Movies like White Shadows in the South Seas (1928)
The best movies like White Shadows in the South Seas (1928) are Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931), The Blue Lagoon (1980) and Castaway (1986). If White Shadows in the South Seas hooked you with its romance and adventure, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedCast Away (2000)7.7/10 from 12,739 votes
- NewestThe Face under The Face (2025)Released 2025
Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931)
On the South Pacific island of Bora Bora, a young couple's love is threatened when the tribal chief declares the girl a sacred virgin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Blue Lagoon (1980)
Two small children and a ship's cook survive a shipwreck and find safety on an idyllic tropical island. Soon, however, the cook dies and the young boy and girl are left on their own. Days become years and Emmeline and Richard make a home for themselves surrounded by exotic creatures and nature's beauty. But will they ever see civilization again?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCastaway (1986)
Middle-aged Gerald Kingsland advertises in a London paper for a female companion to spend a year with him on a desert island. Young Lucy Irving takes a chance on contacting him, but once on the island, things prove a lot less idyllic than in the movies. Gradually, it becomes clear that it is Lucy who has the desire and the strength to try and see the year through.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hurricane (1937)
A Polynesian sailor is separated from his wife when he's unjustly imprisoned for defending himself against a colonial bully. Members of the community petition the governor for clemency but all pretense of law and order are soon shattered by an incoming tropical storm.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlue Lagoon: The Awakening (2012)
Two high school students become stranded on a tropical island and must rely on each other for survival. They learn more about themselves and each other while falling in love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisElephant Walk (1954)
Colonial tea planter John Wiley, visiting England at the end of World War II, weds lovely English rose Ruth and takes her home to Elephant Walk, Ceylon, where the local elephants have a grudge against the plantation. Ruth's delight with the tropical wealth and luxury of her new home is tempered by isolation as the only white woman in the district; her husband's occasional imperious arrogance; a mutual physical attraction with plantation manager Dick Carver; and the hovering, ominous menace of the hostile elephants.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & adventure
SnoozefestMovies like thisCopenhagen (2014)
After weeks of traveling through Europe, the immature William finds himself in Copenhagen, the place of his father’s birth. He befriends the youthful Effy, who works in William’s hotel as part of an internship program, and they set off to find William’s last living relative. Effy’s mix of youthful exuberance and wisdom challenges William unlike any woman ever has. As the attraction builds, he must come to grips with destabilizing elements of his family’s sordid past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRobinson Crusoe (1997)
Robinson Crusoe flees Britain on a ship after killing his friend over the love of Mary. A fierce ocean storm wrecks his ship and leaves him stranded by himself on an uncharted island. Left to fend for himself, Crusoe seeks out a tentative survival on the island, until he meets Friday, a tribesman whom he saves from being sacrificed. Initially, Crusoe is thrilled to finally have a friend, but he has to defend himself against the tribe who uses the island to sacrifice tribesman to their gods. During time their relationship changes from master-slave to a mutual respected friendship despite their difference in culture and religion.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Piano (1993)
When an arranged marriage brings Ada and her spirited pre-teen daughter Flora to the wilderness of 19th-century New Zealand, she finds herself locked in a battle of wills with both her controlling husband and a rugged frontiersman to whom she develops a forbidden attraction.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisChina Seas (1935)
Captain Alan Gaskell sails the perilous waters between Hong Kong and Singapore with a secret cargo: a fortune in British gold. That's not the only risky cargo he carries; both his fiery mistress and his refined fiancee are aboard!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCast Away (2000)
Chuck Noland, a top international manager for FedEx, and Kelly, a Ph.D. student, are in love and heading towards marriage. Then Chuck's plane to Malaysia crashes at sea during a terrible storm. He's the only survivor, and finds himself marooned on a desolate island. With no way to escape, Chuck must find ways to survive in his new home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRip Girls (2000)
A teen-age girl and her father come to an island on Hawaii, they find a closer relationship to each other and think about changing the island. During her adventures, Sydney finds friends, a new hobby with her fantastic photography, and the truth about her mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSwept from the Sea (1998)
The film tells the story of Russian emigree and the only survivor from ship crash Yanko Goorall and servant Amy Foster in the end of 19th century. When Yanko enters a farm sick and hungry after the shipwreck, everyone is afraid of him, except for Amy, who is very kind and helps him. Soon he becomes like a son for Dr. James Kennedy and romance between Yanko and Amy follows.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReturn to the Blue Lagoon (1991)
In this sequel to the 1980 classic, two children are stranded on a beautiful island in the South Pacific. With no adults to guide them, the two make a simple life together and eventually become tanned teenagers in love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOne Way Passage (1932)
A terminally ill woman and a debonair murderer facing execution meet and fall in love on a trans-Pacific crossing, each without knowing the other's secret.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAdrift (2018)
