Movies like Dodes'ka-den
If you like "Dodes'ka-den" you are looking for touching, meditative and compassionate movies about / with poverty, redemption, social differences, life is a bitch, working class, samurai and slum themes of Drama genre shot in Japan.
Find your next favorite and similar movies in two steps:
1. Identify all themes of interest from this film (block below).
2. Look for them in the presented list.
Dodes'ka-den (1970)
7K

Where to Watch
Original name: どですかでん
Genre: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 140 min.
Story:
By turns tragic and transcendent, Akira Kurosawa’s film follows the daily lives of a group of people barely scraping by in a slum on the outskirts of Tokyo. Yet as desperate as their circumstances are, each of them—the homeless father and son envisioning their dream house; the young woman abused by her uncle; the boy who imagines himself a trolley conductor—finds reasons to carry on. The unforgettable Dodes’ka-den was made at a tumultuous moment in Kurosawa’s life. And all of his hopes, fears, and artistic passion are on fervent display in this, his gloriously shot first color film.
Style:
touching, meditative, compassionate, atmospheric, depressing, surreal, gloomy, emotional, mind bending, thought provoking ...
Plot:
poverty, redemption, social differences, life is a bitch, working class, samurai, slum, tragedy, character study, unlikely friendships, hopes, youth, misfit, human spirit, parents and children, family problems, down on your luck, human nature, existentialism, dysfunctional family, love, catastrophe, artist, loneliness, train ...
Time:
20th century, 60s
Place:
tokyo, japan, asia
Most similar movies to Dodes'ka-den
The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out melancholic, talky, enigmatic and reflective films with plots about culture clash, suprisingly clever, loneliness, melancholy, mentor, catastrophe and dialogue mostly in Drama genres. Some movies like Dodes'ka-den: Mamma Roma (1962), Rosetta (1999), Not Yet (1993), Red Beard (1965), Nobody Knows (2004). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
Subscribe for new and better recommendations:

Genre: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 106 min.
Story:
After many years working in the streets of Roma, the middle-age whore Mamma Roma (Anna Magnani) saves money to buy an upper class apartment, a fruit stand and retires from the prostitution. She brings her teenage son Ettore (Ettore Garofolo), who ...
Style:
neorealism, serious, realistic, art house, sexy ...
Plot:
prostitute, youth, prostitution, family relations, redemption, life is a bitch, parents and children, thief, friendship, hopes, human nature, parent child relationship ...
Time:
20th century, 60s, post world war two
Place:
rome italy, europe, italy, tokyo, mexico
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
15K

Genre: Drama
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 95 min.
Story:
Young and impulsive Rosetta lives with her alcoholic mother and, moved by despair, she will do anything to maintain a job.
Style:
serious, bleak, art house, realistic, emotional ...
Audience:
teens
Plot:
realism, mother daughter relationship, unemployment, fishing, alcoholic mother, snitch, loneliness, alcoholic, poverty, life is a bitch, coming of age, family problems ...
Time:
90s, 20th century
Place:
belgium, france, california, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%

Genre: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 134 min.
Story:
This film tells the story of professor Uehida Hyakken-sama (1889-1971), in Gotemba, around the forties. He was a university professor until an air raid, when he left to become a writer and has to live in a hut. His mood has hardly changed, not by ...
Style:
emotional, sexy, enigmatic, sentimental, lyrical ...
Plot:
world war two, samurai, teacher, professor, existentialism, death, sacrifice, relationships, solitude, guilt, god, unlikely friendships ...
Time:
1940s
Place:
tokyo, japan, hong kong, asia, germany
⇓ similarity ⇓
30%
20K

Genre: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 185 min.
Story:
Aspiring to an easy job as personal physician to a wealthy family, Noboru Yasumoto is disappointed when his first post after medical school takes him to a small country clinic under the gruff doctor Red Beard. Yasumoto rebels in numerous ways, but ...
Style:
cerebral, realistic, emotional, sexy, touching ...
Plot:
samurai, intern, medical profession, medical, medieval, doctor, poverty, doctors, art, nurse, cult, time travel ...
Time:
19th century
Place:
japan, tokyo, asia
⇓ similarity ⇓
30%
Movie in collections

Genre: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 141 min.
Story:
In a small Tokyo apartment, twelve-year-old Akira must care for his younger siblings after their mother leaves them and shows no sign of returning.
Style:
depressing, touching, serious, gloomy, atmospheric ...
Audience:
kids, teens
Plot:
childhood, poverty, dysfunctional family, innocence lost, young kid, children, child abandonment, boy, tragedy, coming of age, family relations, greed ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
japan, tokyo, india, asia, california
⇓ similarity ⇓
29%
Also search:
Detachment similar movies

