Movies like My Bittersweet Taiwan (2004)
The best movies like My Bittersweet Taiwan (2004) are Devils on the Doorstep (2001), The Children of Huang Shi (2008) and Hidden Blade (2023). If My Bittersweet Taiwan hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedRed Sorghum (1988)7.4/10 from 294 votes
- NewestGood Boy (2026)Released 2026
- In ChineseDevils on the Doorstep (2001)Also in Chinese
Devils on the Doorstep (2001)
During the Japanese occupation of China, two prisoners are dumped in a peasant's home in a small town. The owner is bullied into keeping the prisoners until the next New Year, at which time they will be collected. The village leaders convene to interrogate the prisoners. The townspeople then struggle to accommodate the prisoners. One is a bellicose Japanese nationalist, the other a nervous translator. Will the townspeople manage to keep the prisoners until the New Year?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Children of Huang Shi (2008)
About young British journalist, George Hogg, who with the assistance of a courageous Australian nurse, saves a group of orphaned children during the Japanese occupation of China in 1937.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHidden Blade (2023)
Follows the story of underground workers who risked their lives to send intelligence and defend the motherland, set after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor when the Wang Jingwei regime declared war on Britain and the U.S.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFamily Romance, LLC (2019)
Love is a business at Family Romance, a company that rents human stand-ins for any occasion. Founder Yuichi Ishii helps make his clients’ dreams come true. But when the mother of 12-year-old Mahiro hires Ishii to impersonate her missing father, the line between acting and reality threatens to blur.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDwelling in the Fuchun Mountains (2020)
In the Chinese town of Fuyang, four brothers go about their day-to-day lives, their destinies shaped by love and challenges.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Joy Luck Club (1993)
Through a series of flashbacks, four Chinese women born in America and their respective mothers born in feudal China explore their pasts.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWeekend in Taipei (2024)
A former DEA agent and a former undercover operative revisit their romance during a fateful weekend in Taipei, unaware of the dangerous consequences of their past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKit Kittredge: An American Girl (2008)
The Great Depression hits home for nine year old Kit Kittredge when her dad loses his business and leaves to find work. Oscar nominee Abigail Breslin stars as Kit, leading a splendid cast in the first ever "American Girl" theatrical movie. In order to keep their home, Kit and her mother must take in boarders - paying house - guests who turn out to be full of fascinating stories. When mother's lockbox containing all their money is stolen, Kit's new hobo friend Will is the prime suspect. Kit refuses to believe that Will would steal, and her efforts to sniff out the real story get her and friends into big trouble. The police say the robbery was an inside job, committed by someone they know. So if it wasn't Will, then who did it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Time to Live and the Time to Die (1985)
An autobiographical film based on Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien's memories of his youth growing up in Taiwan after emigrating from mainland China.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA City of Sadness (1989)
The story of a family embroiled in the "White Terror," the Kuomintang government's anti-communist political repression that was wrought on the Taiwanese people from 1947-1987.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Dry White Season (1989)
During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (2019)
Nancy Drew, a smart high schooler with a penchant for keen observation and deduction, stumbles upon the haunting of a local home. A bit of an outsider struggling to fit into her new surroundings, Nancy and her pals set out to solve the mystery, make new friends, and establish their place in the community
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Wasted Times (2016)
Shanghai gangsters grapple with lust and loyalty on the eve of war with Japan as they try to navigate an alliance with the enemy's army.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGood Boy (2026)
Tommy, a volatile 19-year-old, revels in drugs, parties and violence. After getting separated from his friends on a drunken bender, he is abducted by a shadowy figure. He wakes to find himself imprisoned in the basement of a remote Yorkshire house, inhabited by a very strange family. But what unfolds is not what he could possibly expect.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShanghai (2010)
An American man returns to a corrupt, Japanese-occupied Shanghai four months before Pearl Harbor and discovers his friend has been killed. While he unravels the mysteries of the death, he falls in love and discovers a much larger secret that his own government is hiding.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRed Sorghum (1988)
An old leper who owned a remote sorghum winery dies. Jiu'er, the wife bought by the leper, and her lover, identified only as "my Grandpa" by the narrator, take over the winery and set up an idealized quasi-matriarchal community headed by Jiu'er. When the Japanese invaders subject the area to their rule and cut down the sorghum to make way for a road, the community rises up and resists as the sorghum grows anew.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like My Bittersweet Taiwan?
The closest matches to My Bittersweet Taiwan are Devils on the Doorstep (2001), The Children of Huang Shi (2008) and Hidden Blade (2023). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after My Bittersweet Taiwan?
Start with Devils on the Doorstep (2001), the closest match to My Bittersweet Taiwan.
What is the highest-rated movie like My Bittersweet Taiwan?
Red Sorghum (1988), rated 7.4/10 by 294 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like My Bittersweet Taiwan?
Good Boy (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Chinese movies like My Bittersweet Taiwan?
Yes: Devils on the Doorstep (2001), The Children of Huang Shi (2008) and Hidden Blade (2023).
How are movies similar to My Bittersweet Taiwan chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside My Bittersweet Taiwan, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.