Movies like Swallowtail Butterfly (1996)
The best movies like Swallowtail Butterfly (1996) are All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001), Hana & Alice (2004) and Fish Story (2009). If Swallowtail Butterfly hooked you with its drama and crime, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedAll About Lily Chou-Chou (2001)7.5/10 from 331 votes
- NewestHappyend (2024)Released 2024
- In JapaneseAll About Lily Chou-Chou (2001)Also in Japanese
- Same seriesAll About Lily Chou-Chou (2001)いわい しゅんじ
All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001)
Charts the troubled teenage years of students Yūichi Hasumi and Shūsuke Hoshino, exploring the shifting and complex power dynamics of their relationship against the backdrop of Yūichi's love for the dreamy and abstract music of pop star Lily Chou-Chou.
Why it matches: Same series: いわい しゅんじ · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHana & Alice (2004)
Two teenage best pals attracted to the same boy end up scrambling his life after he walks into a door and is knocked unconscious.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFish Story (2009)
A rock band writes a song called "Fish Story" that is foretold to save the world. The song exceeds the boundaries of space and time and ties people and their stories together.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both music & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPicnic (1996)
Believing that the world will end that very day, three mental patients Coco, Tsumuji, and Satoru set out upon a journey. Walking upon the tops of the walls of the city, they seek to find a picnic spot with the best vantage point to view the final event.
Why it matches: Same series: いわい しゅんじ · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOne Million Yen Girl (2008)
A 21-year-old girl is released from prison, only to deal with the neighborhood gossip about her and family conflicts. She decides to save one million yen, move to where no one knows her and keep repeating the process.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisApril Story (1998)
In spring, a girl leaves the island of Hokkaido to attend university in Tokyo. Once there, she is asked to reveal why she wanted to go there in the first place.
Why it matches: Same series: いわい しゅんじ · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLinda Linda Linda (2005)
Only three days before the school festival, a newly formed high school band rushes to put together a set for their big show — including a hit single by '80s by the Japanese punk rock band The Blue Hearts.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both music & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisElectric Dragon 80000V (2001)
A violent, guitar-playing, electrically charged boxer faces off against an electronic wizard half-merged with a metallic Buddha.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both science fiction & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Bride for Rip Van Winkle (2016)
A woman hires actors and strangers to pretend to be her friends and family at her wedding.
Why it matches: Same series: いわい しゅんじ · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlue Spring (2001)
Soon after being named the new leader of his high school's gang system, Kujo grows bored with the violence and hatred that surround him. He wants desperately to abandon his post… but his once-enviable position of power has a strange way of making him feel powerless.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDolls (2002)
Dolls takes puppeteering as its overriding motif, which relates thematically to the action provided by the live characters. Chief among those tales is the story of Matsumoto and Sawako, a young couple whose relationship is about to be broken apart by the former's parents, who have insisted their son take part in an arranged marriage to his boss' daughter.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKids Return (1996)
Shinji and Masaru spend most of their school days harassing fellow classmates and playing pranks. They drop out and Shinji becomes a small-time boxer, while Masaru joins up with a local yakuza gang. However, the world is a tough place.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKamikaze Girls (2004)
Momoko, a strange and seemingly emotionless girl obsessed with 18th century France, befriends a Yanki biker and the two experience the ups and downs of their unusual lives in a rural Japanese town.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlue (2003)
An introverted schoolgirl falls in love and starts a relationship with one of her classmates. Set in a small seaside town in Japan.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Swing Girls (2004)
A group of delinquent high school girls form a band when they accidentally poison their school's brass band and have to replace them.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & music
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisSolanin (2010)
Meiko and Taneda are a couple graduated from university two years ago. Unhappy with their lives, Meiko quits her job and encourages Taneda to have his band become professional.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & music
Air Doll (2009)
