Movies Like Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
If you liked Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (2002), a drama and romance movie directed by Dai Sijie, 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
In the Heat of the Sun (1994)
★ 7.8/10Also drama and romanceBeijing, 1970s. The Cultural Revolution has driven most adults to the provinces leaving 14-year-old Monkey and his pals with free rein over the city. They hang around, get up to no good, and discover that unsolvable…
- 2
Hibiscus Town (1987)
★ 7.9/10Also drama and romanceBased on a novel by the same name written by Gu Hua, a melodrama about the life and travails of a young woman who lives through the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution.
- 3
The Good Earth (1937)
★ 6.3/10Also drama and romanceChina, during the rule of the Qing Dynasty. The arranged marriage between Wang Lung, a humble farmer, and O-Lan, a domestic slave, will endure the many hardships of life over the years; but the temptations of a fragile…
- 4
Sight (2023)
★ 6.4/10Also dramaMing 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…
- 5
Under the Hawthorn Tree (2010)
★ 7.8/10Also drama and romanceThe daughter of a right-winger, schoolgirl Jing Qiu is sent to the countryside for reeducation, and tasked to help write a textbook. There she meets Lao San, a young soldier with a bright future ahead. Despite the…
- 6
One Second (2020)
★ 7.3/10Also dramaA movie fan escapes from a labour camp during the Chinese Cultural Revolution and strikes up a relationship with a homeless female vagabond.
- 7
Red Sorghum (1988)
★ 7.4/10Also drama and romanceAn 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…
- 8
Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998)
★ 7.2/10Also dramaYoung teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even…
- 9
Summer Palace (2007)
★ 7.4/10Also drama and romanceYu Hong leaves her home village and starts university in Beijing, where she develops a consuming and compulsive relationship with another student. The student riots from 1989 then ensue and take a toll on their lives.
- 10
The Lost Husband (2020)
★ 6.7/10Also drama and romanceTrying to put her life back together after the death of her husband, Libby and her children move to her estranged Aunt's goat farm in central Texas.
- 11
Blind (2017)
★ 6.1/10Also drama and romanceA novelist is blinded in a car crash that killed his wife and several years later rediscovers his passion for life and writing when he embarks on an affair with the neglected wife of an indicted businessman.
- 12
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (2025)
★ 6.2/10Also romance and dramaSarah and David are single strangers who meet at a mutual friend’s wedding and soon, through a surprising twist of fate, find themselves on a funny, fantastical, sweeping adventure together where they get to re-live…
- 13
A Woman of Paris: A Drama of Fate (1923)
★ 6.7/10Also drama and romanceWhen Marie St. Clair believes she has been jilted by her artist fiance Jean, she decides to leave for Paris on her own. After spending a year in the city as a mistress of the wealthy Pierre Revel, she is reunited with…
- 14
Her Story (2024)
★ 7.6/10Also drama and romanceWang Tiemei, a single mother, loses her job and moves, befriending neighbor Xiaoye who appears cheerful but is depressed. Their bond grows as Tiemei navigates relationships with her ex-husband causing trouble.
- 15
Magnificent Obsession (1954)
★ 6.8/10Also drama and romanceReckless playboy Bob Merrick crashes his speedboat, requiring emergency attention from the town’s only resuscitator while a local hero, Dr. Phillips, dies waiting for the life-saving device. Merrick then tries to right…
- 16
Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between (2022)
★ 6.1/10Also romance and dramaClare and Aidan make a pact to break up before college — no regrets, no broken hearts. But will one epic goodbye date offer them a last chance at love?
- 17
Northanger Abbey (2007)
★ 6.8/10Also romance and dramaA young woman's penchant for sensational Gothic novels leads to misunderstandings in the matters of the heart.
- 18
Safe Haven (2013)
★ 7.2/10Also romanceA young woman with a mysterious past lands in Southport, North Carolina where her bond with a widower forces her to confront the dark secret that haunts her.
- 19
A Love Song (2022)
★ 6.6/10Also drama and romanceTwo childhood sweethearts, now both widowed, share a night by a lake in the mountains.
- 20
Dangerous Liaisons (2012)
★ 6/10Also drama and romanceDangerous Liaisons is a Chinese film by Hur Jin-ho based on the novel with the same title by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos.