Movies like The Forest of Love (2019)
The best movies like The Forest of Love (2019) are Cold Fish (2011), Serpent's Path (1998) and Strange Circus (2005). If The Forest of Love hooked you with its crime and thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedLove Exposure (2008)7.9/10 from 556 votes
- NewestStrange Darling (2024)Released 2024
- In JapaneseCold Fish (2011)Also in Japanese
Cold Fish (2011)
When fish shop owner Shamoto's teenage daughter Mitsuko is caught stealing, a generous middle-aged man named Murata helps resolve the situation. The man and his wife offer to have Mitsuko work at their opposing fish store. Shamoto soon discovers that something far more sinister lives behind Murata's friendly demeanor.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSerpent's Path (1998)
With the help of a mysterious acquaintance, a former low-level yakuza tracks down and kidnaps the man he believes kidnapped and murdered his daughter, but others are soon implicated in the death.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & thriller
Strange Circus (2005)
The erotic novelist Taeko is writing a morbid story of a family destroyed by incest, murder and abuse. Her assistant, Yuji, sets on a mission to uncover the reality of this story, but the reality might be too much to bear.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGuilty of Romance (2011)
While police investigate a woman found dead in a derelict love hotel, a romance novelist's wife lives a life that seems simply a daily repetition without romance. To escape the loveless monotony, she follows her desires and becomes a nude model. Soon, she meets a mentor and begins selling her body to strangers, while at home, she hides behind the façade of the doting wife.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHimizu (2012)
Two 14-year-olds from troubled, abusive homes come together sharing misery and pain. In the aftermath of an earthquake, the classmates learn how to survive while relying on one another for emotional and physical support.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe World of Kanako (2014)
When Kanako, a model daughter and a brilliant student, disappears, her mother asks her ex-husband, a violent former policeman, to find her. As his investigation progresses, his idealized image of Kanako cracks: the girl hides a dark life that her father can not even imagine.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhy Don't You Play in Hell? (2013)
In Japan, gonzo filmmakers hatch a three-pronged plan to save an actress's career, end a yakuza war and make a hit movie.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAntiporno (2017)
Kyôko, a traumatized young Japanese girl, finds herself struggling with her self-confidence in her adult life. Growing up in a family without her mother and her sister, she constantly questions the rationale of sex and the notion of liberty in modern Japanese society.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAudition (2000)
Seven years after the death of his wife, widower Shigeharu seeks advice on how to find a new wife from a colleague. Taking advantage of their position as a film company, they stage an audition. Interviewing a series of women, Shigeharu is enchanted by the quiet Asami. But soon things take a twisted turn as Asami isn’t what she seems to be.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Torture Club (2014)
The "Torture Club" is an official after-school activity at the private school Saint Honesty Gakuen. Yuzuki has no idea about the club when she enrolls, and gets abducted by the club members and hauled off the club-room. There, she finds out that upper-class student Aoi, her secret idol, is in the club, and decides to join, but…
Why it matches: Fans watch both
SnoozefestMovies like thisBullet Ballet (1998)
After his girlfriend commits suicide, a man becomes embroiled in gang warfare attempting to obtain a gun in hopes to kill himself.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGoth (2008)
Itsuki and Yoru share a passion for the dark and death, making them the perfect choice to track down a serial killer who is roaming the streets.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & crime
2LDK (2003)
Hoping to land a role, two Japanese actresses begin a fight within their apartment that keeps escalating.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove Exposure (2008)
The story of a teenage boy called Yu, who falls for Yoko, a girl he runs into while operating for the sake of sin as an upskirt photographer in an offshoot of the porn industry. His attempts to woo her are complicated by a spot of cross-dressing - which convinces Yoko that she is lesbian - dalliances with kung-fu and crime, and a constant struggle with the guilt that's a legacy of his Catholic upbringing.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisSuicide Club (2001)
When the bizarre mass suicide of 54 high school girls throwing themselves in front of a subway train appears to instigate a string of suicides around the country, Detective Kuroda strives to find the answer, which isn't as simple as he had hoped.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIchi the Killer (2001)
As sadomasochistic yakuza enforcer Kakihara searches for his missing boss he comes across Ichi, a repressed and psychotic killer who may be able to inflict levels of pain that Kakihara has only dreamed of.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Snake of June (2003)
