Movies like The Izu Dancer (1960)
The best movies like The Izu Dancer (1960) are Fire with Fire (1986), Revenge Porn: PAIN OF LOVE (2019) and Love Everlasting (2016). If The Izu Dancer hooked you with its romance and drama, 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
- NewestGame of Love (2022)Released 2022
- In JapaneseRevenge Porn: PAIN OF LOVE (2019)Also in Japanese
Fire 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 thisRevenge Porn: PAIN OF LOVE (2019)
Rei is a college student in the midst of finding a job. She confesses her love to Mikio, a senior whom she admires. Mikio soon demands that she perform perverted acts.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisLove Everlasting (2016)
Bridger is a young outsider who's always wanted more. He and his mother flee an abusive home, eventually finding a small town in the middle of nowhere. Once there, Bridger finds true acceptance with another misfit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHis Motorbike, Her Island (1986)
Ko, a motorbike enthusiast from the city wandering the Japanese countryside, falls for the carefree local Miyo and teaches her how to ride. When Miyo proves herself a biker prodigy, Ko begins to fear she's destined to crash.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisMy Tomorrow, Your Yesterday (2016)
Takatoshi Minamiyama majors in art at an university in Kyoto. On the train to the school, he sees Emi Fukuju and falls in love with her at first sight. Gathering up all his courage, he speaks to her. They begin to date and enjoy happy days together, but Emi reveals her secret to him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between (2022)
Clare and Aidan make a pact to break up before college — no regrets, no broken hearts. But will one epic goodbye date offer them a last chance at love?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fugitive Kind (1960)
Val Xavier, a drifter of obscure origins, arrives at a small town and gets a job in a store run by Lady Torrence. Her husband, Jabe M. Torrance, is dying of cancer. Val is pursued by Carol Cutere, the enigmatic local tramp-of-good-family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSylvie's Love (2020)
When a young woman meets an aspiring saxophonist in her father’s record shop in 1950s Harlem, their love ignites a sweeping romance that transcends changing times, geography, and professional success.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNot Easily Broken (2009)
A car accident and shifting affections test the bond between a married couple.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRadiance (2017)
The story follows the social intercourse between a cameraman, Masaya, with a visual impairment, and Misako who disconnects from the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
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 thisClose Range Love (2014)
A smart high school student falls in love with her English teacher after she receives one-on-one tutoring from him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisClosest Love to Heaven (2017)
When Ninon finds out that her neighbor and popular classmate Yuiji Kira only has one year to live, she decides to go out of her way and help him attain happiness on his remaining time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGame of Love (2022)
Follows Vivien and Roy as their love story continues and leads them to Roy’s childhood home in Sicily to prepare for the sale of the family estate. During the visit, a mysterious woman arrives and befriends Vivien, much to Roy’s displeasure. Tensions build and lines are crossed as secrets from Roy’s past force the couple to face aspects of their relationship they did not know existed.
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 thisThe Golden Bowl (2000)
Wealthy American widower Adam Verver and his daughter Maggie live a refined life in Europe, surrounded by art. Maggie marries impoverished Italian Prince Amerigo, while Adam marries Maggie's friend Charlotte Stant. The Prince and Charlotte are having an affair, which Maggie discovers and navigates through a silent, psychological battle of wills, ultimately using her cunning to preserve her marriage and protect her father.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWander Darkly (2020)
New parents Adrienne and Matteo are forced to reckon with trauma amidst their troubled relationship. They must revisit the memories of their past and unravel haunting truths in order to face their uncertain future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDouble Suicide (1969)
Successful and married with children, paper-mill owner Jihei knows better than to contradict the strict social and moral codes of 18th-century Japan. But when he meets the lovely courtesan Koharu, he becomes a man obsessed. Koharu returns his love, even foregoing other customers while Jihei schemes to somehow buy her freedom. His efforts yield ruinous consequences for his business and his family life, and Koharu is meanwhile purchased by another client.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBattles Without Honor and Humanity: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima (1973)
Repeatedly beat to a pulp by gamblers, cops, and gangsters, lone wolf Shoji Yamanaka finally finds a home as a Muraoka family hitman and falls in love with boss Muraoka's niece. Meanwhile, the ambitions of mad dog Katsutoshi Otomo draws our series' hero, Shozo Hirono, and the other yakuza into a new round of bloodshed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHaikara-san: Here Comes Miss Modern Part 2 (2018)