Genre: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 98 min.
Story:
The story centers on an elderly hibakusha, who lost her husband in the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki, caring for her four grandchildren over the summer. She learns of a long-lost brother, Suzujiro, living in Hawaii who wants her to visit him ...
Style:
emotional, melancholic, lyrical, serious, psychological ...
Plot:
world war two, anti war, memory, grandmother, brothers, depression, family relations, samurai, human nature, haunted by the past, society, battles ...
Time:
90s
Place:
japan, hawaii, tokyo, asia, usa ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
29%

Genre: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 130 min.
Story:
In a small village in a valley everyone who reaches the age of 70 must leave the village and go to a certain mountain top to die. If anyone should refuse he/she would disgrace their family. Old Orin is 69. This winter it is her turn to go to the ...
Style:
bleak, gloomy, sexy, reflective, enigmatic ...
Plot:
bestiality, existentialism, elderly, samurai, sex, female nudity, old age, snake, childhood, depression, obsession, brutality ...
Time:
19th century, 1860s
Place:
japan, tokyo, asia
⇓ similarity ⇓
28%

Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 143 min.
Story:
Albany, New York, Halloween, 1938. Francis Phelan and Helen Archer are bums, back in their birth city. She was a singer on the radio, he a major league pitcher. Death surrounds them: she's sick, a pal has cancer, he digs graves at the cemetery ...
Style:
emotional, touching, intense, serious, realistic ...
Plot:
alcohol abuse, homeless, mental illness, redemption, halloween, couple relations, rich and poor, parents and children, life is a bitch, human nature, buddies, best friends ...
Time:
1930s, 20th century, 1910s
Place:
new york, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
27%
Movie in collections

Genre: Drama
Country: Denmark, Sweden
Duration: 157 min.
Story:
The end of the 19th century. A boat filled with Swedish emigrants comes to the Danish island of Bornholm. Among them are Lasse and his son Pelle who move to Denmark to find work. They find employment at a large farm, but are treated as the lowest ...
Style:
emotional, atmospheric, meditative, compassionate, disturbing ...
Audience:
kids
Plot:
father son relationship, coming of age, boy, poverty, immigrants, working class, farm, children, corporal punishment, youth, family relations, bullying ...
Time:
19th century, 1870s, 1890s
Place:
denmark, europe, eastern europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
27%

Genre: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 134 min.
Story:
An unemployed man finds his life sinking more and more into trouble as he hides his situation from his family and friends.
Style:
psychological, enigmatic, meditative, compassionate, depressing ...
Plot:
unemployment, greed, self discovery, character study, life is a bitch, down on your luck, society, couple relations, dishonesty, family problems, husband wife relationship, deception ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
tokyo, france, switzerland, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
25%
Also search:
Movies like Nobody Knows
21K

Genre: Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 110 min.
Story:
Uzak/Distant chronicles the numbing loneliness, longing, and isolation in the lives of two men who are consumed by their own problems. Istanbul photographer Mahmut reluctantly receives his relative Yusuf, but the mingling of their lives does little ...
Style:
sincere, bleak, art house, lyrical, stylized ...
Plot:
unemployment, loneliness, isolation, complex characters, art, family relations, culture clash, love and romance, introspection, existentialism, human nature, society ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
tokyo, turkey, istanbul turkey, middle east, berlin germany ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
25%

Genre: Drama
Country: Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Tunisia
Duration: 90 min.
Story:
In this acclaimed and gripping social portrait of immoral lives in need of rescue, Igor (Jérémie Renier), aged 15, and his father Roger (Olivier Gourmet) deal in housing and peddling illicit labor in the outlying districts of Liege, Belgium. ...
Style:
thought provoking, sincere, allegory, gloomy, affectionate ...
Audience:
teens
Plot:
immigrants, coming of age, father son relationship, youth, melancholy, existentialism, dysfunctional family, empathy, boy, traumatic childhood, racism, social injustice ...
Time:
90s
Place:
tokyo, france, belgium, europe, usa ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
25%

Genre: Drama
Country: Israel
Duration: 87 min.
Story:
Daphne and her four children try to cope with the abrupt death of husband/father. As the family seems to fall apart, a sudden incident gives them a chance to heal their 'broken wings'.
Style:
emotional, touching, lyrical, depressing, stylized ...
Plot:
dysfunctional family, jewish, hopes, children, human nature, couple relations, family life, midlife crisis, life is a bitch, single parent, love and romance, innocence lost ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
israel, middle east, tokyo
⇓ similarity ⇓
25%

