Movies like To Live
If you like "To Live" you are looking for family saga, sad and touching movies about / with cultural revolution, chinese history, communism, politics, gambling, asian history and poverty themes of Drama and War genre shot in Hong Kong or China.
Find your next favorite and similar movies in two steps:
1. Identify all themes of interest from this film (block below).
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To Live (1994)
22K
Original name: 活着
Genre: Drama, War
Country: Hong Kong, China
Duration: 133 min.
Story:
Fugui and Jiazhen endure tumultuous events in China as their personal fortunes move from wealthy landownership to peasantry.
Style:
family saga, sad, touching, emotional, sincere, depressing, independent film, mind blowing, tense, serious ...
Plot:
cultural revolution, chinese history, communism, politics, gambling, asian history, poverty, storytelling, family relations, destiny, civil war, death, hospital, revolution, social justice, mute, accidental death, chinese army, capitalist, death in childbirth, world war two, mythology, meaning of life, child abuse, deaf ...
Time:
1940s, 1950s, 60s, year 1994, 50s, 20th century, 1960s ...
Place:
china, asia, taiwan
Movie in categories
Most similar movies to To Live
The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out realistic, serious, crying and emotional films with plots about death, singing, friendship, family relations, singer, cigarette smoking and husband wife relationship mostly in Drama, War and Romance genres. Some movies like To Live: Farewell My Concubine (1993), Raise the Red Lantern (1991), Turtles Can Fly (2004), Red Sorghum (1988), Red Cherry (1995). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
Genre: Drama, Music, Romance
Country: China, Hong Kong, South Korea
Duration: 171 min.
Story:
Abandoned by his prostitute mother in 1920, Douzi was raised by a theater troupe. There he meets Shitou and over the following years the two develop an act entitled, "Farewell My Concubine," that brings them fame and fortune. When Shitou ...
Style:
visually stunning, visual, epic, retro, realistic ...
Plot:
homosexuality, lgbtq, gays and lesbians, gender bending, theater, suicide, homoerotic friendship, crazy love, cultural revolution, chinese history, boy, sexual abuse ...
Time:
1940s, 1920s, 1930s, ancient times, 20th century ...
Place:
china, beijing china, tibet, asia, japan ...
Similarity:
67%
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 125 min.
Story:
China in the 1920s. After her father's death, 19 year old Songlian is forced to marry the much older lord of a powerful family. With three wives already, each living in a separate house within the great castle, there is fierce competition for ...
Style:
visually stunning, cerebral, stylized, depressing, intense ...
Plot:
intrigue, teenage girl, feminism, passion, power struggle, tradition, jealousy, wealth, mistress, massage, polygamy, unrequited love ...
Time:
1920s, 20th century, year 1991
Place:
china, east asia, tibet, asia, india
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Drama, War
Country: Iran, France, Iraq
Duration: 98 min.
Story:
Turtles can fly tells the story of a group of young children near the Turkey-Iran border. They clean up mines and wait for the Saddam regime to fall.
Style:
emotional, bleak, atmospheric, stylized, rough ...
Audience:
teens
Plot:
childhood, children in wartime, blind character, coming of age, children, camp, child, muslim, anti war, saddam hussein, survival, orphan ...
Time:
year 2004, 2000s, 20th century, 21st century
Place:
kurdistan, middle east, iran, maghreb, afghanistan ...
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: China
Duration: 91 min.
Story:
An old leper who owned a remote sorghum winery dies. Jiu'er, the wife bought by the leper, and her lover, identified only as "my Grandpa" by the narrator, take over the winery and set up an idealized quasi-matriarchal community headed ...
Style:
costume drama, tense, independent film, mind blowing, manga ...
Plot:
sino japanese war, wine, world war two, minimal dialogue, arranged marriage, literary, struggle, partisan, japanese occupation of china, war crime, rural area, couples ...
