Movies like The Eel
If you like "The Eel" you are looking for enigmatic, captivating and psychological movies about / with self discovery, starting over, social relations, human nature, hopes, crimes of passion and haunted by the past 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.
The Eel (1997)
6K
Where to Watch
Original name: うなぎ
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 barber in prison) and talks almost to no-one except for the eel he "befriended" in prison. One day he finds the unconscious body of Keiko, who attempted suicide and reminds him of his wife. She starts to work at his shop, but he doesn't let her become close to him.
Style:
enigmatic, captivating, psychological, touching, sexy, erotic, light, bleak, melancholic, surreal ...
Plot:
self discovery, starting over, social relations, human nature, hopes, crimes of passion, haunted by the past, murder, prison, adultery, suicide attempt, obsession, erotica, village, eccentricity, sex, death, boat, guilt, marriage, catastrophe, artist, relationships, women, loneliness ...
Time:
90s, 80s, 1990s
Place:
japan, tokyo, new jersey, asia
Movie in categories
Most similar movies to The Eel
The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out thought provoking, enigmatic, talky and cerebral films with plots about loneliness, storytelling, runaway, existentialism, culture clash, suprisingly clever and catastrophe mostly in Drama, Comedy and Fantasy genres. Some movies like The Eel: Departures (2008), Warm Water Under a Red Bridge (2001), Woman in the Dunes (1964), Eureka (2000), Maborosi (1995). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
Subscribe for new and better recommendations:
Genre: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 130 min.
Story:
Daigo, a cellist, is laid off from his orchestra and moves with his wife back to his small hometown where the living is cheaper. Thinking he’s applying for a job at a travel agency he finds he’s being interviewed for work with departures of a ...
Style:
thought provoking, sad, psychological, touching, inspirational ...
Plot:
self discovery, funeral, father son relationship, pregnant wife, workplace, small town, character study, new job, small town life, death, melancholy, music ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
japan, tokyo, asia
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Country: Japan, France
Duration: 119 min.
Story:
A newly unemployed salaryman meets a particularly sexual woman.
Style:
surreal, sexy, erotic, sentimental, touching ...
Plot:
sexuality, sex, relationships, adultery, self discovery, love affair, couple relations, unlikely couple, mysterious character, starting over, couples, sexual relations ...
Time:
post world war two, 21st century
Place:
japan, tokyo, hong kong, new jersey, asia
⇓ similarity ⇓
63%
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 147 min.
Story:
An entomologist suffers extreme psychological and sexual torture after being taken captive by the residents of a poor seaside village.
Style:
atmospheric, surreal, psychological, philosophical, experimental ...
Plot:
existentialism, surrealism, desert, love affair, trapped, beautiful scenery, obsession, solitude, isolation, samurai, mental disorder, love and romance ...
Time:
60s, 20th century
Place:
japan, tokyo, asia
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Genre: Drama
Country: Japan, France
Duration: 217 min.
Story:
In Kyushu, southwest Japan, one hot summer morning, a municipal bus is hijacked. In the carnage only three people survive: the driver, a school girl, and her older brother.
Style:
bleak, psychological, enigmatic, lyrical, sincere ...
Plot:
road trip, bus driver, haunted by the past, survival, family relations, serial killer, orphan, starting over, hijacking, bus, redemption, on the road ...
Time:
90s
Place:
japan, tokyo, asia
⇓ similarity ⇓
41%
Movie in collections
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 ⇓
40%
Also search:
Amour related movies
Genre: Drama
Country: France, Italy, Germany
Duration: 106 min.
Story:
Nelly leaves her lazy, unemployed husband to work for retired judge Mr Arnaud, forty years her senior, after he offers to clear her bills for her. While she types his memoirs the two develop a close friendship, but Arnaud becomes jealous when Nelly ...
Style:
sexy, breathtaking, witty, talky, cerebral ...
Plot:
love triangle, death, fighting the system, culture clash, love, love story, crime gone awry, corruption, destiny, french, greed, character study ...
Time:
1920s, 90s
Place:
france, paris france, california, tokyo, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
36%
Genre: Drama
Country: Iran, France
Duration: 95 min.
Story:
A middle-aged Tehranian man, Mr. Badii is intent on killing himself and seeks someone to bury him after his demise. Driving around the city, the seemingly well-to-do Badii meets with numerous people, including a Muslim student, asking them to take ...
Style:
art house, road movie, psychological, atmospheric, bleak ...
Plot:
suicide, existentialism, death, car, muslim, desert, depression, art, brutality, life, life & death, life philosophy ...
Time:
90s
Place:
iran, tokyo, tehran iran, middle east, tehran
⇓ similarity ⇓
35%
11K
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 130 min.
Story:
An old married man leaves his wife for a younger woman. Shortly after, his ex-wife also begins a relationship with a younger partner.
Style:
intense, art house, biting, talky, sexy ...