Rinko, a woman in a sexless marriage, is blackmailed by a stalker with intimate photos, forcing her into a series of erotic acts that disrupt her mundane life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIrreversible (2002)
A woman’s lover and her ex-boyfriend take justice into their own hands after she becomes the victim of a rapist. Because some acts can’t be undone. Because man is an animal. Because the desire for vengeance is a natural impulse. Because most crimes remain unpunished.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBedevilled (2010)
A disillusioned Seoul woman visits a remote island to reconnect with a childhood friend, only to find her trapped in an oppressive cycle of physical, mental, and sexual abuse. As tensions escalate, the situation spirals into a harrowing tale of survival and retribution.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNightmare Detective (2007)
When a number of suicide victims slash themselves in their sleep, detective Keiko Kirishima is called to investigate.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRed Post on Escher Street (2020)
Drafted to shoot a new film, Tadashi Kobayashi, a director with festival marketability, is strong-armed by the studio into hiring two famous actresses as leads. The cast of self-unaware weirdos that constitute the budding players become increasingly overwhelmed and emboldened until they stage their own micro-revolution.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
Night's Tightrope (2016)
Yuki is a 2nd year high school student. She volunteers at a paediatrics ward for her summer vacation, because she wants to witness the moment a person dies. She got that thought after feeling envious of a transfer student's story of seeing a friend's dead body. Yuki has friend named Atsuko. She was bullied in the past and has anxiety issues. She volunteers at a nursing home for her summer vacation, hoping that she will gain courage if she sees the moment a person dies.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller
Late Bloomer (2007)
Late Bloomer is the story of Sumida-san, a severely handicapped man, and his downward spiral into hell.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & thriller
Noriko's Dinner Table (2005)
A teenager named Noriko Shimabara runs away from her family in Toyokawa, to meet Kumiko, the leader of an Internet BBS, Haikyo.com. She becomes involved with Kumiko's family circle, which grows darker after the mass suicide of 54 high school girls.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGozu (2003)
Minami mistakenly kills a gangster associate of his named Brother. Almost as soon as the murder takes place, the body of the deceased man is gone, prompting Minami to conduct a search. While looking, he finds a mysterious isolated hotel where he decides to take a rest. Not only are the front desk clerks a bit strange, but even the ambiance feels unusual. Minami soon realizes he may have gotten more than he bargained for.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTokyo Fist (1995)
A businessman, Tsuda, runs into a childhood friend, Kojima, on the subway. Kojima is working as a semiprofessional boxer. Tsuda soon begins to suspect that Kojima might be having an affair with his fiancée Hizuru. After an altercation, Tsuda begins training rigorously himself, leading to an extremely bloody, violent confrontation.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKill List (2011)
Nearly a year after a botched job, a hitman takes a new assignment with the promise of a big payoff for three killings. What starts off as an easy task soon unravels, sending the killer into the heart of darkness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNatural Born Killers (1994)
Two victims of traumatized childhoods become lovers and serial murderers irresponsibly glorified by the mass media.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStrange Darling (2024)
Nothing is what it seems when a twisted one-night stand spirals into a serial killer’s vicious murder spree.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last House on the Left (2009)
When athletic teen Mari Collingwood opts to hang out with her friend Paige in town rather than spend an evening in with her parents vacationing at the family's remote lake house, it marks the beginning of a night no one is going to forget.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Forest of Love?
The closest matches to The Forest of Love are Cold Fish (2011), Serpent's Path (1998) and Strange Circus (2005). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Forest of Love?
People who watched The Forest of Love most often go on to Cold Fish (2011), Serpent's Path (1998) and Strange Circus (2005).
What is the highest-rated movie like The Forest of Love?
Love Exposure (2008), rated 7.9/10 by 556 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Forest of Love?
Strange Darling (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like The Forest of Love?
Yes: Cold Fish (2011), Serpent's Path (1998) and Strange Circus (2005).
How are movies similar to The Forest of Love chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Forest of Love, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.