feelsalike.com

Movies that feel like Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010)

If you loved Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, the closest films we have are The Tree of Life (2011), The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (2013) and Before I Fall (2017). All three share Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives' contemplative and dreamlike feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 7 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Netflix, HBO Max and Criterion Channel and others, checked against today's data.

Suffering from acute kidney failure, Boonmee has chosen to spend his final days surrounded by his loved ones in the countryside. Surprisingly, the ghost of his deceased wife appears to care for him, and his long lost son returns home in a non-human form. Contemplating the reasons for his illness, Boonmee treks through the jungle with his family to a mysterious hilltop cave—the birthplace of his first life.

🍅 90% Rotten Tomatoes6.7 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakulcontemplativedreamlike

Not on subscription streaming right now. Rent or buy below.

See it on the map

When is Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives streaming? →

If Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives hit the spot, these will too

The Tree of Life poster
The Tree of Life
2011 · dir. Terrence Malick
🍅 86%6.8drama · fantasy

Contemplative where it counts, dreamlike underneath

The impressionistic story of a Texas family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father. Jack finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.

Feels alike?
The Tale of The Princess Kaguya poster
The Tale of The Princess Kaguya
2013 · dir. Isao Takahata
🍅 100%8animation · drama · fantasy

Contemplative drama in both cases

The difference: Played as animation first

Found inside a shining stalk of bamboo by an old bamboo cutter and his wife, a tiny girl grows rapidly into an exquisite young lady. The mysterious young princess enthrals all who encounter her. But, ultimately, she must confront her fate.

Feels alike?
Before I Fall poster
Before I Fall
2017 · dir. Ry Russo-Young
🍅 64%6.4drama · fantasy

Fantasy built on dream logic, twice over

The difference: Reviewed a good deal more coolly

Samantha Kingston has everything. Then, everything changes. After one fateful night, she wakes up with no future at all. Trapped into reliving the same day over and over, she begins to question just how perfect her life really was.

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

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

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.

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

Fantasy with a pulse of dream logic, in both cases

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.

Feels alike?
Russian Ark poster
Russian Ark
2002 · dir. Aleksandr Sokurov
🍅 89%7.2drama · fantasy · history

Drama in the same key

A ghost and a French marquis wander through the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, encountering scenes from many different periods of its history.

Feels alike?
Tokyo Story poster
Tokyo Story
1953 · dir. Yasujirō Ozu
🍅 100%8.1drama

Common ground: fish

The difference: Made in the 1950s, in a different era of the craft

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.

Feels alike?
After Life poster
After Life
1999 · dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda
🍅 88%7.6fantasy · drama

Both working the same fantasy territory

On a cold Monday morning, a group of counselors clock in at an old-fashioned social services office. Their task is to interview the recently deceased, record their personal details, then, over the course of the week, assist them in choosing a single memory to keep for eternity.

Feels alike?
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence poster
🍅 90%6.9drama · comedy · fantasy

Drama approached the same way

An absurdist, surrealistic and shocking pitch-black comedy, which moves freely from nightmare to fantasy to hilariously deadpan humour as it muses on man’s perpetual inhumanity to man.

Feels alike?
A Letter to Momo poster
A Letter to Momo
2012 · dir. Hiroyuki Okiura
🍅 80%7.2comedy · fantasy · animation

Both keep coming back to the same thing: animism

A shy 11-year-old's life takes a strange turn when she discovers three hungry goblins living in the attic of her new house. She misses her old life. She misses her father so very much. Until she makes some new ghoulish friends.

Feels alike?
Border poster
Border
2018 · dir. Ali Abbasi
🍅 97%7fantasy · drama · crime

Both know what they want from fantasy

When a border guard with a sixth sense for identifying smugglers encounters the first person she cannot prove is guilty, she is forced to confront terrifying revelations about herself and humankind.

Feels alike?
New Gods: Nezha Reborn poster
New Gods: Nezha Reborn
2021 · dir. Zhao Ji
🍅 80%6.8animation · fantasy · action

Both are built on the same subject: reincarnation

The difference: Not nearly as contemplative

While living as an ordinary deliveryman and motor racing fan, Nezha encounters old nemeses and must rediscover his powers to protect his loved ones.

Feels alike?

In the mood for more contemplative?

all contemplative movies →

The best-reviewed films that share Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives’ defining feeling.