Movies like The Transfer Student (2015)
The best movies like The Transfer Student (2015) are The Young One (1960), Salomé (2013) and Lorelei (2020). If The Transfer Student hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWhat Maisie Knew (2013)7.1/10 from 466 votes
- NewestHumint (2026)Released 2026
- In KoreanServe the People (2022)Also in Korean
The Young One (1960)
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSalomé (2013)
After the lewd and frenetic Dance of the Seven Veils, and with the solemn pledge from the very lips of Herod himself that she could have whatever her heart desires up to half his kingdom, wanton and proud young Salomé comes before her king with an unreasonable demand. Beguiled by John the Baptist, and then scorned for the sake of his god, lascivious Salomé—encouraged by her mother, the vindictive, Herodias—commands that John be executed and his head delivered on a silver platter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLorelei (2020)
A man is released from prison after 15 years. He reunites with his high school girlfriend, now a single mother of three. What follows is a lyrical take on love, regret and second chances.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHungry Hearts (2015)
The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Quiller Memorandum (1966)
After two British Secret Intelligence Service agents are murdered at the hands of a cryptic neo-Nazi group known as Phoenix, the suave agent Quiller is sent to Berlin to investigate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisTigertail (2020)
A man reflects on the lost love of his youth and his long-ago journey from Taiwan to America as he begins to reconnect with his estranged daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGoal II: Living the Dream (2007)
Tempted away from Newcastle United to join Real Madrid, rising star Santiago Munez finds this latest change of fortune the greatest challenge yet - personally as well as professionally. He is reunited with Gavin Harris, though they must compete to be on the team, and estranged from fiancee Roz, whose nursing career keeps her back home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisServe the People (2022)
Mu-kwang volunteers to be a kitchen police of Sa-taek, the divisional commander, dreaming of success. One day, Mu-kwang meets Su-ryeon by chance, who is a young and beautiful wife of the commander. Soon, he feels a strong attraction by her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHome (2021)
An ex-felon returns home from prison and must confront the demons of his past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll Day and a Night (2020)
While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Dry White Season (1989)
During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972)
Middle-aged widow Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters Ruth and Matilda are struggling to survive in a society they barely understand. Beatrice dreams of opening an elegant tea room but does not have the wherewithal to achieve her lofty goal. Epileptic Ruth is a rebellious adolescent, while shy but highly intelligent and idealistic Matilda seeks solace in her pets and school projects, including one designed to show how small amounts of radium affect marigolds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCome Sunday (2018)
Evangelist Carlton Pearson is ostracized by his church for preaching that there is no Hell.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisCloak and Dagger (1946)
Italian partisans help a professor sent by the OSS to find an atomic scientist held by Nazis.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHome Run (2013)
A pro ball player with a substance abuse problem is forced into rehab in his hometown, finding new hope when he gets honest about his checkered past, and takes on coaching duties for a misfit Little League team
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNot Without Hope (2025)
A group of friends' fishing boat capsizes off the coast of Mexico and they're left alone stranded at sea and struggling for survival.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe House on Carroll Street (1988)
A reporter, fired after refusing to give names to a 1951 House Un-American Activities Committee, takes a part-time job as companion to an old lady. While working she overhears a noisy argument in the neighboring house, being conducted largely in German and involving her HUAC prosecutor. She begins to investigate, enlisting the help of the FBI Agent initially detailed to surveil her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Day a Pig Fell Into the Well (1996)
The lives of 4 interconnected South Koreans – a married couple, a novelist the wife is having an affair with, and a second woman the novelist is simultaneously involved with.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnuja (2024)
When a brilliant nine-year-old working in a sweatshop gets a chance to attend school, she must make a difficult choice for her and her sister's future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhat Maisie Knew (2013)
