Movies like They Say Nothing Stays the Same (2019)
The best movies like They Say Nothing Stays the Same (2019) are Harmonium (2016), Suzume (2022) and The Truth About Emanuel (2013). If They Say Nothing Stays the Same hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedSuzume (2022)7.9/10 from 1,901 votes
- NewestVeronica's Secret (2026)Released 2026
- In JapaneseHarmonium (2016)Also in Japanese
Harmonium (2016)
Toshio hires Yasaka to work in his workshop. But then this old acquaintance, who has just been released from prison, begins to meddle in Toshio's family life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSuzume (2022)
Suzume, 17, lost her mother as a little girl. On her way to school, she meets a mysterious young man. But her curiosity unleashes a calamity that endangers the entire population of Japan, and so Suzume embarks on a journey to set things right.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies 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 thisNothing Personal (2009)
Alone in her empty flat, from her window Anne observes the people passing by who nervously snatch up the personal belongings and pieces of furniture she has put out on the pavement. Her final gesture of taking a ring off her finger signals she is leaving her previous life in Holland behind. She goes to Ireland, where she chooses to lead a solitary, wandering existence, striding through the austere landscapes of Connemara. During her travels, she discovers a house that is home to a hermit, Martin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove & Pop (1998)
Tokyo schoolgirl Hiromi and her friends engage in a practice known as enjo kosai, or "compensated dating", where older men pay young girls for dates. Hiromi plunges deeper into this world to raise money for an expensive ring.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSakuran (2006)
Kiyoha rises from the lowly courtesan ranks to the high class position of Oiran in the steamy red-light district of Yoshiwara. She is determined to stand on her own two feet and live life as she pleased.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Wings of the Kirin (2012)
A man's body is found under the statue of a winged kirin in the Nihombashi area of Tokyo. A suspect named Yashima has a car accident and falls unconscious while he is attempting to run away. Yashima's lover Kaori comes from Fukushima and tells detectives that he is absolutely not a criminal. Meanwhile, Detective Kyoichiro Kaga's (Hiroshi Abe) investigates and uncovers a point of contact between the dead body and Yashima. A hidden fact of the victim is revealed which even his children did not know about...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIf Cats Disappeared from the World (2016)
A postman learns that he doesn't have much time left to live due to a terminal illness. A devil then appears in front of him and offers to extend his life if he picks something in the world that will disappear. The man thinks about his relationships with ex-friends, ex-lovers, relatives and colleagues who will be sincerely sad when he dies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Miracles of the Namiya General Store (2017)
In 2012, Atsuya and his 2 childhood friends do something bad and run into an old general store. They decide to stay there until the morning. Late into the night, Atsuya sees a letter in the mailbox. The letter is addressed to the Namiya General Store and the letter was written by someone to consult about worries. Incredibly, the letter was written 32 years ago. The mailbox is somehow connected to the year 1980. Atsuya and his friends decide to write a reply and place their letter in the mailbox.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOrange (2015)
A girl mysteriously receives advice from her future self and as a result her group of friends, along with a newly arrived, troubled classmate, learn how to be better friends and a better community.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMan with No Past (2025)
Waking up in an unfamiliar city, a man with no memory must confront the mysteries of his own identity. However, his desperate search to uncover the past pits him against a powerful enemy, leading to a showdown that ultimately reveals the truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDetective Conan: Private Eye in the Distant Sea (2013)
It’s a high-stakes mystery on the high seas! Enjoying a free prize cruise on a military ship, Conan and his friends find their relaxation interrupted by the threat of possible explosives on board! It’s a race against time to find the culprit and save the ship — and potentially the whole country!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCafé Lumière (2004)
In a distinctly contemporary Tokyo that looks backwards to the city’s disappearing past, Yoko is a writer investigating the life of a modernist composer of the 1930s. She is pregnant by a man she does not want to marry and has found a kindred spirit in a used bookstore owner who aids her research.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMaborosi (1995)
A tragedy strikes a young woman's life without warning or reason. She continues living while searching for meaning in a lonely world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
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 drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIrezumi (1966)
