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Nobody Knows poster

Movies that feel likeNobody Knows (2004)

In a small Tokyo apartment, twelve-year-old Akira must care for his younger siblings after their mother leaves them and shows no sign of returning.

If you loved Nobody Knows, the closest films we have are City of Men (2007), Taste of Cherry (1997) and Central Station (1998). All three share Nobody Knows' contemplative and melancholy feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist (1997).

🍅 92% Rotten Tomatoes★ 8 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Hirokazu Kore-edacontemplativemelancholy
9 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Paramount Plus Essential · Criterion Channel

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If Nobody Knows hit the spot, these will too

City of Men poster
City of Men
2007 · dir. Paulo Morelli
🍅 74%★ 7.2dramaParamount+

Both are built on the same subject: grief

Best buddies Acerola and Laranjinha, about to turn 18, discover things about their missing fathers' pasts which will shatter their solid friendship, in the middle of a war between rival drug gangs from Rio's favelas.

Taste of Cherry poster
Taste of Cherry
1997 · dir. Abbas Kiarostami
🍅 82%★ 7.7dramaMax

Contemplative where it counts, melancholy underneath

A middle-aged Tehranian man, Mr. Badii is intent on killing himself and seeks someone to bury him after his demise. Driving around the city, the seemingly well-to-do Badii meets with numerous people, including a Muslim student, asking them to take on the job, but initially he has little luck. Eventually, Badii finds a man who is up for the task because he needs the money, but his new associate soon tries to talk him out of committing suicide.

Central Station poster
Central Station
1998 · dir. Walter Salles
🍅 94%★ 8drama

Both lean on stillness more than on drama

An emotional journey of a former school teacher, who writes letters for illiterate people, and a young boy, whose mother has just died, as they search for the father he never knew.

Silent Heart poster
Silent Heart
2014 · dir. Bille August
★ 7.1drama

Melancholy drama in both cases

Three generations of a family gather over a weekend. The sisters Sanne and Heidi have accepted their terminally-ill mother’s desire to die before her disease worsens; but, as the weekend progresses, their mother's decision becomes harder and harder to deal with, and old conflicts come to the surface.

Places in the Heart poster
Places in the Heart
1984 · dir. Robert Benton
🍅 90%★ 7.4drama

One thread runs through both: grief

The difference: 20 years apart, and the 1980s show

In 1935 rural Texas, recently widowed Edna Spaulding struggles to survive with two small children, a farm to run, and very little money in the bank - not to mention a deadly tornado and the unwelcome presence of the Ku Klux Klan. Edna is aided by her beautician sister, Margaret; a blind boarder, Mr. Will; and a would-be thief, Moze, who decides to teach Edna how to plant and harvest cotton.

Autumn Sonata poster
Autumn Sonata
1978 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 85%★ 8.1dramaMax

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

After a seven-year absence, Charlotte Andergast travels to Sweden to reunite with her daughter Eva. The pair have a troubled relationship: Charlotte sacrificed the responsibilities of motherhood for a career as a classical pianist. Over an emotional night, the pair reopen the wounds of the past. Charlotte gets another shock when she finds out that her mentally impaired daughter, Helena, is out of the asylum and living with Eva.

Drive My Car poster
Drive My Car
2021 · dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi
🍅 97%★ 7.5dramaRent or buy

The same preoccupation in both: japan

Yusuke Kafuku, a stage actor and director, still unable, after two years, to cope with the loss of his beloved wife, accepts to direct Uncle Vanya at a theater festival in Hiroshima. There he meets Misaki, an introverted young woman, appointed to drive his car. In between rides, secrets from the past and heartfelt confessions will be unveiled.

Three Colors: Blue poster
Three Colors: Blue
1993 · dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski
🍅 98%★ 7.8dramaMax

A streak of melancholy through both

The wife of a famous composer survives a car accident that kills her husband and daughter. Now alone, she shakes off her old identity and explores her newfound freedom but finds that she is unbreakably bound to other humans, including her husband’s mistress, whose existence she never suspected.

Babel poster
Babel
2006 · dir. Alejandro G. Iñárritu
🍅 68%★ 7.4dramaParamount+

Both play drama straight

Tragedy strikes a married couple vacationing in the Moroccan desert, which jumpstarts an interlocking story involving four different families.

Magnolia poster
Magnolia
1999 · dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
🍅 82%★ 8dramaMax

Drama approached the same way

On one random day in the San Fernando Valley, a dying father, a young wife, a male caretaker, a famous lost son, a police officer in love, a boy genius, an ex-boy genius, a game show host and an estranged daughter will each become part of a dazzling multiplicity of plots, but one story.

Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist poster
🍅 92%★ 7.5documentary

Same era, same wavelength

The difference: Sits closer to documentary than Nobody Knows does

The story of Robert Flanagan, a man who was born with cystic fibrosis and told he wouldn't live past 20, who through a unique odyssey of masochism, art and love found a way to live decades past his expiration date.

Winter Light poster
Winter Light
1963 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 77%★ 8drama

Both are drama through and through

A Swedish pastor fails a loving woman, a suicidal fisherman and God.

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The best-reviewed films that share Nobody Knows’ defining feeling.