Movies like Onna no Iji (1971)
The best movies like Onna no Iji (1971) are Tigertail (2020), Winged Creatures (2009) and The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972). If Onna no Iji hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Ballad of Narayama (1983)7.5/10 from 213 votes
- NewestObserving as the World Burns (2026)Released 2026
- In JapaneseThe Ballad of Narayama (1983)Also in Japanese
Tigertail (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 thisWinged Creatures (2009)
A psychotic man opens fire in a diner, murdering numerous people before killing himself. The survivors struggle in different ways following this horrendous event: a doctor doubts his own instincts and elects to use an experimental medical procedure on his wife, while a gambler believes he's on a lucky streak. A waitress begins engaging in promiscuous sex, and a young girl whose father is among the dead gains unexpected fame.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies 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 thisGigi & Nate (2022)
A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFast Girls (2012)
A street smart runner develops an intense rivalry with an equally ambitious wealthy young athlete.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHands of Stone (2016)
The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNaked as We Came (2013)
After an unexpected phone call, Laura and her brother Elliot rush to their family’s country estate to find their mother, Lilly, gravely ill and living with a handsome young stranger named Ted. Estranged for some time, their mother’s condition sets Laura and Elliot on a path to realizing where their own lives have gone wrong.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Ballad of Narayama (1983)
In a small village in a valley everyone who reaches the age of 70 must leave the village and go to a certain mountain top to die. If anyone should refuse they would disgrace their family. Old Orin is 69. This winter it is her turn to go to the mountain. But first she must make sure that her eldest son Tatsuhei finds a wife.
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 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 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 thisPassion (2008)
A young couple's announcement of their engagement to their friends is followed by a series of interactions and conflicts that forces everyone to reflect on their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEffie Gray (2014)
A look at the mysterious relationship between Victorian art critic John Ruskin and his teenage bride Effie Gray.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBride of the Incredible Hulk (1980)
In one of the saga's most emotional stories, David Banner travels to Hawaii to find Dr. Caroline Fields, a psychiatrist who has developed a hypnotherapy technique that could cure him. Discovering they share the burden of an incurable condition—Caroline suffers from a terminal illness—the two fall in love and marry, offering Banner a glimpse of happiness. However, tragedy looms when Jack McGee's relentless pursuit and a devastating hurricane threaten their brief moment of peace.
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 Kindness of Strangers (2019)
Clara and her two sons escape from her abusive husband with little more than their car and plan to start over in New York. After the car towed away, the family meets Alice, who gets them into an emergency shelter. While stealing food at a Russian restaurant called ‘Winter Palace’, Clara meets Marc, who has been given the chance to help the old eatery regain its former glory. The ‘Winter Palace’ soon becomes a place of unexpected encounters between people who are all undergoing some sort of crisis and whom fate has now brought together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAbove the Rim (1994)
Story of a promising high school basketball star and his relationships with two brothers, one a drug dealer and the other a former basketball star fallen on hard times and now employed as a security guard.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHoly Lands (2019)
When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDisgrace (2008)
Disgrace is the story of a South African professor of English who loses everything: his reputation, his job, his peace of mind, his good looks, his dreams of artistic success, and finally even his ability to protect his cherished daughter. After having an affair with a student, he moves to the Eastern Cape, where he gets caught up in a mess of post-apartheid politics.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVltava po válce (1949)
A 4-year-old girl cries, lost in the city. A Soviet soldier on a ferry takes her in and takes her to her home village.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
My Giraffe (2017)
Dikkertje Dap was born on the same day as Raf the giraffe. Dikkertje can often be found at the zoo, because Raf is his best friend. They are inseparable, until Dikkertje goes to school for the first time and finds out giraffes can’t go to school. Dikkertje dearly misses Raf, but also experiences exciting new things. He even makes a new friend: Yous. Raf misses Dikkertje too. So Dikkertje devises a plan to bring the giraffe to school and introduce his two friends to each other.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Dante's Inferno (1911)
A two-reel adaptation of Dante Alighieri's Inferno from the Divine Comedy by Helios Film. It is less well-known than the five-reel feature produced the same year by Milano Films, but it was released earlier in 1911.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Little Drummer Boy (1968)
After being kidnapped and escaping, young drummer boy Aaron searches for his camel and finds him in the Nativity of the Baby Jesus. Aaron gives Baby Jesus the only gift he has, a song on his drum.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisObserving as the World Burns (2026)
Observing as the World Burns: Poems is an evocative, introspective short film that transforms lines of verse into raw visual poetry—confronting the dual forces of personal introspection and outward chaos. Anchored by cinematic performances, layered voice-over, and an emotive soundscape, the film embodies the tension between witnessing life’s unraveling and finding meaning within it. Rather than dramatizing action, this film immerses the viewer in the experience of attention—the act of watching, contemplating, and articulating what it means to be alive. At the same time, everything feels like it’s burning. It is both a cinematic poem and a visual diary—an invitation to witness, feel, and reflect alongside the narrator.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Dogwood Tree (2010)
A young girl tries to maintain a long-distance relationship with an aspiring fisherman.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSpirits of the Dead (1968)
Anthology film from three European directors based on stories by Edgar Allan Poe: a cruel countess haunted by a ghostly horse, a sadistic young man haunted by his double, and an alcoholic actor haunted by the Devil.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOde to Billy Joe (1976)
Set in sultry 1950s Mississippi, two teenagers grapple with surging hormones and the enticing promise of love, unknowing of the tragedy that looms ahead.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Two Horses of Genghis Khan (2009)
An old, broken morin khurr (horse head fiddle) compels renowned Mongolian singer Urna Chahar Tugchi to take a road journey to Ulan Bator and the steppes of Mongolia.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Paradise Lost? (2015)
After discovering that John Milton is buried within London's Barbican grounds, Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard reimagined his epic poem ‘Paradise Lost’ as part of Doug Aitken's Station to Station project. The piece uses the architecture and atmosphere of the Barbican to update the story, which is told in three parts.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Onna no Iji and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Onna no Iji?
The closest matches to Onna no Iji are Tigertail (2020), Winged Creatures (2009) and The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Onna no Iji?
Start with Tigertail (2020), the closest match to Onna no Iji.
What is the highest-rated movie like Onna no Iji?
The Ballad of Narayama (1983), rated 7.5/10 by 213 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Onna no Iji?
Observing as the World Burns (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Onna no Iji?
Yes: The Ballad of Narayama (1983), Passion (2008) and Tokyo Fist (1995).
How are movies similar to Onna no Iji chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Onna no Iji, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.