Movies like Drifting (2019)
The best movies like Drifting (2019) are So Long, My Son (2019), Skin (2009) and The Piano in a Factory (2011). If Drifting hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedSo Long, My Son (2019)7.7/10 from 239 votes
- NewestEleanor the Great (2025)Released 2025
- In ChineseSo Long, My Son (2019)Also in Chinese
So Long, My Son (2019)
Two married couples adjust to the vast social and economic changes taking place in China from the 1980s to the present.
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 Piano in a Factory (2011)
To fight for custody of his daughter who loves playing the piano, a steel factory worker decides to forge a piano from scratch.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDeep in the Heart (2015)
An unrecognizable, charred corpse discovered in a remote mountain village in China connects three local stories.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisA Map of the World (1999)
School nurse Alice Goodwin lives with her husband and two daughters on a dairy farm in a small Wisconsin community. After an accident on her property involving a friend's child, the town turns against her and Alice finds herself fighting charges of child abuse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVanya on 42nd Street (1994)
An uninterrupted rehearsal of Chekhov's 'Uncle Vanya' plays out by a company of actors. The setting: their run-down theater with an unusable stage and crumbling ceiling. The play is shown act by act with the briefest of breaks to move props or for refreshments. The lack of costumes, real props and scenery is soon forgotten.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEye for an Eye (2022)
A highly trained and exceptionally deadly swordsman looks for revenge after being caught in the middle of a power struggle that results in the assassination of an innocent woman's family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisClan of the White Lotus (1980)
The Qing emperor releases all detained Shaolin disciples, but the vindictive White Lotus clan decides to exterminate all the disciples. One martial artist survives the onslaught, and constantly trains while in hiding for revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004)
The story of golf icon and legend, Bobby Jones, who retired from competition at the tender age of 28.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies 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 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 · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUpstream (2024)
A moment of impulsiveness turns Gao Zhilei into a "stay-at-home" individual, but he never expected his life to take a turn in the opposite direction. A series of changes compel him to take on his responsibilities as the head of the family. When life's burdens hit hard, he must confront himself and start anew.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInside I'm Dancing (2004)
Michael is a 24-year-old who has cerebral palsy and long-term resident of the Carrigmore Residential Home for the Disabled, run by the formidable Eileen. His life is transformed when the maverick Rory O'Shea moves in.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisS.W.A.T. (2019)
The story centers on the Chinese Special Police Unit, from their hard training to their first mission.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEleanor the Great (2025)
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSnow Flower and the Secret Fan (2011)
A story set in 19th century China and centered on the lifelong friendship between two girls who develop their own secret code as a way to contend with the rigid cultural norms imposed on women.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJu Dou (1990)
Tianqing falls in love with Ju Dou, his uncle's wife who is tortured for being childless. However, after they have an affair, they discover that his uncle is impotent and try to conceal the truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMilk (2008)
The true story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man ever elected to public office. In San Francisco in the late 1970s, Harvey Milk becomes an activist for gay rights and inspires others to join him in his fight for equal rights that should be available to all Americans.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNuovo Olimpo (2023)
In 1970s Rome, a casual encounter between Enea and Pietro at a movie theater turns into an unforgettable romance — until destiny pulls them apart.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPinsky (2017)
Sophia Pinsky seems like a functioning adult. But when she loses her girlfriend and her grandfather in the same day and moves back in with her authoritarian Russian grandmother, Marina, everything she thought she’d escaped is waiting to welcome her back with open arms. Thrilled to have Sophia under her influence again, and obsessed with finding her a proper (male) partner, Marina conspires to marry her off to Trevor, a nice Jewish boy Sophia has known since they were in diapers. After the date with him is a dud, Sophia finds her way to a weekly open mic night, where on a whim she gets on stage and discovers there’s actually an audience for her Queer-Russian-Jewish-American sense of humor. Everything comes to a head at the family Shabbat dinner when Sophia and Trevor try to humiliate Marina by pretending to have fallen for each other, unaware that Marina is planning her own announcement.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Phone Call (1989)
A married man calls the wrong number for phone-sex and winds up being stalked by a psychotic man.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Our Ten Years (2007)
Throughout ten years of a key era in Chinese and Hong Kong history, a girl becomes fixated on a fellow commuter who she observes regularly. While the two never speak to one another, the girl captures her appearance and life changes during the years through various means such as photos and drawings.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Kissing Drew (2013)
Inside a drab middle school in 1992, a sexually-confused eighth-grader attempts to regain his dignity after being bullied by a sex-obsessed 'cool kid' whom he privately fantasizes about.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Prom Party Massacre (2025)
A gay high school student throws a swinging prom party in the hopes of finally wooing the football captain - but when popular kids start turning up dead, the partygoers discover a slasher killer amongst the student body!
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Kundun (1997)
From childhood to adulthood, Tibet's fourteenth Dalai Lama deals with Chinese oppression and other problems.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMemories of a Teenager (2019)
After the suicide of his best friend and the fire of a local dance called Cromañón, including recitals, illegal parties in an abandoned warehouse and high school, a year passes by in the life of Zabo who writes everything he feels and lives in his blog, "Memories of a teenager".
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisHalf of Me (2024)
A young gay, neurotic and ex-religious art student goes into a spin with the surprise visit of an eccentric childhood friend.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Drifting?
The closest matches to Drifting are So Long, My Son (2019), Skin (2009) and The Piano in a Factory (2011). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Drifting?
Start with So Long, My Son (2019), the closest match to Drifting.
What is the highest-rated movie like Drifting?
So Long, My Son (2019), rated 7.7/10 by 239 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Drifting?
Eleanor the Great (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Chinese movies like Drifting?
Yes: So Long, My Son (2019), The Piano in a Factory (2011) and Deep in the Heart (2015).
How are movies similar to Drifting chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Drifting, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.