Movies like A Light in the Distance (2015)
The best movies like A Light in the Distance (2015) are Pulse (2001), Typhoon Noruda (2015) and Tornado Valley (2009). If A Light in the Distance hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWeathering with You (2019)8.0/10 from 2,762 votes
- NewestLone Samurai (2025)Released 2025
- In JapanesePulse (2001)Also in Japanese
Pulse (2001)
In the immense city of Tokyo, the darkness of the afterlife lures some of its inhabitants desperately trying to escape the sadness and isolation of the modern world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTyphoon Noruda (2015)
As an unexpected typhoon bears down on a small tropical island, a group of students trapped at school find themselves forced to put aside their personal issues and work together. Not only to save themselves, but possibly the lives of everyone on the planet!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTornado Valley (2009)
Liz McAdams is haunted by the memories of a tornado that destroyed her home 25 years ago. Now a professional storm tracker, she and her family are in danger once again as another devastating twister rapidly gains momentum. Caught in the path of destruction, Liz and her estranged husband struggle to save those they love...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWeathering with You (2019)
The summer of his high school freshman year, Hodaka runs away from his remote island home to Tokyo, and quickly finds himself pushed to his financial and personal limits. The weather is unusually gloomy and rainy every day, as if taking its cue from his life. After many days of solitude, he finally finds work as a freelance writer for a mysterious occult magazine. Then, one day, Hodaka meets Hina on a busy street corner. This bright and strong-willed girl possesses a strange and wonderful ability: the power to stop the rain and clear the sky.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisLone Samurai (2025)
A violent and reckless samurai is shipwrecked on a remote island left without an avenue for his rage. After undertaking a spiritual journey to appease his aggressive thoughts, he finds himself abducted by external demons taking the form of cannibals, putting his sense of reality and deadly talents to the test.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSuzume (2022)
Suzume, 17, lost her mother as a little girl. On her way to school, she meets a mysterious young man. But her curiosity unleashes a calamity that endangers the entire population of Japan, and so Suzume embarks on a journey to set things right.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisTyphoon Club (1985)
Offering a caustic immersion into the lives of disaffected junior high students on the cusp of adulthood, the film takes place over the 5-day period before, during, and after a ferocious, seemingly liberating typhoon, which six of the students endure while marooned in their school.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Garden of Words (2013)
Takao, who is training to become a shoemaker, skipped school and is sketching shoes in a Japanese-style garden. He meets a mysterious woman, Yukino, who is older than him. Then, without arranging the times, the two start to see each other again and again, but only on rainy days. They deepen their relationship and open up to each other. But the end of the rainy season soon approaches.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHereafter (2010)
Three people — a blue-collar American, a French journalist and a London school boy — are touched by death in different ways.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFireworks (2017)
Moshimo, Japan. The annual fireworks festival is about to take place and a group of schoolboys, arguing over whether they are round or flat when viewed from different angles, set out to find it out.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSamurai I: Musashi Miyamoto (1954)
Struggling to elevate himself from his low caste in 17th century Japan, Miyamoto trains to become a mighty samurai warrior.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies 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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJourney to the Shore (2015)
Mizuki's husband Yusuke has been missing for three years. He suddenly comes back home as a ghost and asks Mizuki to go on a trip with him. Their trip consists of visiting the people that helped Yusuke on his previous travel.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this13 Minutes (2021)
As a new day begins in the small American town of Minninnewah, the residents start their day as ordinary as the next. Mother Nature, however, has other plans for them. Inhabitants have just 13 minutes to seek shelter before the largest tornado on record ravages the town, leaving them struggling to protect their loved ones and fighting for their lives. Left to deal with the aftermath, four families must overcome their differences and find strength in each other in order to survive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisHer Love Boils Bathwater (2016)
After being diagnosed with a terminal illness, Futaba resolves to spend her remaining time reuniting her broken family, reopening the long-closed bathhouse, and helping her shy daughter Azumi learn to stand on her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSurvival Family (2017)
A world wide electrical outage occurs. Everything that requires electricity comes to a stop. Tokyo is nearly ruined. Yoshiyuki Suzuki decides to escape from Tokyo with his family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKikujiro (1999)
Brash, loudmouthed and opportunistic, Kikujiro is the unlikely companion for Masao who is determined to see the mother he has never met. The two begin a series of adventures which soon turns out to be a whimsical journey of laughter and tears with a wide array of surprises and unique characters along the way.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOcean 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRage (2016)
A man brutally murders a married couple and leaves the word “ikari” (“rage”) written with their blood. The killer undergoes plastic surgery and flees. At three different locations in Japan, a male stranger appears. People suspect that the stranger might be the murderer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGantz (2010)
After trying to rescue a man on the subway tracks, two teens wake up in a room dominated by a mysterious black sphere that sends them to hunt down and kill aliens hiding on Earth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like A Light in the Distance?
The closest matches to A Light in the Distance are Pulse (2001), Typhoon Noruda (2015) and Tornado Valley (2009). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after A Light in the Distance?
Start with Pulse (2001), the closest match to A Light in the Distance.
What is the highest-rated movie like A Light in the Distance?
Weathering with You (2019), rated 8.0/10 by 2,762 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like A Light in the Distance?
Lone Samurai (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like A Light in the Distance?
Yes: Pulse (2001), Typhoon Noruda (2015) and Weathering with You (2019).
How are movies similar to A Light in the Distance chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside A Light in the Distance, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.