Movies like Oh! Dreamland (1989)
The best movies like Oh! Dreamland (1989) are May 18 (2007), 1987: When the Day Comes (2017) and The Attorney (2013). If Oh! Dreamland hooked you with its drama and history, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedA Taxi Driver (2017)8.0/10 from 1,248 votes
- NewestThe Match (2025)Released 2025
- In KoreanMay 18 (2007)Also in Korean
May 18 (2007)
The citizens of Gwangju lead a relatively peaceful life, until one day the military takes over the city, accusing the residents of conspiracy and claiming that they are communist sympathisers preparing a revolution against the current government. Seeing as the soldiers beat defenceless people, mainly students, to death, the citizens are in for retaliation and form a militia.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like this1987: When the Day Comes (2017)
In 1987 Korea under an oppressive military regime, the unlawful interrogation and death of a college student ignite ordinary citizens to fight for the truth and bring about justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Attorney (2013)
Song Woo-seok is a lawyer with no clients. When his friend's son is falsely accused of a crime and tortured, he takes up the case and the course of his life changes for good.
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 thisOranges and Sunshine (2010)
The story of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham, who uncovers one of the most significant social scandals in recent times – the forced migration of children from the United Kingdom to Australia and other Commonwealth countries. Almost singlehandedly, Margaret reunited thousands of families, brought authorities to account and worldwide attention to an extraordinary miscarriage of justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMunich - The Edge of War (2021)
At the tense 1938 Munich Conference, former friends who now work for opposing governments become reluctant spies racing to expose a Nazi secret.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Taxi Driver (2017)
May, 1980. Man-seob is a taxi driver in Seoul who lives from hand to mouth, raising his young daughter alone. One day, he hears that there is a foreigner who will pay big money for a drive down to Gwangju city. Not knowing that he’s a German journalist with a hidden agenda, Man-seob takes the job.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Absolute CinemaMovies like this12.12: The Day (2023)
After the assassination of President Park, martial law has been declared. A coup d'état bursts out by Defense Security Commander Chun Doo-gwang and a private band of officers following him. Capital Defense Commander Lee Tae-shin, an obstinate soldier who believes the military should not take political actions, fights against Chun Doo-gwang to stop him. The conflict between the two grows while military leaders are holding their decision and Defense Minister is gone. In the midst of chaos, the spring of Seoul that everyone longed for heads to unexpected direction.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Match (2025)
When a legendary Go master loses his title to a one-time friend and protégé, he sets out to reclaim it in a high-stakes battle of wits and skill.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPanther (1995)
In this sprawling, fictionalized history of the Black Panthers, 1960s Oakland becomes a war zone as the Panthers battle for the right to exist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRadium Girls (2020)
Young women toiling in a factory are exposed to hazardous material which takes a disastrous toll on their health.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Book of Daniel (2013)
Taken into slavery after the fall of Jerusalem in 605 B.C., Daniel is forced to serve the most powerful king in the world, King Nebuchadnezzar. Faced with imminent death, Daniel proves himself a trusted Advisor and is placed among the king's wise men. Threatened by death at every turn Daniel never ceases to serve the king until he is forced to choose between serving the king or honoring God. With his life at stake, Daniel has nothing but his faith to stand between him and the lions' den.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJulia (1977)
At the behest of an old and dear friend, playwright Lillian Hellman undertakes a dangerous mission to smuggle funds into Nazi Germany.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIron Jawed Angels (2004)
Defiant young activists take the women's suffrage movement by storm, putting their lives at risk to help American women win the right to vote.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPeppermint Candy (2000)
In the spring of 1999, a group of old friends gather to celebrate their 20 year reunion. Among the group is Yeong-ho, a cold, unhappy man, whose demeanor puts a damper on the festivities. The seriousness of Yeong-ho's depression becomes apparent when he climbs a railroad bridge and looks like he might jump. At this crucial moment, memories of seven crucial episodes from Yeong-ho's past flood his mind.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this26 Years (2012)
Three relatives of victims come together to get revenge on a murderer twenty-six years after the massacre. The man had killed groups of people in the 1980 Gwangju murders.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKundo: Age of the Rampant (2014)
In 1862, amidst the rule of the late Joseon dynasty in Korea, a band of fighters named Kundo rise against the unjust authorities.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Battleship Island (2017)
During the Japanese colonial era, roughly 400 Korean people, who were forced onto Battleship Island 'Hashima Island' to mine for coal, attempt to escape.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGirl in the Box (2016)
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe President's Barber (2004)
A well-meaning but politically naive barber gets pulled into the inner circle of the South Korean dictator Park Chung-Hee, with rather baleful consequences for his hapless family. This sharp political satire covers roughly twenty years in South Korean political history, from the viewpoint of the barber's son.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLet's be Together (2024)
A political newcomer boldly confronts dictatorship, surviving five death rows to lead Korea's first peaceful power transfer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history
A Petal (1996)
The story of a girl who experienced the Gwangju massacre at the age of 15, and its effect on her life in later years.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Excavator (2017)
20 years after discharge from the army and now an excavator driver, a former paratrooper who had been mobilized to suppress the May 18th Democratic Uprising in Korea in 1980, happens to find a skull in the ground one day. Driving his excavator, he pays visits to his former superiors one by one and realizes they were all both assailants and victims of the times.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Swallow (2023)
When his mother goes missing, Lee Ho-yeon sets out to search for her. In the course of that journey, he discovers his parents' pasts during the democracy protests of the 1980s when student activists rose up against the repressive Chun Doo-hwan regime. Reading a book written by his mother, Ho-yeon uncovers a story of hope, love and betrayal, and struggles to understand painful secrets that have been hidden away for thirty years.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
In the Name of the Son (2021)
Chae-geun is a driver for hire with manic depression. He often talks to his son who is studying in the States and tells him he would keep his promise. He does a favor by acting as a temporary fiancé of a single woman named Jin-hee, who works as a waitress at a restaurant he frequents. Her father, who was a victim of the Gwangju Uprising in 1980, shows him a gun he stashed away 39 years ago and asks Chae-geun to help him exact revenge on those who were responsible for the May 18 incident.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Confessions of May in the Wilderness (2020)
The movie is a compilation of the movie "Wilderness" in which a member of the airborne unit who killed a girl during the Gwangju Democratization Movement burned himself to death with remorse and "Mr. Kant's Presentation", the story of a man who wanders around as a result of torture after participating as a civilian army.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Old Garden (2007)
Political activist Hyun-woo is released from prison after a 17-year stint. Journeying back to the village where he spent some time as a fugitive he recalls the time spent with Yoon-hee, a woman who gave him shelter and companionship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The March for the Lost (2018)
This is the story of a father who died mysteriously in May of 1980, a mother who lives in the shadows with a bullet in her head and not being able to forget May 18th and their daughter, and the nation's greatest comedian, Hee-soo.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Oh! Dreamland?
The closest matches to Oh! Dreamland are May 18 (2007), 1987: When the Day Comes (2017) and The Attorney (2013). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Oh! Dreamland?
Start with May 18 (2007), the closest match to Oh! Dreamland.
What is the highest-rated movie like Oh! Dreamland?
A Taxi Driver (2017), rated 8.0/10 by 1,248 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Oh! Dreamland?
The Match (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Korean movies like Oh! Dreamland?
Yes: May 18 (2007), 1987: When the Day Comes (2017) and The Attorney (2013).
How are movies similar to Oh! Dreamland chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Oh! Dreamland, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.