Movies like Chronicle of a Durian (2017)
The best movies like Chronicle of a Durian (2017) are Hands of Stone (2016), Hounddog (2008) and One Second (2020). If Chronicle of a Durian hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks
- Highest ratedBlack Dog (2024)7.1/10 from 246 votes
- NewestCaught by the Tides (2024)Released 2024
- In ChineseOne Second (2020)Also in Chinese
Hands of Stone (2016)
The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOne Second (2020)
A movie fan escapes from a labour camp during the Chinese Cultural Revolution and strikes up a relationship with a homeless female vagabond.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Truth About Emanuel (2013)
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLighting Up the Stars (2022)
Having been released after serving his sentence, a funeral director accidentally crosses paths with a girl which brings about an unexpected change in his attitude towards life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlack Dog (2024)
Released from jail, Lang returns to his hometown in Northwest China. As part of a dog patrol tasked with clearing stray dogs before the 2008 Olympics, he bonds with a black stray. The two lonely souls embark on a new journey together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972)
Middle-aged widow Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters Ruth and Matilda are struggling to survive in a society they barely understand. Beatrice dreams of opening an elegant tea room but does not have the wherewithal to achieve her lofty goal. Epileptic Ruth is a rebellious adolescent, while shy but highly intelligent and idealistic Matilda seeks solace in her pets and school projects, including one designed to show how small amounts of radium affect marigolds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTigertail (2020)
A man reflects on the lost love of his youth and his long-ago journey from Taiwan to America as he begins to reconnect with his estranged daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCaught by the Tides (2024)
Years after her boyfriend left her for the big city and promised to bring her there after he’s settled down, a Chinese woman sets out on a journey to be reunited with him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977)
A disturbed and institutionalized 16-year-old girl struggles between fantasy and reality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Trials of Cate McCall (2013)
In order to be reinstated to the bar and recover custody of her daughter, a hotshot lawyer, now in recovery and on probation, must take on the appeal of a woman wrongfully convicted of murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisXiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998)
Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSkin (2009)
Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Girl in the Book (2015)
The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisHardball (2001)
An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisImperial Dreams (2014)
A 21-year-old reformed gangster's devotion to his family and his future is put to the test when he is released from prison and returns to his old stomping grounds in Watts, Los Angeles.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCall Me Crazy: A Five Film (2013)
A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Good Neighbor (2022)
A nightmarish evening unfolds for neighbors David and Robert when they accidentally hit a woman on her bike and flee the scene. While David is increasingly plagued by feelings of guilt, Robert shows no remorse and becomes overbearing and possessive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Young One (1960)
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBuddha Mountain (2011)
In Chengdu, China, a retired female opera singer named Master Chang takes in a trio of young tenants into her boarding home. The tenants include a rock singer and a college student who has run away from home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWe Outlaws (2018)
By day Chen Shi works in a textiles factory and at night dons a red dress and takes to the dance hall. We Outlaws is the story of just one of countless Trans and non-binary people who lived their lives in secret during an era of strict governmental prohibition, their very existence a crime.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Waiting for Love (2007)
Three scenes about three couples with each portraying maybe the turning point of their relationship. First scene, Lim & Amelia are a couple who had been together for almost five years. While he works as a salesman and trying to save up for marriage, the girl are not sure if he’s the one she wants to marry. One day he confronts her about a letter from her admirer. Second scene, Pete & Bernice are a couple who had been together almost ten years. They’re not married because he doesn’t believe in marriage. While she tags along, one day she might realizes this may not be the man she wants to end up with. Third scene, we see Amy & Lai are a pair of secret lovers. This maybe their last meeting or maybe not. They may had loved each other in the past they may not now in this scene. This is the third and final part of James Lee's Love Trilogy which takes offers a glimpse of the life of three lovers.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
THE ONLY SONS (2003)
The film is about the north of Guangdong a village farmer water life tragic story, in order to live, in order to be able to let his sister read, in order to be able to raise money to keep the death penalty brother. Sell blood, sell son, even sell his wife, finally sister did not continue to read and ran to Shenzhen to work, made the death penalty brother finally also can not keep life, A water finally because of selling blood got ghost guy died, and her wife Autumn Moon also died in the charcoal under the waterfall pool
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Beer! Beer! (2020)
"Beer! Beer!" is an "anti-romantic comedy" set in the early morning following a wild party in Berlin. When Tao, a Chinese guy, meets Sebastian, a local German. As they seem to get more and more intimate with each other, suddenly a mattress changes everything...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Snake in Home (2018)
The C-list TV actor Jonnie Zhang decides to change career as an estate agent. While preparing for the interview, he hires a cleaner to tidy up his long non-visited mansion. A cleaner receives a task to a vacant house, and she decides to stay over night realizing that the bus service has been suspended. Out of every clue hidden in the house, she fantasizes its whole family and secrets, along with her own previous life she comes across.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Clockwork Bunny (2019)
An orphan mutters his personal history in The Good Place. He is getting louder and louder because he doesn’t want his history to be locked in the small dark room forever just as his body has suffered. Little Bunny is who he says the most intimate person in his life. It turns out he and Little Bunny share the same history.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
fragile women (2018)
At a picnic in the countryside, the woman accidentally strikes a shuttlecock into water. The man leaps into the river and then I hear the mountain wind.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
On that Afternoon (2017)
On that afternoon, an old man quarrels with the driver on a bus that runs between the old town and the new.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Rainclouds Over Wushan (1996)
A policeman investigates an introverted signal-station manager suspected of raping a hotel clerk.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Boring Life (2019)
Winter, Urban Villages in Beijing. Daqing is a fool, Daqing Family and three young people living in the courtyard together. Daqing always mends the sky on the roof, Laishun likes to stay on the roof and read books. Daqing’s dog has been barking. Xiaofei and Ajun couldn’t sleep.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Chronicle of a Durian and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Chronicle of a Durian?
The closest matches to Chronicle of a Durian are Hands of Stone (2016), Hounddog (2008) and One Second (2020). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Chronicle of a Durian?
Start with Hands of Stone (2016), the closest match to Chronicle of a Durian.
What is the highest-rated movie like Chronicle of a Durian?
Black Dog (2024), rated 7.1/10 by 246 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Chronicle of a Durian?
Caught by the Tides (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Chinese movies like Chronicle of a Durian?
Yes: One Second (2020), Lighting Up the Stars (2022) and Black Dog (2024).
How are movies similar to Chronicle of a Durian chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Chronicle of a Durian, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.




























