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Movies that feel like To Live (1994)

If you loved To Live, the closest films we have are The Flowers of War (2011), Battle for Sevastopol (2015) and Ashes and Diamonds (1958). All three share To Live's contemplative and bleak feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 11 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Netflix, HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video and others, checked against today's data.

Married couple Fugui and Jiazhen endure tumultuous events in mid-20th century mainland China as their personal fortunes move from wealthy landownership to peasantry.

πŸ… 87% Rotten Tomatoesβ˜… 8.3 IMDb β†—TMDB β†—dir. Zhang Yimoucontemplativeromantictenderbleakdread

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If To Live hit the spot, these will too

The Flowers of War poster
The Flowers of War
2011 Β· dir. Zhang Yimou
πŸ… 41%β˜… 7.5drama Β· history Β· war

Both are Zhang Yimou's work, and they rhyme

The difference: Critics were much harder on this one

A Westerner finds refuge with a group of women in a church during Japan's rape of Nanking in 1937. Posing as a priest, he attempts to lead the women to safety.

Feels alike?
Battle for Sevastopol poster
Battle for Sevastopol
2015 Β· dir. Sergey Mokritsky
β˜… 7war Β· drama Β· romance

The same mix in both: stillness, then romance

The difference: None of the dread To Live is built on

The story of Lyudmila Pavlichenko, the most successful female sniper in history.

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Ashes and Diamonds poster
Ashes and Diamonds
1958 Β· dir. Andrzej Wajda
πŸ… 96%β˜… 7.7drama Β· war Β· romance

Tender where it counts, bleak underneath

The difference: 36 years apart, and the 1950s show

A young academy soldier, Maciek Chelmicki, is ordered to shoot the secretary of the KW PPR. A coincidence causes him to kill someone else. Meeting face to face with his victim, he gets a shock. He faces the necessity of repeating the assassination. He meets Krystyna, a girl working as a barmaid in the restaurant of the "Monopol" hotel. His affection for her makes him even more aware of the senselessness of killing at the end of the war. Loyalty to the oath he took, and thus the obligation to obey the order, tips the scales.

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The Cranes Are Flying poster
The Cranes Are Flying
1957 Β· dir. Mikhail Kalatozov
πŸ… 96%β˜… 8.3drama Β· romance Β· war

Drama with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

Veronika and Boris come together in Moscow shortly before World War II. Walking along the river, they watch cranes fly overhead, and promise to rendezvous before Boris leaves to fight. Boris misses the meeting and is off to the front lines, while Veronika waits patiently, sending letters faithfully. After her house is bombed, Veronika moves in with Boris' family, into the company of a cousin with his own intentions.

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Through the Olive Trees poster
Through the Olive Trees
1995 Β· dir. Abbas Kiarostami
πŸ… 89%β˜… 7.7drama Β· romance

Romantic romance in both cases

When the actor in a scene for his film Life And Nothing More… has to quit, a film director casts another man for the part. However, complications arise since the man and the woman who was cast for the scene know each other.

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Farewell My Concubine poster
Farewell My Concubine
1993 Β· dir. Chen Kaige
πŸ… 90%β˜… 8.1drama

Two things both keep coming back to: china and cultural revolution

In an epic tale of theater, gender, love and class, two Beijing opera actors navigate political turmoil as their friendship evolves over decades.

Feels alike?
Mrs. Miniver poster
Mrs. Miniver
1942 Β· dir. William Wyler
πŸ… 93%β˜… 7.6drama Β· romance Β· war

War built on tenderness, twice over

Middle-class housewife Kay Miniver deals with petty problems. She and her husband Clem watch her Oxford-educated son Vin court Carol Beldon, the charming granddaughter of the local nobility as represented by Lady Beldon. Then the war comes and Vin joins the RAF.

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Dil Chahta Hai poster
Dil Chahta Hai
2001 Β· dir. Farhan Akhtar
πŸ… 100%β˜… 8.1drama Β· romance

Both lean on stillness more than on drama

Three inseparable childhood friends are just out of college. Nothing comes between them - until they each fall in love, and their wildly different approaches to relationships creates tension.

Feels alike?
Veer-Zaara poster
Veer-Zaara
2004 Β· dir. Yash Chopra
πŸ… 93%β˜… 7.8drama Β· romance

Romantic romance, and it commits to that

Squadron Leader Veer Pratap Singh, a pilot in the Indian Air Force, rescues the stranded Zaara, a woman from Pakistan, following a bus accident, and their lives are forever bound.

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The Remains of the Day poster
The Remains of the Day
1993 Β· dir. James Ivory
πŸ… 96%β˜… 7.8drama Β· romance

Both keep coming back to the same thing: 1950s

A rule-bound head butler's world of manners and decorum in the household he maintains is tested by the arrival of a housekeeper who falls in love with him in post-WWI Britain. The possibility of romance and his master's cultivation of ties with the Nazi cause challenge his carefully maintained veneer of servitude.

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The Best Years of Our Lives poster
The Best Years of Our Lives
1946 Β· dir. William Wyler
πŸ… 97%β˜… 8.1drama Β· romance Β· war

War with a pulse of bleakness, in both cases

It's the hope that sustains the spirit of every GI: the dream of the day when he will finally return home. For three WWII veterans, the day has arrived. But for each man, the dream is about to become a nightmare.

Feels alike?
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg poster
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
1964 Β· dir. Jacques Demy
πŸ… 97%β˜… 7.8drama Β· romance

Common ground: 1960s

This simple romantic tragedy begins in 1957. Guy Foucher, a 20-year-old French auto mechanic, has fallen in love with 17-year-old Geneviève Emery, an employee in her widowed mother's chic but financially embattled umbrella shop. On the evening before Guy is to leave for a two-year tour of combat in Algeria, he and Geneviève make love. She becomes pregnant and must choose between waiting for Guy's return or accepting an offer of marriage from a wealthy diamond merchant.

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In the mood for more contemplative?

all contemplative movies β†’

The best-reviewed films that share To Live’s defining feeling.