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Movies that feel like Tokyo Story (1953)

If you loved Tokyo Story, the closest films we have are Wild Strawberries (1957), There Will Be Blood (2007) and The Greatest Showman (2017). All three share Tokyo Story's contemplative and dreamlike feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 10 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on HBO Max Amazon Channel, Criterion Channel and HBO Max and others, checked against today's data.

The elderly Shukishi and his wife, Tomi, take the long journey from their small seaside village to visit their adult children in Tokyo. Their elder son, Koichi, a doctor, and their daughter, Shige, a hairdresser, don't have much time to spend with their aged parents, and so it falls to Noriko, the widow of their younger son who was killed in the war, to keep her in-laws company.

🍅 100% Rotten Tomatoes8.1 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Yasujirō Ozucontemplativedreamlike

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If Tokyo Story hit the spot, these will too

Wild Strawberries poster
Wild Strawberries
1957 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 94%8.1drama

Dreams is the engine of both

Crotchety retired doctor Isak Borg travels from Stockholm to Lund, Sweden, with his pregnant and unhappy daughter-in-law, Marianne, in order to receive an honorary degree from his alma mater. Along the way, they encounter a series of hitchhikers, each of whom causes the elderly doctor to muse upon the pleasures and failures of his own life. These include the vivacious young Sara, a dead ringer for the doctor's own first love.

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There Will Be Blood poster
There Will Be Blood
2007 · dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
🍅 91%8.2drama

Contemplative where it counts, dreamlike underneath

The difference: 54 years apart, and the 2000s show

Ruthless silver miner, turned oil prospector, Daniel Plainview, moves to oil-rich California. Using his son to project a trustworthy, family-man image, Plainview cons local landowners into selling him their valuable properties for a pittance. However, local preacher Eli Sunday suspects Plainview's motives and intentions, starting a slow-burning feud that threatens both their lives.

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The Greatest Showman poster
The Greatest Showman
2017 · dir. Michael Gracey
🍅 56%7.5drama

Drama built on stillness, twice over

The difference: Reviewed a good deal more coolly

The story of American showman P.T. Barnum, founder of the circus that became the famous traveling Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

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Minari poster
Minari
2021 · dir. Lee Isaac Chung
🍅 98%7.4drama

Both trade on dream logic more than on being drama

A Korean American family moves to an Arkansas farm in search of its own American dream. Amidst the challenges of this new life in the strange and rugged Ozarks, they discover the undeniable resilience of family and what really makes a home.

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Late Spring poster
Late Spring
1949 · dir. Yasujirō Ozu
🍅 100%8.2drama

The same hand behind both of them: Yasujirō Ozu

The difference: None of the dream logic that defines Tokyo Story

Noriko is perfectly happy living at home with her widowed father, Shukichi, and has no plans to marry -- that is, until her aunt Masa convinces Shukichi that unless he marries off his 27-year-old daughter soon, she will likely remain alone for the rest of her life. When Noriko resists Masa's matchmaking, Shukichi is forced to deceive his daughter and sacrifice his own happiness to do what he believes is right.

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An Autumn Afternoon poster
An Autumn Afternoon
1962 · dir. Yasujirō Ozu
🍅 95%8drama

Yasujirō Ozu working the same nerve twice

Widower Shuhei Hirayama's caretaker is his 24-year-old daughter, Michiko. Gradually, he comes to realize that Michiko should not be obliged to look after him for the rest of his life, so he arranges a marriage for her.

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Finding Neverland poster
Finding Neverland
2004 · dir. Marc Forster
🍅 83%7.6drama · fantasy

Both built around parents and children

The difference: Leans fantasy where Tokyo Story does not

During a writing slump, playwright J.M. Barrie meets a widow and her four children, all young boys—who soon become an important part of Barrie’s life and the inspiration that lead him to create his masterpiece. Peter Pan.

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Floating Weeds poster
Floating Weeds
1959 · dir. Yasujirō Ozu
🍅 96%7.9drama

Drama with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

A theater troupe master's visit with his old flame unintentionally sets off a chain of unexpected events with devastating consequences.

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Umberto D. poster
Umberto D.
1952 · dir. Vittorio De Sica
🍅 98%8.1drama

Drama approached the same way

When elderly pensioner Umberto Domenico Ferrari returns to his boarding house from a protest calling for a hike in old-age pensions, his landlady demands her 15,000-lire rent by the end of the month or he and his small dog will be turned out onto the street. Unable to get the money in time, Umberto fakes illness to get sent to a hospital, giving his beloved dog to the landlady's pregnant and abandoned maid for temporary safekeeping.

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Sansho the Bailiff poster
Sansho the Bailiff
1954 · dir. Kenji Mizoguchi
🍅 100%8.4drama

The same drama instincts

In 11th-century feudal Japan, following the exile of an idealistic governor, his wife and children are separated by slave traders; the children, Zushio and Anju, are sold into brutal servitude under the cruel bailiff Sansho.

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Bicycle Thieves poster
Bicycle Thieves
1948 · dir. Vittorio De Sica
🍅 99%8.2drama

Cut from the same drama cloth

Unemployed Antonio is elated when he finally finds work hanging posters around war-torn Rome. However on his first day, his bicycle—essential to his work—gets stolen. His job is doomed unless he can find the thief. With the help of his son, Antonio combs the city, becoming desperate for justice.

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12 Angry Men poster
12 Angry Men
1957 · dir. Sidney Lumet
🍅 100%9drama

Both are drama through and through

The defense and the prosecution have rested and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young Spanish-American is guilty or innocent of murdering his father. What begins as an open and shut case soon becomes a mini-drama of each of the jurors' prejudices and preconceptions about the trial, the accused, and each other.

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In the mood for more contemplative?

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The best-reviewed films that share Tokyo Story's defining feeling.