Movies Like A River Without Tears

If you liked A River Without Tears (2024), a drama and crime movie directed by Liu Juan, here are 20 movies with a similar feel, based on TMDB's recommendations. Each one links to its cast, trailer and where it's streaming.

1
12 Citizens (2014)
★ 7.2/10Also drama and crime
When the film broke out that a young man coming from a rich adopted family murdered his birth father, the controversy around the case hit a nerve with the public at large. An experiment was held through the form of…
2
Siberian Education (2013)
★ 6.8/10Also drama and crime
The story of a gang of children growing up in a community of banished criminals, in a forgotten corner of the former Soviet Union. This community rejects the world outside. The only law it obeys… is its own. Against…
3
Only the River Flows (2023)
★ 6.5/10Also drama and crime
Dedicated police detective Ma Zhe is tasked with solving a series of brutal murders in a rural Chinese town. As pressure mounts from his superiors, a hasty arrest is made, but while his colleagues celebrate, several…
4
The Parts You Lose (2019)
★ 6.7/10Also drama and crime
An unlikely friendship unfolds between a young deaf boy, Wesley, and a fugitive criminal who takes refuge in an abandoned barn on the family’s rural North Dakota farm.
5
Above the Rim (1994)
★ 7.1/10Also crime and drama
Story of a promising high school basketball star and his relationships with two brothers, one a drug dealer and the other a former basketball star fallen on hard times and now employed as a security guard.
6
A Sun (2019)
★ 7.7/10Also drama and crime
A family of four fractures under the weight of unmet expectations, unexpected tragedy, and uncompromising pride.
7
No One Would Tell (1996)
★ 7/10Also drama and crime
Shy sixteen-year-old Stacy Collins can't believe that the most popular guy in school, an attractive athlete named Bobby Tennison, is interested in her. At first she is flattered by his constant attention, but then he…
8
Suburbicon (2017)
★ 5.9/10Also crime and drama
In the quiet family town of Suburbicon during the 1950s, the best and worst of humanity is hilariously reflected through the deeds of seemingly ordinary people. When a home invasion turns deadly, a picture-perfect…
9
Winged Creatures (2009)
★ 5.9/10Also crime and drama
A psychotic man opens fire in a diner, murdering numerous people before killing himself. The survivors struggle in different ways following this horrendous event: a doctor doubts his own instincts and elects to use an…
10
True Believer (1989)
★ 6.2/10Also crime and drama
Eddie Dodd is a burnt out former civil rights lawyer who now specializes in defending drug dealers. Roger Baron, newly graduated from law school, has followed Eddie's great cases and now wants to learn at his feet…
11
I Am All Girls (2021)
★ 6.5/10Also drama and crime
A special crimes investigator forms an unlikely bond with a serial killer to bring down a global child sex trafficking syndicate.
12
The Public Eye (1992)
★ 6.2/10Also crime and drama
A crime photographer gets involved in a conspiracy.
13
The Bygone (2019)
★ 6.5/10Also crime and drama
When a young rancher crosses paths with a Lakota girl from a nearby reservation, her mysterious disappearance sparks a search that uncovers a harrowing past and hints at a dire future.
14
Five Minutes of Heaven (2009)
★ 6.1/10Also crime and drama
The story of former Ulster Volunteer Force member Alistair Little. Twenty-five years after Little killed Joe Griffin's brother, the media arrange an auspicious meeting between the two.
15
Plunder Road (1957)
★ 6.9/10Also crime and drama
A spectacular heist starts to unravel as the crooks take it on the lam.
16
Striking Rescue (2024)
★ 7.5/10Also crime and drama
A veteran Muay Thai expert goes on a take-no-prisoners mission of revenge after his wife and daughter are brutally murdered by mysterious forces.
17
Run (1991)
★ 6/10Also drama
When a law student accidentally kills the son of a mob boss in a fight, he finds himself relentlessly pursued by the mob and the police.
18
Òlòtūré (2019)
★ 6.3/10Also drama and crime
In Lagos, Nigeria, young, naive Nigerian journalist Òlòtūré goes undercover to expose the shady underworld of human trafficking. Unused to this brutal environment, crawling with ruthless traders and pimps, Òlòtūré…
19
The Quiller Memorandum (1966)
★ 5.9/10Also drama and crime
After two British Secret Intelligence Service agents are murdered at the hands of a cryptic neo-Nazi group known as Phoenix, the suave agent Quiller is sent to Berlin to investigate.
20
Barron's Cove (2025)
★ 7.1/10Also crime and drama
When his young son is viciously murdered by a classmate, a grieving father with a history of violence kidnaps the child responsible, igniting a frenzied manhunt fueled by a powerful politician -- the father of the…