Movies Like Back to Roots

If you liked Back to Roots (1995), a movie directed by Raymond Leung, 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
Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)
★ 7.6/10
Ricky is a defiant young city kid who finds himself on the run with his cantankerous foster uncle in the wild New Zealand bush. A national manhunt ensues, and the two are forced to put aside their differences and work…
2
In Cold Blood (1967)
★ 7.5/10
After a botched robbery results in the brutal murder of a rural family, two drifters elude police, in the end coming to terms with their own mortality and the repercussions of their vile atrocity.
3
Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998)
★ 7.2/10
Young 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…
4
Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
★ 7.5/10
After moving to a new town, troublemaking teen Jim Stark is supposed to have a clean slate, although being the new kid in town brings its own problems. While searching for some stability, Stark forms a bond with a…
5
The Young One (1960)
★ 7/10
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
6
Rescue Dawn (2007)
★ 6.9/10
A US Fighter pilot's epic struggle of survival after being shot down on a mission over Laos during the Vietnam War.
7
Bad Ass 2: Bad Asses (2014)
★ 6.1/10
Vietnam vet Frank Vega now runs an East L.A. community center where he trains young boxers to survive in and out of the ring. But when his prize student falls in with the wrong crowd and turns up dead, Frank teams up…
8
Birth of the Dragon (2017)
★ 5.8/10
Set against the backdrop of San Francisco’s Chinatown, this cross-cultural biopic chronicles Bruce Lee’s emergence as a martial-arts superstar after his legendary secret showdown with fellow martial artist Wong Jack Man.
9
The Flyboys (2008)
★ 7.6/10
Two boys from a small town find their courage tested when they accidentally stow away aboard an airplane owned by the mob...
10
The Protector (1985)
★ 5.9/10
Billy Wong is a New York City cop whose partner is gunned down during a robbery. Billy and his new partner, Danny Garoni, are working security at a fashion show when a wealthy man's daughter, Laura Shapiro, is…
11
Mexicali (2026)
★ 7.8/10
A former special forces contractor is forced out of retirement as an avocado farmer in Mexico when local gangsters try to force him and his family off their farm.
12
Road to Paloma (2014)
★ 5.8/10
While Native American Wolf is being pursued by the FBI for having taken the law into his own hands, when his mother was raped and killed on their reservation he crosses paths with Cash, a down and out musician who is…
13
The True Adventures of Wolfboy (2019)
★ 5.9/10
Follows a young boy who runs away from home in the search of his estranged mother.
14
Hardball (2001)
★ 6.5/10
An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.
15
Secondhand Lions (2003)
★ 7.2/10
The comedic adventures of an introverted boy left on the doorstep of a pair of reluctant, eccentric great-uncles, whose exotic remembrances stir the boy's spirit and re-ignite the men's lives.
16
Run (1991)
★ 6/10
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.
17
Straw Dogs (1971)
★ 7.1/10
David Sumner, a mild-mannered academic from the United States, marries Amy, an Englishwoman. In order to escape a hectic stateside lifestyle, David and his wife relocate to the small town in rural Cornwall where Amy…
18
Uncommon Valor (1983)
★ 6.2/10
A group of Vietnam War veterans re-unite to rescue one of their own left behind and taken prisoner by the Vietnamese.
19
Dogville (2003)
★ 7.7/10
A woman on the run from the mob is reluctantly accepted in a small Colorado community in exchange for labor, but when a search visits the town, she learns that their support has a price.
20
The Crash (2026)
★ 6.8/10
A teen slams her car into a building, killing her boyfriend and his friend. What seems like a tragic accident becomes a murder case.