Movies like Early Summer (1951)
The best movies like Early Summer (1951) are An Autumn Afternoon (1962), The End of Summer (1961) and The Ballad of Narayama (1958). If Early Summer hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedIkiru (1952)8.3/10 from 1,427 votes
- NewestTokyo Sonata (2008)Released 2008
- In JapaneseAn Autumn Afternoon (1962)Also in Japanese
An Autumn Afternoon (1962)
Widower Shuhei Hirayama's caretaker is his 24-year-old daughter, Michiko. Gradually, he comes to realize that Michiko should not be obliged to look after him for the rest of his life, so he arranges a marriage for her.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe End of Summer (1961)
The family of an older man who runs a small sake brewery become concerned with his finances and his health after they discover him visiting an old mistress from his youth.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Ballad of Narayama (1958)
In a remote village where food is scarce, elders who reach the age of 70 are carried by their children to the top of a nearby mountain to die in solitude. Orin, a vibrant 69-year-old grandmother, has accepted her fate — but struggles to prepare the rest of her family for the ritual.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTokyo Sonata (2008)
The winds of change blow as a family grapples with unemployment, alienation, mistrust and a lack of communication. When a Japanese salaryman loses his job to outsourcing to China, it's simply the beginning of a series of shattering incidents, leading to the implosion of the family unit.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTokyo Story (1953)
The elderly Shukishi and his wife, Tomi, take the long journey from their small seaside village to visit their adult children in Tokyo. Their elder son, Koichi, a doctor, and their daughter, Shige, a hairdresser, don't have much time to spend with their aged parents, and so it falls to Noriko, the widow of their younger son who was killed in the war, to keep her in-laws company.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisStill Walking (2008)
A family gathers together for a commemorative ritual whose nature only gradually becomes clear.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLate Spring (1949)
Noriko is perfectly happy living at home with her widowed father, Shukichi, and has no plans to marry -- that is, until her aunt Masa convinces Shukichi that unless he marries off his 27-year-old daughter soon, she will likely remain alone for the rest of her life. When Noriko resists Masa's matchmaking, Shukichi is forced to deceive his daughter and sacrifice his own happiness to do what he believes is right.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisSuzaku (1997)
Depicts the life of a family in a remote Japanese timber village. Family head Tahara Kozo lives with his mother Sachiko, wife Yasuyo, nephew Eisuke and young daughter Michiru. Economic recession and failed development plans cause tragedy in the family.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFloating Weeds (1959)
A theater troupe master's visit with his old flame unintentionally sets off a chain of unexpected events with devastating consequences.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisYearning (1964)
War widow Reiko rebuilds and runs the grocery shop in the house of her husband's family. Many years later, their business is threatened by a newly built supermarket and Reiko's in-laws plan to convert their small shop into a supermarket, to her detriment.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisTokyo Twilight (1957)
Two sisters learn about the existence of their long-lost biological mother, but the younger is unable to accept the fact that she was abandoned as a child.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (1952)
The arranged marriage between a capricious woman from Tokyo high society and a quiet rustic man is tested by a marital crisis.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Only Son (1936)
A rural widow sends her only son to Tokyo to receive a better education. Years later, she visits him and finds he has become a night school teacher struggling to support his wife and son.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThere Was a Father (1942)
Shuhei Horikawa, a poor schoolteacher, struggles to raise his son Ryohei by himself, despite neither money nor prospects.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAn Inn in Tokyo (1935)
An unemployed Japanese man and his two sons wander the industrial flatlands of Depression-era Tokyo, until he chances upon an old friend and befriends a woman and her daughter, who are in a similar predicament.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Twenty-Four Eyes (1954)
From 1928 to 1946, the lives of 12 young people and their school teacher in a poor Japanese village are profoundly affected by historical events and personal circumstances.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLate Autumn (1960)
A woman and her daughter are each forced to contend with an increasing pressure to marry, particularly from three men who knew her late husband.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRecord of a Tenement Gentleman (1947)
A hard-hearted old woman in a bombed-out Tokyo neighborhood reluctantly takes in an abandoned boy, leading to a heartwarming bond between them.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Story of Floating Weeds (1934)
An aging actor returns to a small town with his troupe and reunites with his former lover and illegitimate son, a scenario that enrages his current mistress and results in heartbreak for all.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhen a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960)
Keiko, whom everyone calls Mama, narrates her story: she's a hostess on the Ginza, 30, a widow. She describes life's vicious cycle: acting cheerful around drunks, dressing and living well to convey confidence, needing money for these expenses and for her demanding mother and brother, and knowing she's growing older.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Life of Oharu (1952)
During the Edo Period, a noblewoman's banishment for her love affair with a lowly page signals the beginning of her inexorable fall.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLightning (1952)
The story of Kiyoko, a young woman who has successfully managed to make a break with her dysfunctional family who have been trying to arrange a marriage for her with a disagreeable man whom she has rejected.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
The Makioka Sisters (1983)
This sensuously beautiful film chronicles the activities of four sisters who gather in Kyoto every year to view the cherry blossoms. It paints a vivid portrait of the pre-war lifestyle of the wealthy Makioka family from Osaka, and draws a parallel between their activities and the seasonal variations in Japan.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSpring in a Small Town (1948)
A married couple living in a desolate small town in post-WWII China are paid a surprise visit by an old friend of the husband's.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRepast (1951)
In post-WWII Osaka, a middle-aged woman is forced to examine her dreary life and marriage when her husband's young and flirtatious cousin arrives for a brief stay to escape an arranged marriage.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNobody Knows (2004)
In a small Tokyo apartment, twelve-year-old Akira must care for his younger siblings after their mother leaves them and shows no sign of returning.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisEquinox Flower (1958)
Wataru's outwardly liberal views on marriage are severely tested when his daughter declares her love for a coworker and is adamant to live her own way, instead of agreeing to an arranged marriage. Outwitted by his female relatives, Hirayama stubbornly refuses to admit defeat.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEarly Spring (1956)
A young salaryman and his wife struggle within the confines of their passionless relationship while he embarks on an extramarital affair.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSisters of the Gion (1936)
A geisha in the Gion district of Kyoto feels obliged to help her lover when he asks to stay with her after going bankrupt and leaving his wife. However, her younger sister opposes this, thinking that they should both find wealthy patrons to support them.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIkiru (1952)
Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Early Summer?
The closest matches to Early Summer are An Autumn Afternoon (1962), The End of Summer (1961) and The Ballad of Narayama (1958). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Early Summer?
People who watched Early Summer most often go on to An Autumn Afternoon (1962), The End of Summer (1961) and The Ballad of Narayama (1958).
What is the highest-rated movie like Early Summer?
Ikiru (1952), rated 8.3/10 by 1,427 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Early Summer?
Tokyo Sonata (2008) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Early Summer?
Yes: An Autumn Afternoon (1962), The End of Summer (1961) and The Ballad of Narayama (1958).
How are movies similar to Early Summer chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Early Summer, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.