Movies like Dying to Survive (2018)
The best movies like Dying to Survive (2018) are On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (2024), Article 20 (2024) and I Am Not Madame Bovary (2016). If Dying to Survive hooked you with its drama and comedy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Substitute (1996)7.0/10 from 621 votes
- NewestDopamine (2025)Released 2025
- In ChineseArticle 20 (2024)Also in Chinese
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (2024)
On an empty road in the middle of the night, Shula stumbles across the body of her uncle. As funeral proceedings begin around them, she and her cousins bring to light the buried secrets of their middle-class Zambian family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisArticle 20 (2024)
Tells the story of prosecutor Han Ming who is involved in a difficult case where the intentional injury of people is turned into a legitimate defense.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Am Not Madame Bovary (2016)
Li Xuelian, a woman from the countryside is falsely accused by her husband of having an affair. To defend herself, Li moves from her small town to the big city until she reached the capital.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Lychee Road (2025)
A Tang Dynasty minor official risks everything to deliver lychees across China. Li Shande, middle-aged and struggling, sees this dangerous mission as his last chance for success.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Movie Emperor (2024)
In an attempt to win back the public's interest, has-been Hong Kong film star Lau Wai-chi makes a comeback film with a major director. To prepare for his role as a peasant farmer in the 1960s, he travels to the mainland China countryside to experience rural life there, but his arrogance triggers a series of farces.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Dog Year (2009)
Jon Katz is close to burnout. He's a writer with writer's block; his wife has left for her sister's because he's emotionally distant; he rarely answers his phone. A kennel sends him a border collie that's undisciplined because of abuse. Despite a series of mishaps, Jon decides to keep trying with the dog, and he rents a dilapidated farm house to give the dog room to run. A local handyman refers Jon to a woman who might be able to help him train the dog. Reluctantly, Jon gives her a try. Is the dog the problem, or the owner?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGetting Home (2007)
A black comedy about a farmer who tries to bring home the body of his friend, who died far from their town.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Own Love Song (2010)
A wheelchair-bound singer and her best friend embark on a roadtrip to Memphis.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJohnny Keep Walking! (2023)
A simple technician at a rural factory is mistakenly promoted to a high-level managerial position at corporate headquarters due to a series of clerical errors and a bribery scheme gone wrong.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHail the Judge (1994)
Pao Lung Sing, a descendant of the legendary Judge Pao Ching Tin, is a 9th degree corrupt judge who changes his tune when he tries to champion a woman Chi Siu-Lin, who was framed for killing her husband. As a result, Pao is forced to flee and through a series of events becomes a 1st degree judge and comes back to wreak havoc and justice on the guilty.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSix Pack (1982)
Stopping briefly in a small Texas town, an itinerant race car driver finds that his stock car, on a trailer behind his motor home, has just been quickly and expertly stripped. He chases down the miscreants, who turn out to be six orphan children. He has no recourse to the law, for the corrupt local sheriff takes most of the proceeds of their thievery in exchange for not putting them in an orphanage. They are charming rogues who are in turn charmed by him. Disliking their arrangement with the sheriff, they stow away with him, and he finds himself becoming a reluctant stepfather. Thanks to their enthusiasm and incredible mechanical know-how, he begins to make a name for himself on the racing circuit. But the sheriff doesn't take kindly to losing his extra income...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhite Lie (2019)
Katie Arneson is faking cancer. A university dance major, Katie's falsified diagnosis and counterfeit fundraising have transformed her into a campus celebrity surrounded by the supportive community she's always dreamed of. But now dependent on a bursary for sick students to maintain her ruse, Katie learns the funding is in jeopardy unless she can provide copies of her medical records within the week.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFast Girls (2012)
A street smart runner develops an intense rivalry with an equally ambitious wealthy young athlete.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSee Spot Run (2001)
A drug sniffing agent canine is a target for an assassin boss so the FBI calls Witness Protection to send him somewhere else. Meanwhile a single Mom puts her 6 year old boy James in the care of her irresponsible, mailman, neighbor, Gordon, when the babysitter bails on her. Meanwhile, an assassin mob boss hires 2 goons to kill Agent 11. But when 11 escapes from the van when they tried to kill him, he hides in Gordon's Mailtruck that James is in too. And guess what they name him. Spot.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWinged Creatures (2009)