Time:
1930s, 20th century, year 1987, 1940s, 1920s
Place:
china, indiana, tibet, asia, tokyo ...
Similarity:
100%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama, War
Country: China
Duration: 120 min.
Story:
Based on a true story, this horrifying tale follows two orphaned friends as they struggle to survive during World War II.
Style:
serious, touching, bleak, mesmerizing, saga ...
Plot:
world war two, tattoo, monastery, orphan, summer camp, youth, war, life is a bitch, military, innocence lost, society, wartime life ...
Time:
1940s, year 1941
Place:
russia, moscow russia, soviet union, china, ussr
Similarity:
32%
Genre: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 153 min.
Story:
Jamie Graham, a privileged English boy, is living in Shanghai when the Japanese invade and force all foreigners into prison camps. Jamie is captured with an American sailor named Basie, who looks out for him while they are in the camp together. Even ...
Style:
epic, sad, period piece, crying, emotional ...
Audience:
family friendly, family outing, teens, teen drama
Plot:
world war two, coming of age, child protagonist, childhood, survival, pow, boy, japanese army, prisoner, young heroes, captivity, starvation ...
Time:
1940s, 20th century, year 1945, year 1987
Place:
china, hong kong, japan, asia, indochina ...
Similarity:
30%
Genre: Biography, Drama, War
Country: Taiwan
Duration: 142 min.
Story:
In the first half of this century, young Li Tienlu joins a travelling puppet theatre and subsequently makes a career as one of Taiwan's leading puppeteers.
Style:
serious, sincere, slow cinema, aesthetic, contemplative ...
Plot:
world war two, puppeteer, anti war, politics, wartime life, performer's life, asian history, brother brother relationship, father daughter relationship, father son relationship, husband wife relationship, storytelling ...
Time:
1940s, 20th century, 1930s, year 1993, 1900s ...
Place:
taiwan, china, taipei
Similarity:
29%
Genre: Drama, Romance, War
Country: China, USA
Duration: 116 min.
Story:
With World War 2 looming, a prominent family in China must confront the contrasting ideas of traditionalism, communism and Western thinking, while dealing with the most important ideal of all: love and its meaning in society.
Style:
emotional, serious, realistic, tense, intercultural ...
Plot:
interracial romance, forbidden love, fall in love, social differences, culture clash, society, couple relations, politics, state affairs, couples, family problems, political unrest ...
Time:
year 2001, 1930s, year 1938, pre world war two
Place:
china, japan, asia
Similarity:
26%
11K
Genre: Drama, War
Country: Spain
Duration: 96 min.
Story:
The film centres on Moncho and his coming-of-age experience in Galicia in 1936. Moncho develops a close relationship with his teacher Don Gregorio who introduces the boy to different things in the world. While the story centres on Moncho's ...
Style:
sentimental, touching, realistic, political, compassionate ...
Audience:
teens, kids
Plot:
spanish civil war, coming of age, civil war, friendship, children, teacher, childhood, altar boy, spanish history, depression, anarchist, family relations ...
Time:
1930s, 20th century, year 1999, 90s, year 1936 ...
Place:
spain, iberian peninsula, barcelona, europe, galicia ...
Similarity:
25%
Genre: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria
Duration: 150 min.
Story:
A nurse and her surgeon-lover are part of a resistance movement in 1940s Czechoslovakia. When they are discovered, her lover flees and she must find a place to hide. A patient whose life she saved, a man from a remote mountain village where time ...
Style:
touching, realistic, sincere, contemplative, epic ...
Audience:
chick flick, girls' night
Plot:
world war two, redemption, small town, resistance, couple relations, marriage, betrayal, older man younger woman relationship, self discovery, life is a bitch, hopes, society ...
Time:
1940s, year 2003, 20th century, post world war two
Place:
central europe, prague, czechoslovakia, germany
Similarity:
24%
Genre: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min.
