Movies like Forbidden Dream (2019)
The best movies like Forbidden Dream (2019) are The Throne (2015), War of the Arrows (2011) and Masquerade (2012). If Forbidden Dream hooked you with its history and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Hill (2023)7.7/10 from 327 votes
- NewestUprising (2024)Released 2024
- In KoreanThe Throne (2015)Also in Korean
The Throne (2015)
Ancient Korea, July 4, 1762. The Crown Prince Hyojang, posthumously named Sado, son of King Yeongjo of Joseon, is accused of treason. Thus, the king asks him to commit suicide, but his closest vassals prevent it, so the king orders the prince to get inside a wooden rice chest, where he suffers deprivation of food and water.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWar of the Arrows (2011)
After the death of their father, two siblings are raised by their father's best friend. However, when one gets kidnapped just before her wedding, the other rises against the Manchus.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMasquerade (2012)
Though it places his own life in danger, a look-alike commoner secretly takes the place of a poisoned king to save his country from falling into chaos.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Book of Fish (2021)
When the scholar Jeong Yak-jeon is exiled to Heuksando Island during the Catholic Persecution of 1801, he decides to write a fish-based encyclopaedia.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Face Reader (2013)
An exceptionally talented face reader becomes entangled in a bloody power struggle between a child king and his uncle who plans to usurp the throne.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKing and the Clown (2005)
Two clowns living in Korea's Chosun Dynasty get arrested for staging a play that satirizes the king. They are dragged to the palace and threatened with execution but are given a chance to save their lives if they can make the king laugh.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNoryang: Deadly Sea (2023)
The Imjin War reaches its seventh year in December of 1598. Admiral Yi Sun-shin learns that the Wa invaders in Joseon are preparing for a swift withdrawal following the deathbed orders of their leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Determined to destroy the enemy once and for all, Admiral Yi leads an allied fleet of Joseon and Ming ships to mount a blockade and annihilate the Wa army. However, once Ming commander Chen Lin is bribed into lifting the blockade, Wa lord Shimazu Yoshihiro and his Satsuma army sail to the Wa army's rescue at Noryang Strait.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hill (2023)
The story of Rickey Hill, who overcomes his physical disability and repairs his relationship with his father in a quest to become a major league baseball (MLB) player.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWorth (2021)
Kenneth Feinberg, a powerful D.C. lawyer appointed Special Master of the 9/11 Fund, fights off the cynicism, bureaucracy, and politics associated with administering government funds and, in doing so, discovers what life is worth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Divine Weapon (2008)
During the reign of King Sejong in the 15th century, the Joseon Dynasty was the embodiment of the perfect state. To the Ming China, the aspiring imperial power, Joseon presented an obstacle to territorial expansion. To protect themselves from war, King Sejong develops a secret weapon to defend their territory and take back their land and supremacy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fatal Encounter (2014)
Late 18th-century Joseon dynasty. The King is beleaguered and surrounded by traitors of the ruling elite. They plan to assassinate and replace him with a puppet. But the King has some aces up his sleeve that may help him defeat them all.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOut Live (2000)
A sweeping, epic tale of a martial arts warrior who attempts to defy a kingdom to be with his love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlades of Blood (2010)
Lee Mong-hak and a skilled blind swordsman Hwang Jeong-hak, both long to wipe away corruption and heal the world. Lee Mong-hak creates a rebel army to achieve his goal and get rid of the King.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStrings (2004)
The story of Prince Hal who sets out to avenge his dead father against the city's rivals, the Zeriths, little knowing it was his wicked uncle Nezo who is the real killer, with his own designs on the throne.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThread of Lies (2014)
Cheon-ji's unexpected suicide causes her mother Hyeon-sook and older sister Man-ji to be moved into another apartment. Tracking down clues from school, Man-ji discovers that Cheon-ji's best friend Hwa-yeon is behind everything.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this47 Ronin (2013)
Kai—an outcast—joins Oishi, the leader of 47 outcast samurai. Together they seek vengeance upon the treacherous overlord who killed their master and banished their kind. To restore honour to their homeland, the warriors embark upon a quest that challenges them with a series of trials that would destroy ordinary warriors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Good Witch's Gift (2010)
