Movies like Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931)
The best movies like Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931) are Cast Away (2000), Rip Girls (2000) and Adrift (2018). If Tabu: A Story of the South Seas hooked you with its romance and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedSome Like It Hot (1959)8.1/10 from 4,062 votes
- NewestMy Penguin Friend (2024)Released 2024
Cast Away (2000)
Chuck Noland, a top international manager for FedEx, and Kelly, a Ph.D. student, are in love and heading towards marriage. Then Chuck's plane to Malaysia crashes at sea during a terrible storm. He's the only survivor, and finds himself marooned on a desolate island. With no way to escape, Chuck must find ways to survive in his new home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRip Girls (2000)
A teen-age girl and her father come to an island on Hawaii, they find a closer relationship to each other and think about changing the island. During her adventures, Sydney finds friends, a new hobby with her fantastic photography, and the truth about her mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAdrift (2018)
Tami Oldham and Richard Sharp couldn't anticipate that they would be sailing directly into one of the most catastrophic hurricanes in recorded history. In the aftermath of the storm, Tami awakens to find Richard badly injured and their boat in ruins. With no hope of rescue, Tami must now find the strength and determination to save herself and the only man she has ever loved.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last Song (2010)
A drama centered on a rebellious girl who is sent to a Southern beach town for the summer to stay with her father. Through their mutual love of music, the estranged duo learn to reconnect.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTanna (2015)
In a traditional tribal society in the South Pacific, a young girl, Wawa, falls in love with her chief’s grandson, Dain. When an inter-tribal war escalates, Wawa is unknowingly betrothed as part of a peace deal. The young lovers run away, refusing her arranged fate. They must choose between their hearts and the future of the tribe, while the villagers must wrestle with preserving their traditional culture and adapting it to the increasing outside demands for individual freedom.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Journey of Natty Gann (1985)
America is in the depths of the Great Depression. Families drift apart when faraway jobs beckon. A courageous young girl confronts overwhelming odds when she embarks on a cross-country search for her father. During her odyssey, she forms a close bond with two diverse traveling companions: a magnificent, protective wolf, and a hardened drifter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNobody Has to Know (2022)
After a stroke and no memories from his past, Phil encounters Millie who inhabits a desert part of Isle of Lewis. She will shortly entrust him with his deepest secret : they were in love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Poseidon Adventure (1972)
When their ocean liner capsizes, a group of passengers struggle to survive and escape.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisReap the Wild Wind (1942)
The Florida Keys in 1840, where the implacable hurricanes of the Caribbean scream, where the salvagers of Key West, like the intrepid and beautiful Loxi Claiborne and her crew, reap, aboard frail schooners, the harvest of the wild wind, facing the shark teeth of the reefs to rescue the sailors and the cargo from the shipwrecks caused by the scavengers of the sea.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAutumn in New York (2000)
Will Keane, a Manhattan restaurateur, is content with his playboy lifestyle until he meets Charlotte Fielding, a free-spirited young woman. Together the pair pursue a passionate affair that forces them both to reevaluate what they want out of life, even as fate threatens to steal away their future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReturn to the Blue Lagoon (1991)
In this sequel to the 1980 classic, two children are stranded on a beautiful island in the South Pacific. With no adults to guide them, the two make a simple life together and eventually become tanned teenagers in love.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKing Kong (2005)
In 1933 New York, an overly ambitious movie producer coerces his cast and hired ship crew to travel to mysterious Skull Island, where they encounter Kong, a giant ape who is immediately smitten with the leading lady.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUntamed Heart (1993)
Caroline, a young waitress who seems to have bad taste in men, is on her way home one night when thugs attempt to rape her. Adam, the mysterious busboy who works at the same diner, helps fight off the assailants, and she begins a relationship with him -- but not all their fellow Minnesotans are happy for them. Meanwhile, the couple face their own difficulties when Caroline finds about Adam's past, including his unique health condition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain (1995)
Two teen girls, one from the city, one from the country, try to find the hidden gold of Bear Mountain learning about friendship, loyalty and courage on the way.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Girl from the Song (2017)
A young musician travels to Burning Man, a psychedelic festival in the middle of the Nevada desert, in an attempt to get the impetuous girl he has fallen in love with.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNorth Shore (1987)
On a small stretch of coastline as powerful as a man's will, Rick Kane came to surf the big waves. He found a woman who would show him how to survive, and a challenge unlike any other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisEndless Night (2015)
