Movies like Za honban: Aidoru kashu-hen (1987)
The best movies like Za honban: Aidoru kashu-hen (1987) are Teen Spirit (2019), Hounddog (2008) and One Million Yen Girl (2008). If Za honban: Aidoru kashu-hen 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 Death & Life of John F. Donovan (2019)6.9/10 from 735 votes
- NewestMagazine Dreams (2025)Released 2025
- In JapaneseOne Million Yen Girl (2008)Also in Japanese
Teen Spirit (2019)
A shy teenager living on the Isle of Wight dreams of pop stardom. With the help of an unlikely mentor, she enters a singing competition that will test her integrity, talent, and ambition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
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 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGracie (2007)
A teenager faces an uphill battle when she fights to give women the opportunity to play competitive soccer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Short History of the Long Road (2019)
Nola grew up living in a van with her father, Clint—two nomads against the world. When tragedy strikes, Nola must confront the reality of life on the road alone, learning to own her grief, her past, and her new destination.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSkin (2009)
Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTokyo Decadence (1992)
A submissive hooker goes about her trade, suffering abuse at the hands of Japanese salarymen and Yakuza types. She's unhappy about her work, and is apparently trying to find some sort of appeasement for the fact that her lover has married.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIntentions of Murder (1964)
The neglected common-law wife of a Japanese librarian is repeatedly harassed by a young man with a heart condition who seduces her with the prospect of a better life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHoney: Rise Up and Dance (2018)
Street dancer Skyler comes out of the shadow of her trained dancer sister, Tosha, & joins a dance competition with the Honey dance studio; the prize is a college scholarship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal (2008)
Based on a true story. Five high school cheerleaders, including the daughter of the school principal, run amok -- and teachers, parents and administrators allow them to get away with a wide range of scandalous behavior. Known as the "Fab Five," the girls disregard school rules, drink alcohol and post suggestive pictures on the Internet. But when the new cheerleading coach attempts to discipline them, her superiors ask her to resign.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies 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 thisThe Death & Life of John F. Donovan (2019)
A decade after the death of an American TV star, a young actor reminisces about the written correspondence he once shared with the former, as well as the impact those letters had on both their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAntiporno (2017)
Kyôko, a traumatized young Japanese girl, finds herself struggling with her self-confidence in her adult life. Growing up in a family without her mother and her sister, she constantly questions the rationale of sex and the notion of liberty in modern Japanese society.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCall Me Crazy: A Five Film (2013)
A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBattle of the Year (2013)
A down-on-his-luck coach is hired to prepare a team of the best American dancers for an international tournament that attracts all the best crews from around the world, but the Americans haven't won in fifteen years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPastoral: To Die in the Country (1974)
A director faces creative block while working on his latest film – a reimagination of his adolescence growing up in a mountain village in rural Japan.
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 thisMagazine Dreams (2025)
Aspiring bodybuilder Killian Maddox struggles to find human connection in an exploration of celebrity and violence. Nothing deters him from his fiercely protected dream of superstardom, not even the doctors who warn him of the permanent damage he causes to himself with his quest.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisRitual (2000)
A disillusioned filmmaker has an encounter with a young woman who has a ritual of repeating "Tomorrow is my birthday" everyday. He tries to communicate with her through his video camera.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Monk Farted (1993)
The story is about Nagatoshi, a handsome and sexy monk played by Kazuhiro Sano, who is struggling for the widow he loves. Foreshadowing the prophecy of the Great Kanto Earthquake, the film is a highly entertaining theatrical spectacle that depicts the human condition of a downtown area undergoing development and the efforts of men and women who rebel against it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Angel in September (1994)
One day, Hitomi observes her classmate Eriko stealing lipstick in a drugstore and follows her home. The two young women get to know and love each other. While the withdrawn Hitomi believes herself and Eriko to be reincarnations of angel warriors who once fought demon armies, her emancipated and apathetic friend wanders through life between sex contacts with older men and fear of falling into a boring bourgeois existence. The different futures of the two soon lead to tensions.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
End of the World (1995)
A fugitive man and woman (Kawase, Kawana) come to an island to retrieve their son (Iwasaki), who the woman has given to a foster family, but the son's foster parents are policemen (Ito)... The suspense surrounding the retrieval of the son is made unusual by the location shooting on the vast and desolate Miyakejima Island and leads to an allegorical drama about the essential desires of human beings. This was Kawase Yota's first appearance in a Zeze film, and he has since become a regular actor. The title of the film at the time of its first release was Sukebe Tenkomori.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
No Good Men (1995)
No Good Men follows Kumiko, a young and attractive woman that works at a travel agency, and moonlights as an insatiable, sex-hungry mistress.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Men's Nightless Castle (1998)
There is Miyoshi, who is extremely attached to Billy dolls (gay toys) in Shinjuku 2-chome. Every night, he invites men with Billy doll in hand. Fellow Billy doll lovers and sadists with a fish fetish caress Miyoshi. And before Miyoshi realizes he wants to become a Billy doll...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Parade (1995)
Mitsuhiro, an erotic manga artist, is instructed by editor-in-chief Shioda to write an erotic manga aimed at gays. He reluctantly agrees, but is unable to tell his father, Yumihiko, who lives with him. Yumihiko raised Mitsuhiro single-handedly while working at the village office. Mitsuhiro is grateful to his father. In reality, Mitsuhiro was gay. He has a faint crush on his best friend, Yutaka, but in the countryside he can't openly say he's gay, so he keeps it to himself. Mitsuhiro is daydreaming while watching Yutaka fishing in the river today. The two of them indulge in playing in the river naked with Yutaka...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Super Bodycon Office Lady: From Back to Front (1992)
Pinku distributed by Xces.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Bodycon Miniskirt Onanie Secretary (1992)
Yukiko Fujishiro, an enthusiastic secretary, has a cheerful personality and is popular within the company...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Real Act: Erogenous Zone Secretary (1992)
Once you bite into the secretary's sister, she won't let go!
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Raw Underwear in a White Coat, Thigh Licking (1995)
Ryoko is dispatched from the hospital to care for Tsuyoshi Tatsumi, a businessman who is nearing death...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Za honban: Aidoru kashu-hen?
The closest matches to Za honban: Aidoru kashu-hen are Teen Spirit (2019), Hounddog (2008) and One Million Yen Girl (2008). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Za honban: Aidoru kashu-hen?
Start with Teen Spirit (2019), the closest match to Za honban: Aidoru kashu-hen.
What is the highest-rated movie like Za honban: Aidoru kashu-hen?
The Death & Life of John F. Donovan (2019), rated 6.9/10 by 735 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Za honban: Aidoru kashu-hen?
Magazine Dreams (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Za honban: Aidoru kashu-hen?
Yes: One Million Yen Girl (2008), Tokyo Decadence (1992) and Intentions of Murder (1964).
How are movies similar to Za honban: Aidoru kashu-hen chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Za honban: Aidoru kashu-hen, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.