Movies like Odoru Chibusa (1984)
The best movies like Odoru Chibusa (1984) are Brand Upon the Brain! (2007), Framed for Murder: A Fixer Upper Mystery (2017) and The Caveman's Valentine (2001). If Odoru Chibusa hooked you with its drama and mystery, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Secret Life of Bees (2008)7.5/10 from 603 votes
- NewestRiver Wild (2023)Released 2023
- In JapanesePainful Bliss: Final Twist (1977)Also in Japanese
Brand Upon the Brain! (2007)
After returning home to his long-estranged mother upon a request from her deathbed, a man raised by his parents in an orphanage has to confront the childhood memories that have long haunted him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFramed for Murder: A Fixer Upper Mystery (2017)
In the small resort town of Lighthouse Cove, everyone knows that the best man for the job is a woman. And that woman is Shannon Hughes, owner of a construction company and an expert in Victorian home restoration and renovation. Through her renovations she will find clues to uncover the house’s secret past and in turn become an unlikely sleuth to help crack these unsolved mysteries
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Caveman's Valentine (2001)
Romulus, a misunderstood musician turned recluse hiding from personal demons in a New York City cave, finds the frozen body of a young drifter in a tree. The authorities, including his police officer daughter, claim the death is accidental. Romulus is convinced the man was murdered by a prominent art photographer but how can he prove he's right when everyone thinks he's insane?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
SnoozefestMovies like thisTriage (2009)
The wife of a photojournalist sets out to discover why he came home from a recent assignment without his colleague.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGarage Sale Mystery: A Case Of Murder (2017)
Jenn buys an old reel-to-reel recorder at a garage sale only to find that it includes the sound of a man pleading for his life. When the former owner of the recorder, a retired therapist, is found murdered in a patient’s apartment, Jenn’s investigation leads to other patients whose love lives are more entangled than she was first led to believe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRemember (2015)
With the aid of a fellow Auschwitz survivor and a hand-written letter, an elderly man with dementia goes in search of the person responsible for the death of his family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFedora (1978)
Down-on-his-luck Hollywood producer Barry 'Dutch' Detweiler attempts to lure Fedora, a famous but reclusive film actress, out of retirement, only to discover the horrifying truth behind her success.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Deep End of the Ocean (1999)
A three-year-old boy disappears during his mother's high school reunion. Nine years later, by chance, he turns up in the town in which the family has just relocated.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Truth About Emanuel (2013)
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBruised (2021)
Jackie Justice is a mixed martial arts fighter who leaves the sport in disgrace. Down on her luck and simmering with rage and regret years after the fight, she's coaxed into a brutal underground fight by her manager and boyfriend Desi and grabs the attention of a fight league promoter who promises Jackie a life back in the Octagon. But the road to redemption becomes unexpectedly personal when Manny - the son she gave up as an infant - shows up at her doorstep. A triumphant story of a fighter who reclaims her power, in and out of the ring, when everyone has counted her out
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 thisSuburbia (1984)
When household tensions and a sense of worthlessness overcome Evan, he finds escape when he clings with the orphans of a throw-away society. The runaways hold on to each other like a family until a tragedy tears them apart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEnd of Sentence (2019)
Newly widowed Frank Fogle embarks on a journey to Ireland to scatter his late wife’s ashes. His estranged son, Sean, recently released from prison, agrees to join only when his father promises that they’ll never see each other again following the trip. After revelations surface about an old flame of Frank’s wife and a charming hitchhiker with plans of her own intervenes, father and son find themselves drawn together in unexpected ways.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLucky Them (2013)
More interested in partying and flirting with young musicians than work, veteran rock journalist Ellie Klug has one last chance to prove her value to her magazine’s editor: a no-stone-unturned search to discover what really happened to long lost rock god, Matt Smith, who also happens to be her ex-boyfriend. Teaming up with an eccentric amateur documentary filmmaker, Ellie hits the road in search of answers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTalhotBlond (2012)
Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStowaway (2022)
A tenacious party girl fights to survive after three thieves commandeer her luxury yacht. Unable to escape and trapped on the yacht at high seas, the prey becomes the hunter as she turns the tables on the intruders and takes matters into her own hands.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Secret Life of Bees (2008)
Set in South Carolina in 1964, this is the tale of Lily Owens a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother. To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father, Lily flees with Rosaleen, her caregiver and only friend, to a South Carolina town that holds the secret to her mother's past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisRiver Wild (2023)
Follows a pair of siblings who love but distrust each other as they embark on a white-water rafting trip with a small group. One of their friends from childhood turns out to be more dangerous than he appears.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPainful Bliss: Final Twist (1977)