Otsuya, the daughter of a rich merchant, elopes with her lover Shinsuke, an employee of her father's. During their flight, Otsuya's beauty attracts the gaze of Seikichi, a mysterious master tattooist who sees her pristine white skin as the perfect canvas for his art. The image of the large demonic spider that he emblazons across Otsuya's back marks her as the property of another man, radically altering her relationships with all around her as her personality seems to transform under its influence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRoujin Z (1991)
Mr. Takazawa, an elderly invalid who is cared for at his home by Haruko, a young nursing student, is chosen by the Japanese Ministry of Public Welfare to test the Z-001, a computerized hospital bed with robotic features that allegedly displays more efficiency and skills than any human nurse, but Haruko mistrusts a machine unable to consider human feelings.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSteins;Gate: The Movie - Load Region of Déjà Vu (2013)
One year after the events of the anime, Rintarou begins to feel the repercussions of extensive time travel, and eventually completely fades from reality. Kurisu, being the only companion to remember him, now must find a way to bring him back.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOne Million Yen Girl (2008)
A 21-year-old girl is released from prison, only to deal with the neighborhood gossip about her and family conflicts. She decides to save one million yen, move to where no one knows her and keep repeating the process.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWon't Back Down (2012)
Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFragment 24 (2025)
One night, contract killers Safo and Erina celebrate their latest work when they are surprised by an unusual request: a black envelope with just the signature 'V'.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Ferryman (2025)
When his brother’s body is unearthed, a grieving man faces an IRA agent determined to keep him quiet, testing where his loyalties truly lie.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Life of a Country Doctor (1960)
A skilled country doctor's talents are such that he can even perform operations as difficult and novel as removing a patient's kidney for the first time in Japan. Unfortunately for him, however, his wife's addiction to gambling is of such a magnitude that he is down to selling his underwear to make money. The image sticks and he becomes known as the 'underwear doctor.' On the other hand, his successful surgery's patient is so grateful he himself wants to become a physician.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Broken Commandment (2022)
At the strong insistence of his father, Ushimatsu Segawa conceals his origins from a “buraku” area of low-class “untouchables,” leaving his hometown to serve as an elementary school teacher where he excels and is loved by his students. But he constantly struggles with the secret of his low-birth status and is disturbed by all of the discrimination levelled upon his class. It prevents him from pursuing a romance with Shiho, whom he meets at the temple where he resides, but who descends from a samurai family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Ultraman Decker Finale: Journey to Beyond (2023)
When GUTS-Select investigate mysterious disappearances, they learn it is work of an evil alien who intends to invade the Earth, called Professor Gibellus. However, just in time, a mysterious woman appears to help GUTS-Select.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance (1974)
Lady Snowblood is caught by the police and sentenced to death for her crimes. As she is sent to the gallows she is rescued by the secret police who offer her a deal to assassinate some revolutionaries.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFather of the Milky Way Railroad (2023)
Kenji, the eldest son of Masajiro, a wealthy moneylender, refuses to work in the family business and becomes obsessed with farming, jewelry and religion.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Veronica's Secret (2026)
A girl's disappearance spirals into unraveling a dark past and its secrets.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Portrait of Jennie (1948)
In Depression-era New York, painter Eben Adams despairs at his lack of success. One cold winter evening in Central Park, he meets enigmatic, old-fashioned Jennie Appleton, who captures his fancy when she asks him to wait for her to grow up. Soon after, Eben sells a sketch of Jennie to kindly art dealer Miss Spinny and, as he meets the oddly mutable Jennie in fleeting moments, begins to realize they share a special destiny.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Rickshaw Man (1958)
A poor rickshaw driver finds himself helping a young woman and her son after the woman's husband dies suddenly.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like They Say Nothing Stays the Same?
The closest matches to They Say Nothing Stays the Same are Harmonium (2016), Suzume (2022) and The Truth About Emanuel (2013). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after They Say Nothing Stays the Same?
Start with Harmonium (2016), the closest match to They Say Nothing Stays the Same.
What is the highest-rated movie like They Say Nothing Stays the Same?
Suzume (2022), rated 7.9/10 by 1,901 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like They Say Nothing Stays the Same?
Veronica's Secret (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like They Say Nothing Stays the Same?
Yes: Harmonium (2016), Suzume (2022) and Love & Pop (1998).
How are movies similar to They Say Nothing Stays the Same chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside They Say Nothing Stays the Same, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.