feelsalike.comSign in
Ocean Waves poster

Movies that feel likeOcean Waves (1993)

At Kichijōji Station, Tokyo, Taku Morisaki glimpses a familiar woman on the platform opposite boarding a train. Later, her photo falls from a shelf as he exits his apartment before flying to Kōchi Prefecture. Picking it up, he looks at it briefly before leaving. As the aeroplane takes off, he narrates the events that brought her into his life...

If you loved Ocean Waves, the closest films we have are Enchanted April (1991), Millennium Actress (2002) and Nostalgia (1983). All three share Ocean Waves' contemplative and romantic feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Belle de Jour (1967).

🍅 89% Rotten Tomatoes★ 6.6 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Tomomi Mochizukicontemplativeromantictenderwarmdreamlike
9 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Hulu

Can't choose? Answer three questions and get one movie for tonight.

Stream it:HBO Max ↗
See it on the Mood Map

When is Ocean Waves streaming? →

If Ocean Waves hit the spot, these will too

Enchanted April poster
Enchanted April
1991 · dir. Mike Newell
🍅 85%★ 7.3romance · drama

The same mix in both: stillness, then romance

The difference: Takes it somewhere less dreamlike than Ocean Waves does

When married British women Rose Arbuthnot and Lottie Wilkins decide to take a break from their respective spouses, they stay at a castle in Italy for a quiet holiday. Joining the ladies is Caroline Dester, a young socialite, and Mrs. Fisher, an older aristocrat. Liberated from their daily routines, the four women ease into life in rural Italy, and each finds herself transformed by the experience.

Millennium Actress poster
Millennium Actress
2002 · dir. Satoshi Kon
🍅 93%★ 7.8animation · drama · romanceMax

Both land tenderness and dream logic at once

Documentary filmmaker Genya Tachibana has tracked down the legendary actress Chiyoko Fujiwara, who mysteriously vanished at the height of her career. When he presents her with a key she had lost and thought was gone forever, the filmmaker could not have imagined that it would not only unlock the long-held secrets of Chiyoko’s life... but also his own.

Nostalgia poster
Nostalgia
1983 · dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
🍅 89%★ 7.9drama · romance

Drama built on stillness, twice over

Russian poet Andrei Gorchakov journeys through Italy with his interpreter Eugenia to research the life of an 18th-century Russian composer who once lived abroad. Isolated and consumed by an unrelenting longing for his homeland, Andrei becomes drawn to Domenico, a radical mystic obsessed with spiritual redemption. Through austere imagery and extended temporal rhythms, Tarkovsky examines exile, memory, and the profound melancholy of being unable to belong fully to either place or language.

Jules and Jim poster
Jules and Jim
1962 · dir. François Truffaut
🍅 94%★ 7.6drama · romanceMax

Both are working the same pair: friendship, love

The difference: 31 years apart, and the 1960s show

In the carefree days before World War I, introverted Austrian author Jules strikes up a friendship with the exuberant Frenchman Jim and both men fall for the impulsive and beautiful Catherine.

Wings of Desire poster
Wings of Desire
1987 · dir. Wim Wenders
🍅 95%★ 7.9drama · fantasy · romanceMax

Romantic romance, and it commits to that

The difference: Leans harder into fantasy than Ocean Waves does

Two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, glide through the streets of Berlin, observing the bustling population, providing invisible rays of hope to the distressed but never interacting with them. When Damiel falls in love with lonely trapeze artist Marion, the angel longs to experience life in the physical world, and finds — with some words of wisdom from actor Peter Falk — that it might be possible for him to take human form.

Three Steps Above Heaven poster
Three Steps Above Heaven
2010 · dir. Fernando González Molina
★ 6.8romance · drama

Both keep coming back to the same thing: friendship

Babi, a sheltered upper-class girl, and Hache, a reckless rebel obsessed with illegal motorcycle races, fall into a forbidden love that pulls them deeper into passion and risk.

Sapphire Blue poster
Sapphire Blue
2014 · dir. Felix Fuchssteiner
★ 6.2fantasy · romance · drama

Tender animation in both cases

Gwen has just discovered, that she's the final member of the secret time-traveling Circle of Twelve. Now she has to juggle with constant trips to the past, her relationships with Gideon and figuring out dark secrets surrounding the Circle.

Weathering with You poster
Weathering with You
2019 · dir. Makoto Shinkai
🍅 92%★ 7.5animation · drama · fantasyMax

Both are built on the same subject: surrealism

The summer of his high school freshman year, Hodaka runs away from his remote island home to Tokyo, and quickly finds himself pushed to his financial and personal limits. The weather is unusually gloomy and rainy every day, as if taking its cue from his life. After many days of solitude, he finally finds work as a freelance writer for a mysterious occult magazine. Then, one day, Hodaka meets Hina on a busy street corner. This bright and strong-willed girl possesses a strange and wonderful ability: the power to stop the rain and clear the sky.

Belle de Jour poster
Belle de Jour
1967 · dir. Luis Buñuel
🍅 95%★ 7.6drama · romanceMax

Both lean on dream logic more than on tv movie

Beautiful young housewife Séverine Serizy cannot reconcile her masochistic fantasies with her everyday life alongside dutiful husband Pierre. When her lovestruck friend Henri mentions a secretive high-class brothel run by Madame Anais, Séverine begins to work there during the day under the name Belle de Jour. But when one of her clients grows possessive, she must try to go back to her normal life.

A Whisker Away poster
A Whisker Away
2020 · dir. Tomotaka Shibayama
🍅 93%★ 6.7animation · drama · romanceNetflix

Animation with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

A peculiar girl transforms into a cat to catch her crush's attention. But before she realizes it, the line between human and animal starts to blur.

Wicked poster
Wicked
2024 · dir. Jon M. Chu
🍅 88%★ 7.3drama · romance · fantasyHulu

Warm drama, and it commits to that

In the land of Oz, ostracized and misunderstood green-skinned Elphaba is forced to share a room with the popular aristocrat Glinda at Shiz University, and the two's unlikely friendship is tested as they begin to fulfill their respective destinies as Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.

The Time Traveler's Wife poster
The Time Traveler's Wife
2009 · dir. Robert Schwentke
🍅 38%★ 7.1drama · romance · fantasyParamount+

The same preoccupation in both: love

The difference: The scrappier of the two with critics

Due to a genetic disorder, handsome librarian Henry DeTamble involuntarily zips through time, appearing at various moments in the life of his true love, the beautiful artist Clare Abshire.

In the mood for more contemplative?

all contemplative movies →

The best-reviewed films that share Ocean Waves’ defining feeling.