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Movies Like Ballad of Orin

If you liked Ballad of Orin (1977), a drama movie directed by Masahiro Shinoda, 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. 1ICHI

    ICHI (2008)

    ★ 6.8/10Also drama

    Ichi is a blind entertainer that travels the countryside with her traditional Japanese guitar and walking stick. She’s in search for the kind man that brought her up as a child, but because of her beauty she encounters…

  2. 2Zatoichi: Darkness Is His Ally

    Zatoichi: Darkness Is His Ally (1989)

    ★ 6.4/10Also drama

    Older, wiser but still a wandering loner, the blind, peace-loving masseur Ichi seeks a peaceful life in a rural village. When he's caught in the middle of a power struggle between two rival Yakuza clans, his reputation…

  3. 3Zatoichi

    Zatoichi (2003)

    ★ 7.2/10Also drama

    Blind traveler Zatoichi is a master swordsman and a masseur with a fondness for gambling on dice games. When he arrives in a village torn apart by warring gangs, he sets out to protect the townspeople.

  4. 4Samurai Rebellion

    Samurai Rebellion (1967)

    ★ 8.2/10Also drama

    The mother of a feudal lord's only heir is kidnapped by the lord. Her husband and his samurai father must decide whether to accept the unjust decision, or risk death to rescue her.

  5. 5The Ballad of Narayama

    The Ballad of Narayama (1983)

    ★ 7.5/10Also drama

    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 they would disgrace their family. Old Orin is 69. This winter it…

  6. 6Inu-Oh

    Inu-Oh (2022)

    ★ 7.5/10Also drama

    A cursed dancer and a blind musician — both ostracized by society — become business partners and inseparable friends as their larger-than-life concerts propel them to stardom in 14th century Japan.

  7. 7The Miracle Worker

    The Miracle Worker (2000)

    ★ 7.3/10Also drama

    Devoted teacher Anne Sullivan leads deaf, blind and mute Helen Keller out of solitude and helps integrate her into the world.

  8. 8Sakuran

    Sakuran (2006)

    ★ 6.5/10Also drama

    Kiyoha rises from the lowly courtesan ranks to the high class position of Oiran in the steamy red-light district of Yoshiwara. She is determined to stand on her own two feet and live life as she pleased.

  9. 9Taboo

    Taboo (1999)

    ★ 6.6/10Also drama

    Set during Japan's Shogun era, this film looks at life in a samurai compound where young warriors are trained in swordfighting. A number of interpersonal conflicts are brewing in the training room, all centering on a…

  10. 10Buddha 2: The Endless Journey

    Buddha 2: The Endless Journey (2014)

    ★ 7.7/10Also drama

    2500 years ago, in India, Siddhartha was born as a prince of the Shakya clan, but he gives up his position as a prince to see the world. He meets a strange boy named Assaji, who can predict the future, a monk with only…

  11. 11Love & Pop

    Love & Pop (1998)

    ★ 7.7/10Also drama

    Tokyo 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…

  12. 12Only Yesterday

    Only Yesterday (1991)

    ★ 7.4/10Also drama

    In lyrical switches between the present and the past, Taeko contemplates the arc of her life, and wonders if she has been true to the dreams of her childhood self.

  13. 13Sight

    Sight (2023)

    ★ 6.4/10Also drama

    Ming Wang is an impoverished Chinese prodigy who flees Communist China to become a pioneering eye surgeon in America. When tasked with restoring the sight of an orphan in India, who was blinded by her stepmother, Wang…

  14. 14Suzume

    Suzume (2022)

    ★ 7.9/10Also drama

    Suzume, 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…

  15. 15The Tale of The Princess Kaguya

    The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (2013)

    ★ 8.1/10Also drama

    Found inside a shining stalk of bamboo by an old bamboo cutter and his wife, a tiny girl grows rapidly into an exquisite young lady. The mysterious young princess enthrals all who encounter her. But, ultimately, she…

  16. 16The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail

    The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail (1952)

    ★ 6.7/10Also drama

    A fugitive lord and his six retainers disguise themselves as monks to bluff their way through a hostile checkpoint.

  17. 17Tokyo Decadence

    Tokyo Decadence (1992)

    ★ 6/10Also drama

    A submissive hooker goes about her trade, suffering abuse at the hands of Japanese salarymen and Yakuza types. She's unhappy about her work, and is apparently trying to find some sort of appeasement for the fact that…

  18. 18Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo

    Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo (1970)

    ★ 6.8/10Also drama

    Zatoichi treks to a village that has always been a favorite spot of his, only to discover that it’s become a living hell, plagued by feuding father and son yakuza as well as the younger crime boss’s bodyguard, scruffy…

  19. 19Zigeunerweisen

    Zigeunerweisen (1980)

    ★ 6.5/10Also drama

    A surreal period film following a university professor and his eerie nomad friend as they go through loose romantic triangles and face death in peculiar ways.

  20. 20Red Beard

    Red Beard (1965)

    ★ 8.2/10Also drama

    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…

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