades finds himself bitter and unable to adapt.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOne Second (2020)
A movie fan escapes from a labour camp during the Chinese Cultural Revolution and strikes up a relationship with a homeless female vagabond.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCaught by the Tides (2024)
Years after her boyfriend left her for the big city and promised to bring her there after he’s settled down, a Chinese woman sets out on a journey to be reunited with him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStill Human (2018)
A Hong Kong man with a disability hires a Filipino migrant worker to care for him. As they spend more time together through different seasons, they start learning about themselves.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlack Dog (2024)
Released from jail, Lang returns to his hometown in Northwest China. As part of a dog patrol tasked with clearing stray dogs before the 2008 Olympics, he bonds with a black stray. The two lonely souls embark on a new journey together.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Touch of Sin (2013)
Four people in different provinces are driven to violent ends: An angry miner is enraged by corruption in his village. A migrant discovers the possibilities of owning a firearm. A receptionist is pushed beyond her limits by an abusive client. A young factory worker goes from one job to the next.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDurian Durian (2000)
The first half of this film portrays the experiences of a young northern mainland Chinese woman (Fan) temporarily working as a sex worker in Hong Kong. After her 3-month visa expires, the second half of the film focuses on Yan's return to her family and her ex-fiancé in Northeast China and the ways that she invests the money that she has earned.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
The Breaking Ice (2023)
In cold wintry Yanji, a city on China's northern border, young urbanite Haofeng, visiting from Shanghai, feels lost and adrift. By chance, he goes on a tour led by Nana, a charming tour guide who instantly fascinates him. She introduces him to Xiao, a personable but frustrated restaurant worker. The three bond quickly over a drunken weekend. Confronting their individual traumas, their frozen desires slowly thaw as they seek to liberate themselves from an icy world.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Sun Also Rises (2007)
A polyptych of interconnected stories in different time-zones, shifting between a Yunnan village, a campus, and the Gobi Desert.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUnknown Pleasures (2002)
Two disaffected, unemployed Chinese youth drift through life on the streets of their industrial town, their paths crossing with that of a local young singer and dancer working for a liquor company as a spokesmodel.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCrosscurrent (2016)
A voyage between a woman searching for the meaning of life and a man holding a book of poems on the longest river of Mainland China.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Long Day's Journey Into Night (2018)
Luo Hongwu returns to Kaili, the hometown from which he fled many years ago. He begins the search for the woman he loved and whom he has never been able to forget.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKaili Blues (2016)
Chen Sheng goes off in search of his nephew who has been abandoned by his father. Along the way, he encounters numerous people from his past and also those from his future.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAsh Is Purest White (2018)
Set in China's underworld, this tale of love and betrayal follows a dancer who fired a gun to protect her mobster boyfriend during a fight. On release from prison 5 years later, she sets out to find him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAngels Wear White (2017)
In a small seaside town, two schoolgirls are assaulted by a middle-aged man in a motel. Mia, a teenager who was working on reception that night, is the only witness. For fear of losing her job, she says nothing. Meanwhile, 12-year-old Wen, one of the victims, finds that her troubles have only just begun. Trapped in a world that offers them no safety, Mia and Wen will have to find their own way out.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBuddha Mountain (2011)
In Chengdu, China, a retired female opera singer named Master Chang takes in a trio of young tenants into her boarding home. The tenants include a rock singer and a college student who has run away from home.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Balloon's Landing (2024)
A frustrated Hong Kong writer, Tian-Yu, meets a Taipei street gangster, Xiang, and the two of them embark on a journey to find the Bay of Whales, a place that leads to paradise.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Return to Dust (2022)
Humble, unassuming Ma and timid Cao have been cast off by their families and forced into an arranged marriage. They have to combine their strength and build a home to survive. In the face of much adversity, an unexpected bond begins to blossom, as both Ma and Cao, uniting with Earth's cycles, create a haven for themselves in which they can thrive.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMountains May Depart (2015)
The life of Tao, and those close to her, is explored in three different time periods: 1999, 2014, and 2025.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Simple Life (2012)
After suffering a stroke, an altruistic maid announces that she wants to quit her job and move into an old people's home.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhat Time Is It There? (2001)
A street vendor with a grim home-life forges a connection with a young woman on her way to Paris.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAftershock (2010)
Tangshan, 1976. Two seven-year-old twins are buried under the rubble of the deadliest earthquake of the 20th century. The rescue team explains to their mother that freeing either child will almost certainly result in the death of the other. Forced to make the most difficult decision of her life, she finally chooses to save her son. Though left behind as dead, the little girl miraculously survives, unbeknownst to her brother and mother.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like An Elephant Sitting Still?
The closest matches to An Elephant Sitting Still are The World (2004), Beijing Bicycle (2001) and Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains (2020). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after An Elephant Sitting Still?
People who watched An Elephant Sitting Still most often go on to The World (2004), Beijing Bicycle (2001) and Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains (2020).
What is the highest-rated movie like An Elephant Sitting Still?
Yi Yi (2000), rated 8.0/10 by 727 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like An Elephant Sitting Still?
Caught by the Tides (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Chinese movies like An Elephant Sitting Still?
Yes: The World (2004), Beijing Bicycle (2001) and Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains (2020).
How are movies similar to An Elephant Sitting Still chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside An Elephant Sitting Still, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.