Ellesmere Island, northern Canada, 1908. Josephine, a brave but naive woman, embarks on a dangerous journey through inhospitable regions in search of her husband, the explorer Robert Peary, who tries to find a route to the North Pole.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJacob (1994)
Isaac's son Jacob deprives his brother Esau of his birthright and has to flee for his life. He finds shelter with his uncle Laban, but is himself deceived. Finally, Jacob has to face both his uncle and brother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Penguin Friend (2024)
A lost penguin rescued from an oil spill transforms the life of a heartbroken fisherman. They become unlikely friends, so bonded that even the vast ocean cannot divide them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGreystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984)
A shipping disaster in the 19th Century has stranded a man and woman in the wilds of Africa. The lady is pregnant, and gives birth to a son in their tree house. Soon after, a family of apes stumble across the house and in the ensuing panic, both parents are killed. A female ape takes the tiny boy as a replacement for her own dead infant, and raises him as her son. Twenty years later, Captain Phillippe D'Arnot discovers the man who thinks he is an ape. Evidence in the tree house leads him to believe that he is the direct descendant of the Earl of Greystoke, and thus takes it upon himself to return the man to civilization.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBefore Sunset (2004)
Nine years later, Jesse travels across Europe giving readings from a book he wrote about the night he spent in Vienna with Celine. After his reading in Paris, Celine finds him, and they spend part of the day together before Jesse has to again leave for a flight. They are both in relationships now, and Jesse has a son, but as their strong feelings for each other start to return, both confess a longing for more.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEve on the Road (1968)
Mona is torn between the love she has for Khaled, and her utter abhorrence of the male-dominant practices. When Khaled sweet-talks her into believing he is a liberal man, she marries him, only to be shocked by his real self and his controlling tendencies.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
Muriel's Wedding (1994)
Socially awkward Muriel Heslop wants nothing more than to get married. Unfortunately, due to her oppressive politician father, Muriel has never even been on a date. Ostracized by her more socially adept friends, Muriel runs into fellow outcast Rhonda Epinstalk, and the two move from their small Australian town to the big city of Sydney, where Muriel changes her name and begins the arduous task of redesigning her life to match her fantasies.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Very Jealous Wife (1969)
Fatima grows jealous because her husband Hassan is a lawyer whose work conditions compel him to deal with many women, including the dancer Souad, whose relationship with Hassan makes matters worse between him and his wife.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
Holly Golightly is an eccentric New York City playgirl determined to marry a Brazilian millionaire. But when young writer Paul Varjak moves into her apartment building, her past threatens to get in their way.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAnatomy of a Murder (1959)
Semi-retired Michigan lawyer Paul Biegler takes the case of Army Lt. Manion, who murdered a local innkeeper after his wife claimed that he raped her. Over the course of an extensive trial, Biegler parries with District Attorney Lodwick and out-of-town prosecutor Claude Dancer to set his client free, but his case rests on the victim's mysterious business partner, who's hiding a dark secret.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHikaya min Baladina (1969)
The mayor of an Upper Egyptian village has monopoly over beans which harms the simple villagers while getting high profits for the mayor. As one of the villagers stands up to the mayor and rallies the people, they decide to gather money to monopolize beans themselves.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Some Like It Hot (1959)
In Prohibition-era Chicago, musicians Joe and Jerry witness a mob hit, and flee the state in an all-female band disguised as Josephine and Daphne, but further complications set in.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe War of the Roses (1989)
Barbara and Oliver Rose live happily as a married couple. When Barbara starts to wonder what life would be like without Oliver and likes what she sees, the two begin a campaign to force each other to leave their house, with their divorce lawyer D'Amato caught in the middle.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Good German (2006)
An American journalist arrives in Berlin just after the end of World War Two. He becomes involved in a murder mystery surrounding a dead GI who washes up at a lakeside mansion during the Potsdam negotiations between the Allied powers. Soon his investigation connects with his search for his married pre-war German lover.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Tabu: A Story of the South Seas?
The closest matches to Tabu: A Story of the South Seas are Cast Away (2000), Rip Girls (2000) and Adrift (2018). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Tabu: A Story of the South Seas?
Start with Cast Away (2000), the closest match to Tabu: A Story of the South Seas.
What is the highest-rated movie like Tabu: A Story of the South Seas?
Some Like It Hot (1959), rated 8.1/10 by 4,062 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Tabu: A Story of the South Seas?
My Penguin Friend (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Tabu: A Story of the South Seas?
Yes: Cast Away (2000), Rip Girls (2000) and Adrift (2018).
How are movies similar to Tabu: A Story of the South Seas chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Tabu: A Story of the South Seas, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.