A life-size, inflatable sex doll suddenly comes to life one day. Without her owner knowing, she goes for a walk around town and falls in love with Junichi. She starts to date Junichi and gets a job at the same store where he works. Everything seems to be going perfectly for her until something unexpected happens.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEureka (2001)
In rural Japan, the survivors of a tragedy converge and attempt to overcome their damaged selves, all while a serial killer is on the loose.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLove & Pop (1998)
Tokyo schoolgirl Hiromi and her friends engage in a practice known as enjo kosai, or "compensated dating", where older men pay young girls for dates. Hiromi plunges deeper into this world to raise money for an expensive ring.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMemories of Matsuko (2006)
While combing through the belongings of his recently deceased aunt, Matsuko, nephew Sho pieces together the crucial events that sank Matsuko's life into a despairing tragedy.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHarmful Insect (2002)
13-year-old Sachiko is about to encounter the most difficult moments in her young life. Her father abandons her and her mother attempts to commit suicide by slashing her wrist. Her teacher, whom she relies on heavily, leaves for northern Japan to take another job. Other students start to gossip about Sachiko and her former teacher. Sachiko then drops out of school and attempts to find herself.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
After the Rain (2000)
A group of travelers is stranded in a small country inn when the river floods during heavy rains. As the bad weather continues, tensions rise amongst the trapped travelers.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMoving (1993)
Physically separated from her father and at odds with her distraught mother, a girl must negotiate her own passage to maturity.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBurst City (1982)
Set in a barren, futuristic Tokyo of highways and wastelands, a rowdy group of punk bands and their fans gather to protest slow, boring, Japanese living.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both music & science fiction
Happyend (2024)
In a near-future Japanese city bracing for a devastating earthquake, a group of teenage friends navigate personal struggles and fractured bonds amid rising tension.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTokyo Tribe (2014)
In an alternate Japan, territorial street gangs form opposing factions collectively known as the Tokyo Tribes. Merra, leader of the Wu-Ronz tribe of Bukuro, joins forces with heavy-hitting gangster Buppa of Buppa Town. With Buppa's support, Merra aims to initiate a gang war between the Wu-Ronz and the Musashino Saru, and in a confrontation between the two attempts to kill Kai of the Musashino Saru. The inadvertent murder of Kai's friend Tera (a Musashino Saru member beloved by all Tribes since before their formation) leads to the joining of forces between all of the Tribes in an all-out war against Merra and Buppa.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like this009-1: The End of the Beginning (2013)
In a universe where the Cold War never ended and growing conflicts result in the rapid advancement of technological warfare, the cyborg spy Mylene Hoffman of the 00 Organization battles the agents of the Eastern block in a game of high tech espionage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisCode 8 Part II (2024)
In a world where superpowered people are heavily policed by robots, an ex-con teams up with a drug lord he despises to protect a teen from a corrupt cop.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGate of Flesh (1964)
In the shady black markets and bombed-out hovels of post–World War II Tokyo, a tough band of prostitutes eke out a dog-eat-dog existence, maintaining tenuous friendships and a semblance of order in a world of chaos. But when a renegade ex-soldier stumbles into their midst, lusts and loyalties clash, with tragic results. With Gate of Flesh, visionary director Seijun Suzuki delivers a whirlwind of social critique and pulp drama, shot through with brilliant colors and raw emotions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Swallowtail Butterfly?
The closest matches to Swallowtail Butterfly are All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001), Hana & Alice (2004) and Fish Story (2009). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Swallowtail Butterfly?
People who watched Swallowtail Butterfly most often go on to Hana & Alice (2004), Fish Story (2009) and One Million Yen Girl (2008).
What is the highest-rated movie like Swallowtail Butterfly?
All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001), rated 7.5/10 by 331 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Swallowtail Butterfly?
Happyend (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Is Swallowtail Butterfly part of a series?
Yes. It belongs to いわい しゅんじ, which includes All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001), Picnic (1996), April Story (1998) and A Bride for Rip Van Winkle (2016).
Are there Japanese movies like Swallowtail Butterfly?
Yes: All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001), Hana & Alice (2004) and Fish Story (2009).
How are movies similar to Swallowtail Butterfly chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Swallowtail Butterfly, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.