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Movies that feel like Ugetsu (1953)

If you loved Ugetsu, the closest films we have are Citizen Kane (1941), Donnie Darko (2001) and The Five Venoms (1978). All three share Ugetsu's dreamlike and contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 9 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and fuboTV and others, checked against today's data.

In 16th century Japan, peasants Genjuro and Tobei sell their earthenware pots to a group of soldiers in a nearby village, in defiance of a local sage's warning against seeking to profit from warfare. Genjuro's pursuit of both riches and the mysterious Lady Wakasa, as well as Tobei's desire to become a samurai, run the risk of destroying both themselves and their wives, Miyagi and Ohama.

πŸ… 100% Rotten Tomatoesβ˜… 8.1 IMDb β†—TMDB β†—dir. Kenji Mizoguchidreamlikecontemplativetwisty

When is Ugetsu streaming? β†’

If Ugetsu hit the spot, these will too

Citizen Kane poster
Citizen Kane
1941 Β· dir. Orson Welles
πŸ… 99%β˜… 8.2mystery Β· drama

The same preoccupation in both: black and white

Newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane is taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a rich industrialist. As a result, every well-meaning, tyrannical or self-destructive move he makes for the rest of his life appears in some way to be a reaction to that deeply wounding event.

Feels alike?
Donnie Darko poster
Donnie Darko
2001 Β· dir. Richard Kelly
πŸ… 88%β˜… 8fantasy Β· drama Β· mystery

Both land dream logic and stillness at once

The difference: A 2000s film, from a different era of filmmaking

After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.

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The Five Venoms poster
The Five Venoms
1978 Β· dir. Chang Cheh
πŸ… 80%β˜… 7action Β· drama Β· mystery

Both trade on twists more than on being fantasy

The difference: Plays it as action more than Ugetsu does

A dying master sends his last student to check up on five former pupils, who each know a special style of kung-fu.

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Tokyo Story poster
Tokyo Story
1953 · dir. Yasujirō Ozu
πŸ… 100%β˜… 8.1drama

Drama built on dream logic, twice over

The difference: None of the twists that defines Ugetsu

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.

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Wild Strawberries poster
Wild Strawberries
1957 Β· dir. Ingmar Bergman
πŸ… 94%β˜… 8.1drama

Contemplative mystery, and it commits to that

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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Finding Neverland poster
Finding Neverland
2004 Β· dir. Marc Forster
πŸ… 83%β˜… 7.6drama Β· fantasy

Dreamlike fantasy in both cases

During a writing slump, playwright J.M. Barrie meets a widow and her four children, all young boysβ€”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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Sansho the Bailiff poster
Sansho the Bailiff
1954 Β· dir. Kenji Mizoguchi
πŸ… 100%β˜… 8.4drama

Kenji Mizoguchi directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

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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Winter's Bone poster
Winter's Bone
2010 Β· dir. Debra Granik
πŸ… 94%β˜… 7.1drama Β· mystery

Drama with a pulse of twists, in both cases

After discovering her father put their house up for his bail bond and then disappeared, 17-year-old Ree Dolly must confront the local criminal underworld and the harsh Ozark wilderness in order to to track down her father and save her family.

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The Tenant poster
The Tenant
1976 Β· dir. Roman Polanski
πŸ… 85%β˜… 7.5thriller Β· mystery Β· drama

Mystery with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

The difference: Leans thriller where Ugetsu does not

A quiet and inconspicuous man rents an apartment in Paris where he finds himself drawn into a rabbit hole of dangerous paranoia.

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There Will Be Blood poster
There Will Be Blood
2007 Β· dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
πŸ… 91%β˜… 8.2drama

Greed is the engine of both

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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Solaris poster
Solaris
1972 Β· dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
πŸ… 92%β˜… 7.9drama Β· science fiction Β· mystery

Drama built on twists, twice over

A psychologist is sent to a space station orbiting a planet called Solaris to investigate the death of a doctor and the mental problems of cosmonauts on the station. He soon discovers that the water on the planet is a type of brain which brings out repressed memories and obsessions.

Feels alike?
The Greatest Showman poster
The Greatest Showman
2017 Β· dir. Michael Gracey
πŸ… 56%β˜… 7.5drama

Cut from the same drama cloth

The difference: Critics were much harder on this one

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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In the mood for more dreamlike?

all dreamlike movies β†’

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