A psychotic man opens fire in a diner, murdering numerous people before killing himself. The survivors struggle in different ways following this horrendous event: a doctor doubts his own instincts and elects to use an experimental medical procedure on his wife, while a gambler believes he's on a lucky streak. A waitress begins engaging in promiscuous sex, and a young girl whose father is among the dead gains unexpected fame.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisTalhotBlond (2012)
Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Organization (1971)
After a group of young revolutionaries break into a company's corporate headquarters and steal $5,000,000 worth of heroin to keep it off the street, they call on San Francisco Police Lieutenant Virgil Tibbs for assistance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEndgame (2021)
A world-class hitman ends up swapping identities with a down-to-luck extra actor during an accident.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2017)
An African-American woman becomes an unwitting pioneer for medical breakthroughs when her cells are used to create the first immortal human cell line in the early 1950s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeverly Hills Chihuahua 2 (2011)
Puppy mayhem turns the lives of newlywed Chihuahua parents Papi and Chloe upside down when their rambunctious, mischievous puppies present one challenge after another. But when their human owners end up in trouble, the tiny pups will stop at nothing to save them - because in good times and hard times, the family always sticks together. So Papi, Chloe and the puppies embark on a heroic adventure, proving once again that big heroes come in small packages.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisKuppathu Raja (2019)
A story about the relationship between the slum dwellers in Chennai and how certain anti-social elements create unrest in their lives.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
The Fool on the Pill (2024)
In a village, an unlucky fool has a bad morning when he’s forced to walk to town for his job interview. Along the way he meets a man who claims he is a wizard and can tell The Fool is unlucky, he offers him a lucky pill that will change his life temporarily. The Fool doesn't actually believe the pill will work but when he takes it and gets the job against all odds, The Fool is hooked.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Generation Angst (TBA)
Jack Grinnell, an aspiring grunge musician, must overcome the grim reality of his heroin addiction that has destroyed all of the relationships in his life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Binge (2020)
In the not-so-distant future, all drinking and drugs have been made completely illegal by the government, except for one night a year. High school seniors Griffin, Hags, and Andrew make a pilgrimage to get to the best party in town where all their dreams will come true. They will have to avoid their crazed principal, violent siblings, and the wild animals roaming the streets.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like this9 Songs (2004)
Matt, a young glaciologist, soars across the vast, silent, icebound immensities of the South Pole as he recalls his love affair with Lisa. They meet at a mobbed rock concert in a vast music hall - London's Brixton Academy. They are in bed at night's end. Together, over a period of several months, they pursue a mutual sexual passion whose inevitable stages unfold in counterpoint to nine live-concert songs.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisAli and Alia (2019)
Ali and Alia are childhood neighbors that fell in love with each other, but bigger events occur in their lives which gets them separated. Ali seeks to maintain Alia's heart even if it is through substance abuse.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Assassination of a High School President (2008)
After the theft of copies of SAT exams from a principal's office, teenage reporter Bobby Funke sets out to unmask the thief.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Substitute (1996)
When an inner-city Miami schoolteacher gets her knee broken after standing up to the school's gang leader, her mercenary combat specialist boyfriend goes undercover as a substitute teacher to take down the punk. Soon he discovers a conspiracy of criminals at work, and must reassemble his team from his last jungle raid to stop them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDopamine (2025)
A young couple facing eviction and debt experiences an unexpected event that changes their lives.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Money Talk (2023)
Two troubled high school students find a bag full of money that could be the salvation for all of their problems.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Like Dying to Survive and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Dying to Survive?
The closest matches to Dying to Survive are On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (2024), Article 20 (2024) and I Am Not Madame Bovary (2016). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Dying to Survive?
Start with On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (2024), the closest match to Dying to Survive.
What is the highest-rated movie like Dying to Survive?
The Substitute (1996), rated 7.0/10 by 621 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Dying to Survive?
Dopamine (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Chinese movies like Dying to Survive?
Yes: Article 20 (2024), I Am Not Madame Bovary (2016) and The Lychee Road (2025).
How are movies similar to Dying to Survive chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Dying to Survive, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.