Genre: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 128 min.
Story:
The mother of a feudal lord's only heir is kidnapped away from her husband by the lord. The husband and his samurai father must decide whether to accept the unjust decision, or risk death to get her back.
Style:
tense, emotional, stylized, atmospheric, sincere ...
Plot:
samurai, father son relationship, rebellion, revenge, martial arts, violence, vengeance, kidnapping, family relations, injustice, rebelliousness, master warrior ...
Time:
18th century, 70s
Place:
japan, tokyo, asia
⇓ similarity ⇓
24%

Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 108 min.
Story:
Three teenage brothers, gang-member Bobby, troubled mama's boy Alan and self-assured prankster Lex, reside in a downtrodden section of Glasgow, Scotland, circa 1968. But while Bobby and Alan are beginning to experience the power of raging ...
Style:
realistic, bleak, visually appealing, poignant, gloomy ...
Audience:
teens
Plot:
gang, working class, dysfunctional family, coming of age, youth, artist, violence, melancholy, boy, children, adaptation, solitude ...
Time:
60s, 90s
Place:
scotland, new jersey, california, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
23%
Also search:
The Way Home related movies

Genre: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 108 min.
Story:
Alain Leroy is a recovering alcoholic who decides to end his life, but first decides to visit his friends in Paris one last time, in an attempt at finding a reason to continue living.
Style:
art house, depressing, philosophical, gloomy, bleak ...
Plot:
suicide, depression, addiction, existentialism, melancholy, alcohol abuse, character study, solitude, loneliness, dysfunctional family, mental illness, rehabilitation ...
Time:
60s, 1920s
Place:
paris france, france, europe, versailles
⇓ similarity ⇓
23%

Genre: Drama
Country: Norway, Denmark, Sweden
Duration: 95 min.
Story:
Anders is a recovering drug addict in an Oslo rehab clinic. On the 30th August, he is given a day’s leave to attend a job interview in the city centre.
Style:
gloomy, touching, depressing, thought provoking, melancholic ...
Plot:
suicide attempt, suicide, drug addict, addiction, loneliness, drugs, depression, drug addiction, complex characters, old friends, unlikely friendships, life is a bitch ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
oslo norway, california, scandinavia, norway
⇓ similarity ⇓
23%

Genre: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 113 min.
Story:
In Lille, two penniless young women with few prospects become friends. Isa moves in with Marie, who's flat-sitting for a mother and child in hospital in comas following a car crash. Isa is out-going, unskilled, with hopes of moving south to ...
Style:
realistic, touching, sexy, depressing, emotional ...
Plot:
coming of age, friendship, working class, love and romance, coma, depression, loneliness, society, youth, life is a bitch, hopes, couple relations ...
Time:
90s
Place:
france, flanders
⇓ similarity ⇓
23%
Movie in collections

Genre: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 97 min.
Story:
A four-year-old girl must come to terms with the loss of her mother and the reality of death in this award-winning French drama. Little Ponette (Victoire Thivisol) is riding in a car with her mother when they're involved in a serious accident; ...
Style:
touching, realistic, talky, emotional, spiritual ...
Plot:
children, child, coming of age, grief, youth, innocence lost, bereavement, friendship, death, school, life, self discovery ...
Time:
20th century, 90s
Place:
france, tokyo, provence
⇓ similarity ⇓
22%
8K

Genre: Drama
Country: Iran, France, USA
Duration: 89 min.
Story:
A visual social examination in the form of ten conversations between a driving woman and her various pick-ups and hitchhikers.
Style:
talky, thought provoking, melancholic, intense, light ...
Plot:
character study, car, solitude, relationships, driver, society, life is a bitch, passenger, sibling relationship, hopes, human nature, love and romance ...
Place:
iran, tokyo, middle east, tehran iran, tehran ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
22%
Also search:
Oslo, August 31st similar movies

Genre: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 117 min.
Story:
White-collar worker Yamashita finds out that his wife has a lover visiting her when he's away, suddenly returns home and kills her. After eight years in prison, he returns to live in a small village, opens a barber shop (he was trained as a ...
Style:
enigmatic, captivating, psychological, touching, sexy ...
Plot:
self discovery, starting over, human nature, social relations, hopes, haunted by the past, crimes of passion, murder, suicide attempt, prison, adultery, obsession ...
Time:
90s, 80s
Place:
japan, tokyo, new jersey, asia
⇓ similarity ⇓
21%

Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min.
Story:
When an alcoholic relapses, causing him to lose his wife and his job, he holds a yard sale on his front lawn in an attempt to start over. A new neighbor might be the key to his return to form.
Style:
touching, emotional, realistic, feel good, thought provoking ...
Plot:
friendship, alcohol abuse, salesman, addiction, unemployment, bittersweet, loneliness, character study, tragedy, self discovery, starting over, midlife crisis ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
arizona, new jersey, texas, usa, phoenix arizona
⇓ similarity ⇓
21%

Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min.
Story:
A man planning to commit suicide hires a taxi driver to take him to his jumping-off point.
Style:
touching, thought provoking, uplifting, sincere, captivating ...
Audience:
teens
Plot:
friendship, depression, suicidal, loneliness, mentor, character study, taxi driver, elderly, suicide, society, regret, taxi ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
north carolina, africa, california, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
21%
Movie in collections

Genre: Drama
Country: France, Sweden
Duration: 95 min.
Story:
The story of a mistreated donkey and the people around him. A study on saintliness and a sister piece to Bresson's Mouchette.
Style:
art house, thought provoking, depressing, disturbing, cerebral ...
Plot:
farm, existentialism, redemption, friendship, animals, death, destiny, artist, life philosophy, life & death, art, loneliness ...
Time:
60s, 20th century
Place:
france, tokyo, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
21%

Genre: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 112 min.
Story:
The fashionable Hye-joo is focused on her career at a brokerage house. She's making a decent living, but her co-workers look down on her. Tae-hee is sick of living under the thumb of her domineering father. She spends her time doing volunteer ...
Style:
lyrical, psychological, sincere, sentimental, touching ...
Audience:
chick flick
Plot:
friendship, adulthood, loneliness, self discovery, life is a bitch, couples, parents and children, love and romance, lifestyle, youth, family problems, cat ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
tokyo, japan, rio de janeiro, new jersey, korea ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
21%
Also search:
Shame related movies

Genre: Drama
Country: France, Belgium, Georgia
Duration: 103 min.
Story:
The one joy in the lives of a mother and daughter comes from the regular letters sent to them from Paris from the family's adored son, Otar. When the daughter finds out that Otar has died suddenly, she tries to conceal the truth from her ...
Style:
touching, harsh, sentimental, sincere, emotional ...
Plot:
mother daughter relationship, poverty, protecting from truth, human nature, life is a bitch, elderly, generation gap, loss of child, family problems, society, parents and children, dealing with death ...
Place:
paris france, france, japan, tokyo, east germany ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
21%

Genre: Drama
Country: UK, France
Duration: 94 min.
Story:
James Gillespie is 12 years old. The world he knew is changing. Haunted by a secret, he has become a stranger in his own family. He is drawn to the canal where he creates a world of his own. He finds an awkward tenderness with Margaret Anne, a ...
Style:
disturbing, bleak, art house, gloomy, stylized ...
Plot:
children, poverty, boy, friendship, coming of age, neighbor, bully, urban decay, moving, grief, garbage, rat ...
Time:
70s, 20th century
Place:
glasgow scotland, scotland
⇓ similarity ⇓
21%

Genre: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 110 min.
Story:
A young woman's husband apparently commits suicide without warning or reason, leaving behind his wife and infant. Yumiko remarries and moves from Osaka to a small fishing village, yet continues to search for meaning in a lonely world.
Style:
art house, atmospheric, allegory, visually appealing, breathtaking ...
Plot:
suicide, death, stepbrother stepsister relationship, self discovery, arranged marriage, memory, train, nude, culture clash, depression, dreams, tragedy ...
Time:
90s
Place:
japan, tokyo, venice, italy, asia ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
21%

Genre: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 90 min.
Story:
Karin hopes to recover from her recent stay at a mental hospital by spending the summer at her family's cottage on a tiny island. Her husband, Martin, cares for her but is frustrated by her physical withdrawal. Her younger bother, Minus, is ...
Style:
psychological, art house, philosophical, serious, surreal ...
Plot:
schizophrenia, insanity, mental illness, religion, psychology, existentialism, dysfunctional family, mental disorder, island, writers, loneliness, suicide attempt ...
Time:
60s, 20th century
Place:
sweden, scandinavia, eastern europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
21%

Genre: Drama
Country: UK, France
Duration: 128 min.
Story:
Penny's love for her partner, taxi-driver Phil, has run dry. He is a gentle, philosophical guy, and she works on the checkout at a supermarket...
Style:
depressing, emotional, realistic, serious, bleak ...
Plot:
working class, dysfunctional family, family relations, taxi driver, loneliness, depression, injustice, family problems, parents and children, couples, unwanted pregnancy, family in crisis ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
england, london, new jersey, europe, florida ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
20%
Subscribe for new and better recommendations:
Related movie lists