Almost as soon as Jake and Cassie decide to get married on Christmas Eve, complications arise.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAn Adventure in Space and Time (2013)
Actor William Hartnell felt trapped by a succession of hard-man roles while wannabe producer Verity Lambert was frustrated by the TV industry's glass ceiling. Both of them were to find unlikely hope and unexpected challenges in the form of a Saturday tea-time drama. Allied with a team of unusual but brilliant people, they went on to create the longest running science fiction series ever made.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBring Me Home (2019)
Jung-yeon receives a tip-off that her son who went missing six years ago is in a fishing village. Local officers get in her way, trying to cover up a secret that might be related to her case.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUprising (2024)
In the Joseon Dynasty, two friends who grew up together — one the master and one the servant — reunite post-war as enemies on opposing sides.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Age of Blood (2017)
Ancient Korea, 1728. Swordsman Kim Ho, guard of King Yeong-jo of Joseon, is demoted and sent to work in Uigeumbu prison. When night falls, the prison is assaulted by the master warrior Do Man-cheol and his powerful henchmen for the purpose of freeing Lee In-jwa, who has been condemned to death for rising up in revolt against the king.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
The Admiral: Roaring Currents (2014)
Admiral Yi Sun-sin faces a tough challenge when he is forced to defend his nation with just 13 battleships against 300 Japanese enemy ships in the Battle of Myeongryang.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Swordsman (2020)
After being blinded in a coup against the king, Joseon's greatest swordsman goes into hiding, far removed from his city's anguish. But when traffickers kidnap his daughter, he has no choice but to unsheathe his sword once more.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIljimae the Chivalrous Robber (1961)
Iljimae's parents were killed due to a conspiracy when he was young. Many years later he became a chivalrous robber, robbing corrupt officials and helping the poor. He eventually manages in taking revenge for his parents' deaths. But the police start to chase him, and he hides himself at a gisaeng's house. The gisaeng was his ex-fiancee. She also lost her parents to a conspiracy. She begs Iljimae to stay with her, but he leaves to do what he has to.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & drama
Lost Flower: Eo Woo-dong (2015)
A triangular relationship between Eo Woo-dong, her husband Lee Dong, and fantasy character Moo-gong, highlights on the first half of the Joseon Dynasty and portrays the contradicted life of the high class people, criticizing the modern day Korean society.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
The Treacherous (2015)
The story of Joseon's tyrant king Yeonsan who exploits the populace for his own carnal pleasures, his seemingly loyal retainer who controls him and all court dealings, and a woman who seeks vengeance.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisScope (2018)
When a young man drops out of school to care for his agoraphobic mother he too finds himself increasingly insulated from the outside world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Kingdom: Ashin of the North (2021)
Tragedy, betrayal and a mysterious discovery fuel a woman's vengeance for the loss of her tribe and family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this8 Days: Two Faces of the Feast (2014)
The film chases a historical event when King Jungjo tried to replace hispersonal revenge on those who killed his father Sado, the Crown Prince, with agreat cause to build up a nation for its people, which eventually leads to remind the lessons of history that repeat permanently like a Mobius strip. The film seems to aim to introduce the uniqueness of Uigwe with a historical yet futuristic value as a World Heritage on the surface, but in fact, it pursues torestore audio-visually the immaterial thing that remains only as a record under the name of feast. Inside the device receiving images, there might have been desires to reproduce the world or to secularize the invisible from the beginning. Hungry TV will awaken the potential to visualize all the intangible via digitaltechnology. So to speak, there is digital technology, and it is followed by aquestion: How far the digital technology of 21st century would lead this deviceto?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Forbidden Dream?
The closest matches to Forbidden Dream are The Throne (2015), War of the Arrows (2011) and Masquerade (2012). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Forbidden Dream?
Start with The Throne (2015), the closest match to Forbidden Dream.
What is the highest-rated movie like Forbidden Dream?
The Hill (2023), rated 7.7/10 by 327 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Forbidden Dream?
Uprising (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Korean movies like Forbidden Dream?
Yes: The Throne (2015), War of the Arrows (2011) and Masquerade (2012).
How are movies similar to Forbidden Dream chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Forbidden Dream, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.