Plot:
dysfunctional family, suspense, prostitute, sex, male nudity, women, time travel, social outcast, feminism, melancholy, nude, cheating ...
Time:
20th century, 60s
Place:
tokyo
⇓ similarity ⇓
35%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 101 min.
Story:
Andreas, a man struggling with the recent demise of his marriage and his own emotional isolation, befriends a married couple also in the midst of psychological turmoil. In turn he meets Anna, who is grieving the recent deaths of her husband and son. ...
Style:
art house, cerebral, surreal, psychological, bleak ...
Plot:
solitude, depression, isolation, insanity, island, psychology, female nudity, guilt, suicide, loneliness, life philosophy, art ...
Time:
60s, 20th century
Place:
sweden, eastern europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
35%
Genre: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 115 min.
Story:
While performing in a touring kabuki troupe, leading female impersonator Yukinojo comes across the three men who drove his parents to suicide twenty years earlier, and plans his revenge, firstly by seducing the daughter of one of them, secondly by ...
Style:
atmospheric, stylized, sexy, disturbing, enigmatic ...
Plot:
samurai, revenge, sword fight, obsession, fantasy world, brutality, dark humor, male nudity, manipulation, paranoid, runaway, screwball ...
Time:
1930s, 19th century
Place:
japan, tokyo, asia
⇓ similarity ⇓
34%
Also search:
The Brown Bunny similar movies
Genre: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 90 min.
Story:
A young Parisian must make major decisions about pregnancy, a job and her boyfriend.
Style:
erotic, sexual, sexy, ironic, clever ...
Plot:
pregnancy, hotel, boyfriend girlfriend relationship, making love, sex scene, glbt, tragedy, weapons, nude, lust, lgbt, melancholy ...
Time:
90s, 70s
Place:
paris france, france, tokyo, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
34%
Genre: Drama
Country: Vietnam, France, Germany
Duration: 112 min.
Story:
Hanoi comes across almost picture-perfect in director Tran Anh Hung's beautiful, elegiac tale about the lives and loves of three Vietnamese sisters. A mood characteristic of Hung's films is set early on with the vivid sounds of birds, ...
Style:
melancholic, sincere, psychological, serious, touching ...
Plot:
infidelity, marriage, adultery, pregnancy, family relations, couples, family life, love and romance, siblings relations, family problems, unfulfillment, crumbling marriage ...
Time:
90s
Place:
vietnam, tokyo, paris france
⇓ similarity ⇓
34%
Genre: Drama
Country: Spain, France
Duration: 103 min.
Story:
A scorned ex-convict forces himself into the lives of the couple who put him behind bars.
Style:
sexy, erotic, psychological, intense, atmospheric ...
Audience:
adult
Plot:
infidelity, lust, disability, obsession, desire, bus, betrayal, sex, love triangle, haunted by the past, relationships, magic realism ...
Time:
20th century, 90s, 70s, year 1990, year 1970
Place:
spain, iberian peninsula, madrid, europe, sarajevo ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
33%
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 ⇓
33%
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 ⇓
33%
Also search:
Films like Nobody Knows
Genre: Drama
Country: Finland
Duration: 74 min.
Story:
With few options, newly pardoned convict Leila agrees to work as an assistant to a blind pastor. Father Jacob spends his days answering the letters of the needy, which Leila finds pointless. But when the letters stop, the pastor is devastated and ...
Style:
psychological, melancholic, touching, serious, sentimental ...
Plot:
blind character, friendship, forgiveness, pardon, depression, loneliness, mentor, adaptation, life philosophy, life & death, justice, starting over ...
Time:
20th century, 70s
Place:
finland, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
33%
Genre: Drama
Country: Iran, France
Duration: 118 min.
Story:
Irreverent city engineer Behzad comes to a rural village in Iran to keep vigil for a dying relative. In the meanwhile the film follows his efforts to fit in with the local community and how he changes his own attitudes as a result.
Style:
thought provoking, philosophical, melancholic, serious, touching ...
Plot:
small town, countryside, kurd, fish out of water, childhood, family relations, village, parents and children, coming of age, village life, politics, existentialism ...
Time:
90s
Place:
iran, kurdistan, middle east
⇓ similarity ⇓
33%
Genre: Drama
Country: France, Italy, Greece, Germany
Duration: 137 min.
Story:
Alexander, a famous writer, is very ill and has only a few days to live. He meets a little boy on the street, who is an illegal immigrant from Albania. Alexander then takes the boy home.
Style:
thought provoking, road movie, art house, psychological, sincere ...
Plot:
death, terminal illness, coming of age, art, writers, immigrants, destiny, greek, hospital, catastrophe, brutality, artist ...
Time:
future, 90s
Place:
greece, tokyo, australia, japan
⇓ similarity ⇓
32%
10K
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min.
