Movies like The Yellow Handkerchief (2011)
The best movies like The Yellow Handkerchief (2011) are The Wings of the Kirin (2012), Double Teamed! (2002) and Hello Sister, Goodbye Life (2006). If The Yellow Handkerchief hooked you with its tv movie and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Revenant (2015)7.5/10 from 19,934 votes
- NewestSome Nights I Feel Like Walking (2025)Released 2025
- In JapaneseThe Wings of the Kirin (2012)Also in Japanese
The 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 thisDouble Teamed! (2002)
Heather and Heidi play volleyball for their school team, when their family decides that they need to go to a bigger school so that they will have a better chance for scholarships. But at the new school, the twins are discovered by the basketball coach. Inspired by the true story of Heather and Heidi Burge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHello Sister, Goodbye Life (2006)
A college student must take care of her 7-year-old half sister after the death of their parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAurora Teagarden Mysteries: Haunted By Murder (2022)
A murder investigation is reignited in a house that is considered haunted by the Lawrenceton locals and where years ago Aurora and Sally, as teenagers, discovered a body.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSeeds of Yesterday (2015)
The Sheffield family reveal and go through some home truths as their middle child inherits the Foxworth mansion. The family's ghosts looming over, and more tragedies are in store as the curse lives on.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors (2015)
"Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors" is based on the inspiring true story of living legend Dolly Parton's remarkable upbringing. This once-in-a-lifetime movie special takes place inside the tight-knit Parton family as they struggle to overcome devastating tragedy and discover the healing power of love, faith and a raggedy patchwork coat that helped make Parton who she is today. The film is set in the Tennessee Great Smoky Mountains in 1955. It is neither a biopic nor a musical about Dolly's whole life and performing career, but rather a family-oriented faith-based story about the incidents in her and her family's life around the time she was nine years old.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSound of Christmas (2016)
Lizzie is a young piano teacher working at a music school while trying to save enough money for a Steinway piano. The school is gearing up for their major Christmas fundraiser and she has committed much of her time to plan the event. One afternoon, she meets Brad who takes an interest in her playing and asks if she will teach his uninterested teenage daughter. She begins to break through to the young girl, and sparks begin to fly with Brad, but she is shocked to find out that his interest is not solely in her playing, but in the property that houses the music school. She sets out to save the school and the event, but can she work things out with Brad?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMiss Marple: They Do It with Mirrors (1992)
At the insistence of Ruth Van Rydock, an old schoolfriend who is convinced that there is something wrong, Miss Marple agrees to visit 'Stonygates', the country house of Ruth's sister.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHarry and Meghan: Escaping the Palace (2021)
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are taking on the British monarchy in the third installment in Lifetime’s movie trilogy about the royal couple. The film explores what really happened inside the palace that drove Harry and Meghan to leave everything behind in order to make a future for themselves and their son Archie.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStargate SG-1: Children of the Gods (2009)
An alien similar to Ra appears out of the Stargate, killing five soldiers and kidnapping another, a year after the original Stargate mission. A new team is assembled, including some old members, and they go in search of the missing soldier in order to find out how Ra could still be alive. Meanwhile, the alien Goa'uld kidnap Sha're and Skaara, implanting them with symbiotes and making them Goa'uld hosts.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Wrinkle in Time (2003)
Meg and Charles Wallace are aided by Calvin and three interesting women in the search for their father who disappeared during a government experiment. Their travels take them around the universe to a place unlike any other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Assault (2014)
After a cheerleader is sexually assaulted by the high school football team, she must overcome her shame and use the evidence gathered from the subsequent social media firestorm to piece together the night that she can't remember in her fight for justice. Based on the true story of the Steubenville, Ohio rape case.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Bridge Part 2 (2016)
The second-half of the movie picks up in the present day, seven years later, with Ryan returning home from being on the road touring as a professional singer and Molly working at her father's corporation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Girl (2012)
Director Alfred Hitchcock is revered as one of the greatest creative minds in the history of cinema. Known for his psychological thrillers, Hitchcock’s leading ladies were cool, beautiful and preferably blonde. One such actress was Tippi Hedren, an unknown fashion model given her big break when Hitchcock’s wife saw her on a TV commercial. Brought to Universal Studios, Hedren was shocked when the director, at the peak of his career, quickly cast her to star in his next feature, 1963’s The Birds. Little did Hedren know that as ambitious and terrifying as the production would be to shoot, the most daunting aspect of the film ended up coming from behind the camera.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFull-Court Miracle (2003)
Inspired by the true story of University of Virginia basketball star Lamont Carr, the film centers on a group of young Jewish basketball players who search for a coach to help them out of a slump. The main character Alex Schlotsky is inspired by the true story of Alex Barbag and Chad Korpeck.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisPokémon: The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon (2006)