A young executive has a really bad night after an encounter with a crazed bisexual wannabe yakuza and his horny girlfriend.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
My Favorite Wife is Addicted to Sex (1997)
Hinako, a married woman, feels unsatisfied with her married life with her husband, Takashi, so she suddenly declares a domestic separation and indulges in an affair with Shima, her senior from high school. Meanwhile, Hinako was confused when Yuri, whom she met at her favorite snack bar, asked her out.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Married Woman Boutique: Women Indulging in Scandalous Love Affair (2002)
Kimie steps into a boutique each day to support her household in place of her husband, who is unable to work due to heart disease—while her own spirit aches with longing. She surrenders willingly to the irresistible pull of Tsukuda, the dashing apparel‐maker’s salesman whose whispered promises slip between her legs like silk. Kenji, burning to reclaim his former glory, watches his world unravel when he discovers the affair that simmered beneath Kimie’s restraint. And as the truth of Kimie’s glowing secret—her pregnancy—dawns on him, his reproaches choke in his throat, meeting instead a startling, fervent embrace from the woman he thought he knew…
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Invitation Girl 2 (2019)
A man prepares a surprise for his wife on their 5-year-anniversary. One day, a couple, a man in the middle of a divorce and his mistress, come to visit. An entangled romantic web ensues.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Demeking (1998)
When he is hit by a car on the street, the young man Daikoku foresees the monster Demking appearing at the end of the century. In preparation for the coming confrontation with the Demeking, he organizes a modern-day Seven Lucky Gods composed entirely of antisocial people. This is a utopian epic that, despite the ridiculousness of the story, is the most powerful depiction of the motifs seen in the first two films, which attempt to play on the sense of apocalypse through unrealistic imagination, while staying within a tenuous sense of reality.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Erotic In-Laws (2019)
A man who loves pictures of Japanese women falls in love with one of the girls in his photos. He heads to Japan to find her and happens to stumble across her in the street. They begin to date and eventually he meets her mother, who is shocked to see the Korean man looks like her late husband in his youth. The widow is attracted to him, but he is attracted to her, too.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Boys of Cellblock Q (1992)
The Boys of Cellblock Q is set within the bowels of the Sunnyvale Labor Farm. Without the presence of women, the prisoners indulge in regular trysts with one another, make full use out of the jail's supply of priests, turn the eyes several policemen, and help a young convict learn the ins and outs of the prison community.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Sweet Sex (2017)
A famous patissier and his women enjoy work and sex. Neung-geum has dreamt of being a pattisier. She stops supporting her boyfriends school bills. Woo-hyeon is a famous dessert patissier and he has secretive sex to get secret recipes but to him this is just a way to find sweetness. Neung-geum learns how to make dessert from Woo-hyeon. What kind of sex will they have today? What flavor?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Red Bikini (2017)
A couples' trip to Pattaya turns into hell when each others' secrets come out into the open! Soo-jeong and Tae-hyeon decide to go abroad with Sang-jin and Ji-hyeon to celebrate Ji-hyeon's birthday. However, Ji-hyeon can't make it last minute and the three set off. However the local tour guide tricks them into losing everything they've got. Then they meet Lizzie, who Sang-jin falls for right away. They cross the line and Soo-jeong who secretly had a crush on Sang-jin, films them quietly. She then threatens Sang-jin to tell Ji-hyeon with the video of their affair and demands he takes her in. Tae-hyeon finds out about everything and the dreamy vacation turns into hell...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
I Have Two Wives (2019)
Min-ji is an ordinary housewife with a dark secret. Unlike the wishes of her husband, In-gyu, who has a business running resorts, they don't have a child yet. They've tried test tubes and home remedies, but nothing has worked. Her husband and her in-laws finally decide to get a surrogate mother, and Min-ji has no choice but to agree to it, as she is worn out from their pressure. Hometown friend Jeong-ah comes knocking on the door. Min-ji is uneasy with Jeong-ah around, as she knows her past secrets, including the time she lived with someone else and had an abortion. On the other hand, In-gyu has completely fallen for bold and sexy Jeong-ah. Like a crow that nests in another's nest, Jeong-ah takes over Min-ji's place slowly and gradually. Min-ji is driven into a corner, so she meets Jeong-ah's husband, Joo-sik, to stop her. However, she falls for his trap and is used to replace his wife who ran away from home.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Odoru Chibusa?
The closest matches to Odoru Chibusa are Brand Upon the Brain! (2007), Framed for Murder: A Fixer Upper Mystery (2017) and The Caveman's Valentine (2001). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Odoru Chibusa?
Start with Brand Upon the Brain! (2007), the closest match to Odoru Chibusa.
What is the highest-rated movie like Odoru Chibusa?
The Secret Life of Bees (2008), rated 7.5/10 by 603 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Odoru Chibusa?
River Wild (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Odoru Chibusa?
Yes: Painful Bliss: Final Twist (1977), My Favorite Wife is Addicted to Sex (1997) and Married Woman Boutique: Women Indulging in Scandalous Love Affair (2002).
How are movies similar to Odoru Chibusa chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Odoru Chibusa, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.