Story:
In a small town in California's San Joaquin Valley, 14-year-old Homer Macauley is determined to be the best and fastest bicycle telegraph messenger anyone has ever seen. His older brother has gone to war, leaving Homer to look after his widowed ...
Style:
captivating, thought provoking, realistic, tense, freeze frame ...
Plot:
world war two, coming of age, brother brother relationship, promise, friendship, family relations, death of brother, fear, husband wife relationship, jealousy, teenage boy, anti war ...
Time:
1940s, year 1942, 20th century
Place:
usa
Similarity:
23%
Genre: Drama, War
Country: West Germany, France
Duration: 108 min.
Story:
Georg Laschen leaves his family in West Germany to go work as a war correspondent in Beirut during the fights between Christians and Palestinians.
Style:
political, thought provoking, serious, realistic, disturbing ...
Plot:
journalism, reporter, photograph, female nudity, photographer, adoption, child, cold war, lebanese civil war, correspondents, nude girl, raf ...
Time:
20th century, 80s, year 1981
Place:
lebanon, germany, middle east, west berlin west germany, east berlin ...
Similarity:
23%
Genre: Drama, History, War
Country: China, Hong Kong, UK
Duration: 133 min.
Story:
City of Life and Death takes place in 1937, during the height of the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Imperial Japanese Army has just captured the then-capital of the Republic of China, Nanjing. What followed was known as the Nanking Massacre, or the ...
Style:
disturbing, rough, bleak, breathtaking, black and white ...
Plot:
sino japanese war, world war two, japanese army, war crime, sexual abuse, war atrocity, japanese occupation, rape, chinese history, atrocity, life is a bitch, japanese occupation of china ...
Time:
1930s, year 1938, year 2009, 2010s, 20th century ...
Place:
china, asia, shanghai
Similarity:
23%
Genre: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: China
Duration: 139 min.
Story:
During the Japanese occupation of China, two prisoners are dumped in a peasant's home in a small town. The owner is bullied into keeping the prisoners until the next New Year, at which time they will be collected. The village leaders convene to ...
Style:
cerebral, semi serious, atmospheric, realistic, humorous ...
Plot:
japanese occupation, world war two, military, resistance, anti war, wartime life, village, rebelliousness, confined, captivity, society, nothing goes right ...
Time:
1940s, 20th century
Place:
china, japan, asia
Similarity:
23%
Genre: Drama, War
Country: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland
Duration: 91 min.
Story:
Told from the perspective of man reflecting on his childhood in Prauge in the early years of World War 2 and the eventual destruction of his family as the Nazis rise to power. The storyline focuses heavily on Jewish-Czech Silberstein family members. ...
Style:
contemplative, captivating, realistic, serious, touching ...
Plot:
world war two, coming of age, escapades, hopes, life is a bitch, society, life turned upside down, circus, election, judaism, youth, starvation ...
Time:
80s, 1930s, 1940s, 20th century
Place:
slovakia, europe, czech republic, central europe, palestine ...
Similarity:
23%
Genre: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 106 min.
Story:
Teacher Gao loves the students in his poor village and is devoted to educating them in the hope of their greater futures. When he is called away to tend to his dying mother for a month, the Mayor calls in an inexperienced 13 year-old replacement, ...
Style:
inspirational, road movie, realistic, touching, sad ...
Plot:
teacher, children, poverty, coming of age, mountain, food, asian history, youth, school teacher, job, teaching, teenager ...
Time:
year 1999, 90s, 20th century
Place:
china, tibet, tokyo, iran, japan ...
Similarity:
23%
Genre: Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 102 min.
Story:
Set in the fields of Devon and the WW1 battlefields of Flanders, two brothers fall for the same girl while contending with the pressures of their feudal family life, the war, and the price of courage and cowardice.
Style:
serious, touching, emotional, realistic, crying ...
Audience:
teens
Plot:
world war one, love triangle, soldier, war, military, landowner, grief, flashback, unplanned pregnancy, injustice, poverty, battlefield ...