Tami Oldham and Richard Sharp couldn't anticipate that they would be sailing directly into one of the most catastrophic hurricanes in recorded history. In the aftermath of the storm, Tami awakens to find Richard badly injured and their boat in ruins. With no hope of rescue, Tami must now find the strength and determination to save herself and the only man she has ever loved.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Manxman (1929)
A fisherman and a rising lawyer who grew up together as brothers fall in love with the same woman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEnd of Sentence (2019)
Newly widowed Frank Fogle embarks on a journey to Ireland to scatter his late wife’s ashes. His estranged son, Sean, recently released from prison, agrees to join only when his father promises that they’ll never see each other again following the trip. After revelations surface about an old flame of Frank’s wife and a charming hitchhiker with plans of her own intervenes, father and son find themselves drawn together in unexpected ways.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRobinson Crusoe (1954)
The titular adventurer, after defying his parents to go to sea, survives a shipwreck and becomes a castaway on a deserted island for nearly thirty years, learning to build a new life from scratch, discovering companionship with a native man he names Friday, and eventually returning to civilisation a changed man, finding wealth and new challenges.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMagnificent Obsession (1954)
Reckless playboy Bob Merrick crashes his speedboat, requiring emergency attention from the town’s only resuscitator while a local hero, Dr. Phillips, dies waiting for the life-saving device. Merrick then tries to right his wrongs with the doctor’s widow, Helen, falling in love with her in the process.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWell Kept Secrets: Athanasia (2008)
A young American woman returns to her Greek roots in search of her real father. Accompanied by her stepfather, she shatters the very myths designed to protect her. She uncovers an unlikely relationship between those who raised her, a globe-trotting photojournalist and Athanasia. Athanasia, a girl with no right in life. A choice of nature, but not of her community. Angela finds her father and discovers her mother.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Fool's Gold (2008)
Treasure hunter Ben "Finn" Finnegan has sunk his marriage to Tess and his trusty boat in his obsessive quest to find the legendary Queen's Dowry. When he finds a vital clue that may finally pinpoint the treasure's whereabouts, he drags Tess and her boss, billionaire Nigel Honeycutt, along on the hunt. But Finn is not the only one interested in the gold; his former mentor-turned-enemy Moe Fitch, hired by rapper-turned-gangster Bigg Bunny, will stop at nothing to beat him to it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisToo Many Kisses (1925)
Wanting his son to get away from his many girlfriends and buckle down to work, the New York industrialist father of a playboy sends him to an obscure village in Spain to find samples of a rare mineral. When the son gets to Spain, he promptly falls for a beautiful señorita, and runs afoul of the local police chief.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure & drama
Dernier amour (1916)
Ninon, a veteran stage artist, resides in her villa in Provence, surrounded by admirers as veteran or more than her. A film crew arrives at the gardens of the town to film some scenes in that beautiful spot. The director and screenwriter of the team will notice the charms of Ninon.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
The Face under The Face (2025)
A SILENT STORY - An aging refugee clown in Paris masks trauma with silent street performances. Beneath his painted smile lie resilience and displacement’s sorrow, a wordless elegy to those surviving unseen.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Joyless Street (1925)
In 1921, we follow two women - Marie and Grete - from the same poor Viennese neighborhood, as they try to better the lives of themselves and their families during the period of Austrian postwar hyperinflation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Isle (2000)
Mute Hee-Jin is working as a clerk in a fishing resort in the Korean wilderness; selling baits, food and occasionally her body to the fishing tourists. One day she falls in love with Hyun-Shik, who is on the run from the police, and rescues him with a fish hook when he tries to commit suicide.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRequiem (1982)
A woman learns that one of her doctor husband's patients used to be the cellmate of her first husband, who died in prison years before.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Amen. (2002)
Kurt Gerstein—a member of the Institute for Hygiene of the Waffen-SS—is appalled to discover that a poison gas he helped discover is being used to kill Jews. Driven by his conscience to alert the rest of the world, Gerstein teams up with a young Jesuit priest, Riccardo Fontana, but their protestations fall on deaf ears in the Vatican.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDOA: Dead or Alive (2006)
Four beautiful rivals at an invitation-only martial-arts tournament join forces against a sinister threat. Princess Kasumi is an aristocratic warrior trained by martial-arts masters. Tina Armstrong is a wrestling superstar. Helena Douglas is an athlete with a tragic past. Christie Allen earns her keep as a thief and an assassin-for-hire.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like White Shadows in the South Seas?
The closest matches to White Shadows in the South Seas are Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931), The Blue Lagoon (1980) and Castaway (1986). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after White Shadows in the South Seas?
Start with Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931), the closest match to White Shadows in the South Seas.
What is the highest-rated movie like White Shadows in the South Seas?
Cast Away (2000), rated 7.7/10 by 12,739 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like White Shadows in the South Seas?
The Face under The Face (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like White Shadows in the South Seas?
Yes: Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931), The Blue Lagoon (1980) and Castaway (1986).
How are movies similar to White Shadows in the South Seas chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside White Shadows in the South Seas, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.