Movies Like There Was Such a Thing Before
If you liked There Was Such a Thing Before (2025), a drama movie directed by Yoshihiko Matsui, 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
Fukushima 50 (2020)
★ 6.5/10Also dramaWorkers at the Fukushima Daiichi facility in Japan risk their lives and stay at the nuclear power plant to prevent total destruction after the region is devastated by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
- 2
House of Bamboo (1955)
★ 6.2/10Also dramaEddie Kenner is given a special assignment by the Army to get the inside story on Sandy Dawson, a former GI who has formed a gang of fellow servicemen and Japanese locals.
- 3
Barefoot Gen 2 (1986)
★ 6.9/10Also dramaThree years after the Hiroshima bombing, a teenager helps a group of orphans to survive and find their new life.
- 4
The Land of Hope (2012)
★ 6.1/10Also dramaAn old couple, their only son, the son's wife, a young man and his lover live peacefully in a village. Then, a terrifying earthquake strikes that causes a nearby nuclear station to explode. The residents must evacuate…
- 5
Hereafter (2010)
★ 6.1/10Also dramaThree people — a blue-collar American, a French journalist and a London school boy — are touched by death in different ways.
- 6
Maborosi (1995)
★ 7.5/10Also dramaA tragedy strikes a young woman's life without warning or reason. She continues living while searching for meaning in a lonely world.
- 7
Black Rain (1989)
★ 7.6/10Also dramaShigematsu Shizuma, who lives with his family in a village near Fukuyama, was in Hiroshima with his wife and niece just after the devastating atomic bombing, a tragedy that cruelly took the lives of thousands of people…
- 8
Barefoot Gen (1983)
★ 7.6/10Also dramaA story about the effect of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on a boy's life and the lives of the Japanese people.
- 9
Suzume (2022)
★ 7.9/10Also dramaSuzume, 17, lost her mother as a little girl. On her way to school, she meets a mysterious young man. But her curiosity unleashes a calamity that endangers the entire population of Japan, and so Suzume embarks on a…
- 10
Love & Pop (1998)
★ 7.7/10Also dramaTokyo schoolgirl Hiromi and her friends engage in a practice known as enjo kosai, or "compensated dating", where older men pay young girls for dates. Hiromi plunges deeper into this world to raise money for an…
- 11
The Outsider (2018)
★ 6.1/10Also dramaA former American G.I. joins a yakuza family after his release from prison in post-World War II Osaka.
- 12
The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity (1959)
★ 8.2/10Also dramaKaji, sent to the Japanese army labeled Red, witnesses cruelties in the army and revolts against the abusive treatment against a fellow recruit. He also sees his friend Shinjô defecting to the Russian border, and he…
- 13
Dreams (1990)
★ 7.7/10Also dramaEight visually rich vignettes drawn from Kurosawa’s own dreams—fox weddings and vanished orchards, a soldier’s ghosts, a walk through Van Gogh’s canvases, nuclear nightmares, and a water-mill utopia—meditate on…
- 14
Harakiri (1962)
★ 8.5/10Also dramaDown-on-his-luck veteran Tsugumo Hanshirō enters the courtyard of the prosperous House of Iyi. Unemployed, and with no family, he hopes to find a place to commit seppuku—and a worthy second to deliver the coup de grâce…
- 15
Charm City Kings (2020)
★ 7.8/10Also dramaMouse desperately wants to join The Midnight Clique, the infamous Baltimore dirt bike riders who rule the summertime streets. When Midnight’s leader, Blax, takes 14-year-old Mouse under his wing, Mouse soon finds…
- 16
Panic in Year Zero! (1962)
★ 6.3/10Also dramaWhile on a fishing trip, Harry Baldwin and his family hear an explosion and realize that Los Angeles has been leveled by a nuclear attack. Looters and killers are everywhere. Escaping to the hills with his family, he…
- 17
Stray Dog (1949)
★ 7.6/10Also dramaA bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose…
- 18
Himizu (2012)
★ 7.1/10Also dramaTwo 14-year-olds from troubled, abusive homes come together sharing misery and pain. In the aftermath of an earthquake, the classmates learn how to survive while relying on one another for emotional and physical support.
- 19
Tokyo Family (2013)
★ 7.3/10Also dramaAn elderly couple journey to Tokyo to visit their grown children, only to find them preoccupied and self-involved.
- 20
Air Doll (2009)
★ 6.9/10Also dramaA life-size, inflatable sex doll suddenly comes to life one day. Without her owner knowing, she goes for a walk around town and falls in love with Junichi. She starts to date Junichi and gets a job at the same store…