A Pokémon scientist named Dr. Yung has invented a Mirage System that can recreate extinct Pokémon. Ash, Misty, and Professor Oak are asked to help test it out, but the Mirage System is suddenly taken over by a being called the Mirage Master! It's up to Ash and his friends to stop this mysterious villain - but when the Mirage Master steals classified Pokémon data and created a Mirage Pokémon so powerful that Ash and Pikachu can't defeat it, will out heroes still find a way to save the day?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBleach the Movie: Fade to Black (2008)
A strange disturbance in the World of the Living sends Ichigo and Kon to the Soul Society, where the Seireitei has been devastated by an explosion of reishi and Rukia is missing. Stranger still, none of the Soul Reapers remember Ichigo, and they think he’s the one responsible for the destruction. Now on the run, Ichigo is forced into a lonely battle in order to find Rukia and stop the real culprits!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHead Full of Honey (2018)
A young girl tries to help her grandfather, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, navigate his increasing forgetfulness, and ends up going on a remarkable adventure with him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBLAME! (2017)
In the distant technological future, civilization has reached its ultimate Net-based form. An "infection" in the past caused the automated systems to spiral out of order, resulting in a multi-leveled city structure that replicates itself infinitely in all directions. Now humanity has lost access to the city's controls, and is hunted down and purged by the defense system known as the Safeguard. In a tiny corner of the city, a little enclave known as the Electro-Fishers is facing eventual extinction, trapped between the threat of the Safeguard and dwindling food supplies. A girl named Zuru goes on a journey to find food for her village, only to inadvertently cause doom when an observation tower senses her and summons a Safeguard pack to eliminate the threat. With her companions dead and all escape routes blocked, the only thing that can save her now is the sudden arrival of Killy the Wanderer, on his quest for the Net Terminal Genes, the key to restoring order to the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisThe Twelve Jurors (1963)
Did an 18-year-old immigrant from the slums murder his father in cold blood? The twelve jurors must find a unanimous verdict.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Yolo (2024)
After an argument with her younger sister, Le Ying moves out on her own. She meets a boxing trainer and starts boxing.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInsomnia (2002)
Two Los Angeles homicide detectives are dispatched to a northern town where the sun doesn't set to investigate the methodical murder of a local teen.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSome Nights I Feel Like Walking (2025)
In the seedy underbelly of Manila, teenage runaway Zion links up with a group of queer street hustlers who lead him on a heated journey of self-discovery in the tempting and dangerous nocturnal city.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Lake House (2006)
When architect Alex Wyler moves into an unusual glass house on stilts over a lake, he discovers a note from the previous tenant in the mailbox--but no one's lived in the house for years. He replies and soon discovers that he's corresponding with a doctor named Kate Forster. Their correspondence, only through the 'magical' mailbox, turns romantic and their paths cross in unexpected ways, but when they try to truly connect, danger looms. They must try to unravel the mystery behind their extraordinary romance before it's too late.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSe busca novio… para mi mujer (2017)
Daniel reached the limit of his patience with his wife. The extremely temperamental Natalia is always protesting. But Daniel does not have the courage to ask for a divorce. Thus, he accepts the advice of his friends to hire a famous local Don Juan to seduce his wife and be she who deserted him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Apthamitra (2004)
Apthamitra movie is based on Nagavalli (Dancer). Ramesh, an engineer buys the palace. Everyone believes that the spirit of Nagavalli, a dancer is captivated in a room of that palace. Ganga she opens the locked room with the help of Soumya. Then start the troubles. Vijay who came to ramesh house for holidays.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Salaam Namaste (2005)
Two young Indian expatriates in Melbourne, Australia, Nick, a chef and radio host Ambar, who decide to live together without marriage, leading to conflict and unexpected parenthood when Ambar gets pregnant.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Revenant (2015)
In the 1820s, a frontiersman, Hugh Glass, sets out on a path of vengeance against those who left him for dead after a bear mauling.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSatyameva Jeyate (2009)
Satyameva Jayate is a Telugu film and remake of 2004 Hindi Movie Khakee, starring Dr. Rajasekhar, Shivaji, Sai Kiran, Neetu Chandra, Sanjana and Sheryl Pinto. It was directed by Jeevita with music composed by Chinna. The movie didn't farewell at the box office.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Yellow Handkerchief?
The closest matches to The Yellow Handkerchief are The Wings of the Kirin (2012), Double Teamed! (2002) and Hello Sister, Goodbye Life (2006). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Yellow Handkerchief?
Start with The Wings of the Kirin (2012), the closest match to The Yellow Handkerchief.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Yellow Handkerchief?
The Revenant (2015), rated 7.5/10 by 19,934 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Yellow Handkerchief?
Some Nights I Feel Like Walking (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like The Yellow Handkerchief?
Yes: The Wings of the Kirin (2012), Pokémon: The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon (2006) and Bleach the Movie: Fade to Black (2008).
How are movies similar to The Yellow Handkerchief chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Yellow Handkerchief, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.