Story:
At a summer house in Vermont, neighbor Howard falls in love with Lane, who's in a relationship with Peter, who's falling for Stephanie, who's married with children.
Style:
talky, emotional, serious, sentimental, realistic ...
Plot:
dysfunctional family, adultery, friendship, depression, loneliness, love triangle, family relations, couples, family problems, parents and children, friends, human nature ...
Time:
20th century, 80s
Place:
usa, vermont
⇓ similarity ⇓
32%
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 ⇓
32%
Also search:
Movies similar to The Way Home
Genre: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 103 min.
Story:
Teenage siblings Nenette and Boni were raised apart as a result of their parents' divorce. Their mother, who doted on her son Boni, has died. He works for an interesting couple as a pizza baker, and is surprised and enraged when his younger ...
Style:
psychological, art house, melancholic, sexy, thought provoking ...
Audience:
teens, pre-teens
Plot:
dysfunctional family, obsession, sexuality, teenage life, siblings relations, love and romance, human nature, single parent, coming of age, incest, character study, hospital ...
Time:
90s
Place:
tokyo, london, vietnam, france
⇓ similarity ⇓
32%
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 ⇓
32%
22K
Genre: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 122 min.
Story:
A married couple attend a bourgeois party and wade through the stifling strain that long-term marriage has imposed upon them.
Style:
reflective, cerebral, art house, erotic, sexy ...
Plot:
writers, infidelity, hospital, love, relationships, marriage, family relations, crumbling marriage, alienation, dysfunctional family, midlife crisis, crazy love ...
Time:
60s, 20th century
Place:
italy, milan italy, tokyo, mediterranean sea, berlin germany ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
32%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: UK, Canada
Duration: 97 min.
Story:
Morvern Callar wakes on Christmas morning to discover that her troubled boyfriend has committed suicide, leaving behind the unpublished manuscript to his first novel and a sum of money intended to pay for his burial. Instead, Morvern attempts to use ...
Style:
disturbing, talky, psychological, touching, serious ...
Plot:
self discovery, suicide, christmas, friendship, writers, supermarket, life philosophy, road trip, friends, couple relations, best friend, twentysomething life ...
Place:
scotland, spain, ibiza, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
31%
Genre: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 91 min.
Story:
A bored, sexually frustrated woman's life improves when she begins hypnotherapy and tries feng shui, but her husband's life unravels.
Style:
sexy, sexual, allegory, gloomy, poignant ...
Plot:
infidelity, islam, mentor, male nudity, loneliness, life philosophy, kick-butt women, sexual abuse, secrets, relationships, police corruption, obsession ...
Time:
90s
Place:
tokyo, hong kong, japan, paris france
⇓ similarity ⇓
31%
Also search:
Movies like XX/XY
28K
Genre: Drama
Country: Italy, Soviet Union
Duration: 125 min.
Story:
The Russian poet Andrei Gorchakov, accompanied by guide and translator Eugenia, is traveling through Italy researching the life of an 18th-century Russian composer. In an ancient spa town, he meets the lunatic Domenico, who years earlier had ...
Style:
atmospheric, reflective, philosophical, art house, cerebral ...
Plot:
philosophy, art, existentialism, dream, obsession, insanity, memory, writer's life, redemption, culture clash, poetry, runaway ...
Time:
80s, 18th century
Place:
russia, rome italy, ussr, europe, italy ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
31%
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 ...
Style:
touching, compassionate, meditative, atmospheric, depressing ...
Plot:
poverty, redemption, social differences, life is a bitch, working class, samurai, slum, character study, unlikely friendships, tragedy, hopes, family problems ...
Time:
20th century, 60s
Place:
tokyo, japan, asia
⇓ similarity ⇓
31%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min.
Story:
An introspective dentist's suspicions about his wife's infidelity stresses his mental well being and family life to the breaking point.
Style:
psychological, thought provoking, emotional, talky, semi serious ...
Plot:
imaginary friend, adultery, dysfunctional family, character study, couple relations, human nature, jealous spouse, lifestyle, dishonesty, couples, family problems, mentally unstable ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
new york state
⇓ similarity ⇓
31%
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 ⇓
31%
Genre: Drama
Country: Denmark, Sweden, Finland, South Africa, Norway, USA
Duration: 110 min.
Story:
Stranded in the heat of a barren African desert, eleven bus-passengers shelter in the remnants of an abandoned town. As rescue grows more remote by the day and anxiety deepens, an idea emerges: why not stage a play. However the choice of King Lear ...
Style:
bleak, stylized, melancholic, atmospheric, psychological ...
Plot:
desert, survival, stranded, isolation, culture clash, rescue, life is a bitch, human nature, dogma, shakespeare, bus, tragedy ...
Time:
90s
Place:
africa, new jersey, australia, namibia
⇓ similarity ⇓
31%
Subscribe for new and better recommendations:
Related movie lists