In turn of the 20th Century Japan, a period characterized by widespread innovation and social restructuring, Benio Hanamura endeavors to take modernization to new heights. With a tomboy nature, Benio rails against traditional ideas that women should take care of the home—serving their husbands rather than pursuing their own dreams. Her values as a modern woman come under fire as the one man who supports her independence, Lieutenant Shinobu Ijuin, goes missing in action. Resurfacing back in Japan, Shinobu has lost all memory of his true identity. In this stunning sequel, will Benio be able to reconnect with Shinobu before she is married off to a new man?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
On This Earth (1957)
Ichiro’s family used to be a large landowner, but now he is living in poverty with his mother. His mother works hard to get her son through school. Under such circumstances, Ichiro meets Wakako, the daughter of a wealthy man, and they fall in love with each other, but they are opposed by those around them because of their different social status.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Lights of Asakusa (1937)
Pre-war Asakusa was a riotous district of cabarets, dance-halls and brothels - a striking backdrop for Shimazu's story of innocence and experience. Pretty, young Reiko is the new dancer in an infamous theatre troupe, and her fellow performers try to protect her virtue in a land of vice. Meanwhile, an ageing actor wants to be a hero off stage as well as on, and the troupe matriarch Marie has to keep them all together.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
対決 (1967)
Late Taishō period. The Shibatora family, led by Naojirō, held power over the Tomigawara area in Jōshū. After launching an attack on the Takayasu family for encroaching on their territory, they were instead ambushed by Takayasu's forces. Taking full responsibility, Naojirō turned himself in to the police. Six years later, upon his release, he is enraged to find that everything has changed drastically from how it once was.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
When the Last Sword Is Drawn (2003)
Kanichiro Yoshimura is a samurai and family man who can no longer support his wife and children on the low pay he receives from his small-town clan. He is forced by his love for his family to leave for the city in search of higher pay to support them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFaraway Sunset (1992)
Faraway Sunset tells the story of the famed bacteriologist who is known to have discovered the agent that cause syphilis, and for his relentless search for a cure to yellow fever. As a toddler, his mother's neglect had caused an accident to his left hand, fusing together all the fingers in a bizarre twist of fate. Naturally extremely remorseful for being the cause of her son's handicap, she does everything she could to ensure that he gets to lead a normal life, despite having to fend off bullies and unfair prejudices.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Hachiko (1987)
The tragic, true story about Hachikō, an Akita dog who was loyal to his master, Professor Ueno, even after Ueno's death.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Ode to Joy (2006)
Based on the true story of the Bandō prisoner-of-war camp in World War I. It depicts the friendship of the German POWs with the director of the camp and local residents at the stage of Naruto, Tokushima Prefecture, in Japan.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Bear Storm (1980)
An adaptation of Akira Yoshimura's original suspense novel starring Rentaro Mikuni. 4th year of the Taishō era. About 15 families who moved in search of agricultural land to the land of the pioneers in Hokkaido led a peaceful life. One day, one of the pioneers, Mikio Shimakawa's wife Yura, and her child Taichi are attacked and killed by a bear that cannot hibernate. To resolve the situation, Shimakawa goes against all odds and turns to Ginshiro, the most hated hunter in the village, for help. While Shimakawa was away from the village, Yura and his friends were holding a funeral, the bear attacked again...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Chrysanthemum and the Guillotine (2018)
In the wake of the social unrest caused by the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, two female sumo athletes, Kiku and Tokachi, and an anarchist group called the Guillotine Society, spark an unlikely connection.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like The Izu Dancer and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Izu Dancer?
The closest matches to The Izu Dancer are Fire with Fire (1986), Revenge Porn: PAIN OF LOVE (2019) and Love Everlasting (2016). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Izu Dancer?
Start with Fire with Fire (1986), the closest match to The Izu Dancer.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Izu Dancer?
Gabriel's Inferno: Part II (2020), rated 8.3/10 by 1,569 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Izu Dancer?
Game of Love (2022) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like The Izu Dancer?
Yes: Revenge Porn: PAIN OF LOVE (2019), His Motorbike, Her Island (1986) and My Tomorrow, Your Yesterday (2016).
How are movies similar to The Izu Dancer chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Izu Dancer, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.