Time:
20th century, 1910s, year 2012
Place:
england, belgium, europe
Similarity:
22%
313
Genre: Drama
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 120 min.
Story:
The young adult life of Hong Yunsheng, nicknamed Little Brother, is seen as somewhat of a failure by those that know him. A Chinese national, he stowed away on a boat to the United States, where he worked as a dishwasher in the restaurant of a ...
Style:
psychological, serious, realistic, sincere, crying
Plot:
family in crisis, family relations, deportation, immigrant, restaurant, eccentric family, love affair, family problems, estrangement, working class, parents and children, society ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
china, shanghai
Similarity:
22%
993
Genre: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 120 min.
Story:
With a daughter who suffers from cerebral palsy and a son who's lost his much-needed scholarship, an impoverished married couple begins to abandon their faith and courage in the face of such misfortune. But when a gifted young boy called ...
Style:
touching, emotional, sentimental, serious, realistic ...
Plot:
hopes, family relations, life is a bitch, family problems, parents and children, youth, society, prodigy, dealing with death, single parent, disability, rich and poor ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
the philippines, manila philippines
Similarity:
22%
Genre: Drama, War
Country: Russia, France
Duration: 135 min.
Story:
Russia, 1936: revolutionary hero Colonel Kotov is spending an idyllic summer in his dacha with his young wife and six-year-old daughter Nadia and other assorted family and friends. Things change dramatically with the unheralded arrival of Cousin ...
Style:
touching, stylized, captivating, sad, political ...
Plot:
politics, communist, stalinism, communism, father daughter relationship, nkvd, countryside, repression, symbolism, love, tragedy, redemption ...
Time:
1930s, 20th century, year 1994, year 1936
Place:
soviet union, russia, ussr, poland
Similarity:
21%
Genre: Drama, War
Country: Canada
Duration: 90 min.
Story:
Somewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa, Komona a 14-year-old girl tells her unborn child growing inside her the story of her life since she has been at war. Everything started when she was abducted by the rebel army at the age of 12.
Style:
disturbing, touching, serious, bleak, social ...
Audience:
teen drama
Plot:
child soldier, civil war, slavery, murder, battles, rebel army, teenager, life is a bitch, wartime life, haunted by the past, rebellion, african ...
Time:
year 2012, 21st century
Place:
africa, canada
Similarity:
21%
178
Genre: Drama, War
Country: West Germany
Duration: 125 min.
Story:
Although members of the Hitler Youth chant anti-Semitic paroles in front of his house during the Purim festival, Rabbi Singer is still profoundly convinced that Germany will stay a safe country for him, his family, and his fellow believers. But ...
Style:
realistic, serious, emotional, rough, bleak ...
Plot:
holocaust, world war two, nazi, holocaust survivor, boy, chess, hitler youth, little boy, rabbi, family relations, survival, anti semitism ...
Time:
1930s, 20th century, 1940s
Place:
europe, germany, black sea, new york, vienna ...
Similarity:
21%
Genre: Drama, War
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 94 min.
Story:
When his family moves from their home in Berlin to a strange new house in Poland, young Bruno befriends Shmuel, a boy who lives on the other side of the fence where everyone seems to be wearing striped pajamas. Unaware of Shmuel's fate as a ...
Style:
emotional, touching, heartbreaking, sad, sentimental ...
Audience:
teens, family friendly, family outing, kids, teen drama ...
Plot:
holocaust, world war two, concentration camp, war, children, friendship, childhood, nazi, nazism, gas chamber, boy, morality ...
Time:
1940s, 20th century, ancient times, year 2008, year 1941 ...
Place:
germany, poland, europe, berlin germany, switzerland
Similarity:
21%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: UK, China, USA
Duration: 128 min.
Story:
After spending years in California, Amir returns to his homeland in Afghanistan to help his old friend Hassan, whose son is in trouble.
Style:
emotional, disturbing, inspirational, sincere, psychological ...