In New York City, six-year-old Maisie is caught in the middle of a bitter custody battle between her self-absorbed parents—an aging rock singer mother and a distracted art dealer father. As both quickly marry new partners to strengthen their legal standing, Maisie is shuttled back and forth in an endless game of emotional point-scoring. Yet amid the chaos and upheaval, Maisie begins to find true comfort and affection in her new step-parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Name Is Loh Kiwan (2024)
After defecting from North Korea, Loh Kiwan struggles to obtain refugee status in Belgium, where he encounters a dejected woman who has lost all hope.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Dictator (2014)
Sung-geun is an untalented actor who makes a living playing minor roles. He happens to land on the role as Kim Il-sung, the former leader of North Korea, for the rehearsal of the South-North Korea Summit. Sung-geun becomes passionately immersed in his role, motivated by his son who looks up to him. However, the summit is not realized, and Sung-geun ends up lost in the delusion that he really is Kim Il-sung.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Pulgasari (1986)
In feudal Korea, a group of starving villagers grow weary of the orders handed down to them by their controlling king and set out to use a deadly monster under their control to push his armies back.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisGO (2001)
Sugihara, a Japanese-born, third-generation Korean teenager struggles to find a place in a society that will not accept him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHumint (2026)
A South Korean agent hunts a drug ring in Russia and goes head-to-head with a North Korean operative — pulling both into peril and tangled secrets.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNorth Korea's Secret Slaves: Dollar Heroes (2018)
Shrouded in secrecy and notoriously cash-strapped the North Korean regime has resorted to running one of the world's largest slaving operations - exploiting the profits to fulfil their own agenda. These bonded labourers can be found in Russia, China and dozens of other countries around the world including EU member states. Featuring undercover footage and powerful testimonials, we reveal the scale and brutality of the operation and ask what, if anything, is being done to stop it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Choir of God (2025)
North Korea, facing international sanctions, seeks assistance from a Hungarian NGO to build churches in Pyongyang as a way to bypass the sanctions. The NGO proposes organizing a revival meeting with international Choir organizations, leading the Ministry of 5 Securities to apprehend believers. The "Victory Orchestra," a replacement ensemble, is actually composed of underground Choir members. As they sing hymns openly for the first time, their true identity as underground believers is revealed, creating moments of laughter, tears, and emotion.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Believe It or Not (2018)
Over many years of division, North and South Korea have become like a hall of mirrors where it is difficult to tell the real from the false. Inspired by real people who have traveled between North and South amid this division, this film depicts a relationship between the two that is so deeply skewed that it is impossible to tell what anyone is working to achieve.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Our Homeland (2012)
From the late 1950s through the '70s, more than 90,000 of the ethnic Koreans in Japan emigrated to North Korea, a country that promised them affluence, justice, and an end to discrimination. KAZOKU NO KUNI tells the story of one of their number, who returns for just a short period. For the first time in 25 years, Sonho is reunited with his family in Tokyo after being allowed to undergo an operation there. Sonho’s younger sister Rie is at the centre of the film, and is not hard to recognise as the director’s alter-ego. In her documentaries DEAR PYONGYANG and SONA, THE OTHER MYSELF, Yang Yonghi told the story of her own life, and how, at age six, she experienced the departure of her three older brothers, who left their family for Pyongyang.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Poongsan (2011)
Poongsan has the unenviable - and death-defying - job of delivering messages across the North and South Korean border to separated families. When South Korean government agents ask him to smuggle in In-ok, the lover of a high-ranking North Korean defector, into the South, the damsel and rescuer fall in love instead.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like The Transfer Student and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Transfer Student?
The closest matches to The Transfer Student are The Young One (1960), Salomé (2013) and Lorelei (2020). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Transfer Student?
Start with The Young One (1960), the closest match to The Transfer Student.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Transfer Student?
What Maisie Knew (2013), rated 7.1/10 by 466 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Transfer Student?
Humint (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Korean movies like The Transfer Student?
Yes: Serve the People (2022), The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well (1996) and My Name Is Loh Kiwan (2024).
How are movies similar to The Transfer Student chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Transfer Student, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.