Audience:
teens, chick flick, adult
Plot:
friendship, childhood, redemption, islam, muslim, coming of age, mission, guilt, courage, bully, rape, haunted by the past ...
Time:
80s, 70s, year 2007, 2010s, 20th century ...
Place:
afghanistan, china, middle east, california, iraq ...
Similarity:
21%
Genre: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 138 min.
Story:
Come See The Paradise is a deeply touching love story set against the backdrop of a dramatic and controversial period in American history, It follows the romance and eventual marriage of Jack McGurn (Dennis Quad), a hot blooded Irish American, and a ...
Style:
emotional, contemplative, realistic, serious, thought provoking ...
Plot:
world war two, forbidden love, love, racism, atomic bomb, family relations, culture clash, war, interracial romance, hospital, death, marriage ...
Time:
1940s, year 1936, 1930s, 20th century, year 1941 ...
Place:
hiroshima japan, ireland, japan, asia, seattle ...
Similarity:
21%
Genre: Drama, War
Country: Italy, Algeria
Duration: 121 min.
Story:
Tracing the struggle of the Algerian Front de Liberation Nationale to gain freedom from French colonial rule as seen through the eyes of Ali from his start as a petty thief to his rise to prominence in the organisation and capture by the French in ...
Style:
black and white, political, philosophical, art house, cerebral ...
Plot:
revolution, colonialism, protest, torture, military, muslim, french algerian war, politics, terrorism, insurrection, independence, revolutionary ...
Time:
year 1957, 20th century, 50s, year 1954, year 1966 ...
Place:
africa, algeria, middle east, france, north africa ...
Similarity:
20%
Genre: Drama, War
Country: Australia, China, Germany, USA
Duration: 125 min.
Story:
About young British journalist, George Hogg, who with the assistance of a courageous Australian nurse, saves a group of orphaned children during the Japanese occupation of China in 1937.
Style:
sincere, touching, captivating, serious, social ...
Plot:
survival, orphan, selflessness, rescue, self discovery, heroes, escapades, daring rescue, soldier, society, danger, invasion ...
Time:
1940s, 1930s, 20th century, year 1938, year 1945 ...
Place:
china, asia, east asia
Similarity:
20%
181
Genre: Drama, Music, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min.
Story:
Clandestinely filmed on location in Chinese-ruled Tibet (several actors and crew members had their names withheld for fear of reprisal), documentarian Paul Wagner's compelling drama follows three young Tibetans faced with moral dilemmas: a ...
Style:
independent film, contemplative, realistic, serious, thought provoking ...
Plot:
buddhism, buddhist, politics, murder, buddhist monk, state affairs, society, innocence lost, coming of age, dishonesty, clergy, life is a bitch ...
Time:
90s, year 1998, year 1979
Place:
tibet, himalaya, china, asia, nepal
Similarity:
20%
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance, War
Country: Canada, China, France
Duration: 115 min.
Story:
True story of Norman Bethune, a medical doctor who fought for justice in China during Mao's rise to power.
Style:
realistic, serious, epic, suspense, exciting ...
Plot:
japanese history, military, evacuation, politics, world war two, rebellion, hopes, idealism, media, injustice, revolution, medical profession ...
Time:
1920s, 1930s, pre world war two
Place:
china, spain, asia, russia, montreal ...
Similarity:
20%
Genre: Drama, War
Country: Algeria, France, Morocco, Belgium
Duration: 120 min.
Story:
During WWII, four North African men enlist in the French army to liberate that country from Nazi oppression, and to fight French discrimination.
Style:
emotional, realistic, rough, serious, political ...
Plot:
battles, war, world war two, politics, brutality, justice, military, muslim, survival, racism, self esteem, ethnic conflict ...
Time:
year 1944, 50s, 20th century, 1940s, year 2006 ...
Place:
africa, algeria, morocco, italy, europe ...
Similarity:
20%
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