Movies Like The Japanese Sandman

If you liked The Japanese Sandman (2008), a movie directed by Ed Buhr, 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
Lost in Translation (2003)
★ 7.4/10
Two lost souls visiting Tokyo -- the young, neglected wife of a photographer and a washed-up movie star shooting a TV commercial -- find an odd solace and pensive freedom to be real in each other's company, away from…
2
Mifune: The Last Samurai (2016)
★ 7/10
An account of the life and work of legendary Japanese actor Toshirō Mifune (1920-97), the most prominent actor of the Golden Age of Japanese cinema.
3
Loving Vincent (2017)
★ 8/10
A young man arrives at the last hometown of painter Vincent van Gogh to deliver the troubled artist's final letter and ends up investigating his final days there.
4
The Sea of Trees (2016)
★ 6.2/10
In Japan's Aokigahara Forest, a troubled teacher meets a mysterious lost stranger who takes him on a life-changing journey of love and redemption.
5
The Doors (1991)
★ 7.1/10
The story of the famous and influential 1960s rock band and its lead singer and composer, Jim Morrison.
6
Little Ashes (2008)
★ 5.8/10
About the young life and loves of artist Salvador Dalí, filmmaker Luis Buñuel and writer Federico García Lorca.
7
The Notebook (2004)
★ 7.9/10
An epic love story centered around an older man who reads aloud to a woman with Alzheimer's. From a faded notebook, the old man's words bring to life the story about a couple who is separated by World War II, and is…
8
Kensuke's Kingdom (2024)
★ 7.1/10
A young boy and his family set off on a sailing trip of a lifetime until a violent storm erupts, sweeping Michael and his dog overboard. After washing up on a remote island, terrified, they struggle to survive and…
9
Elegy (2008)
★ 6.3/10
Cultural critic David Kepesh finds his life -- which he indicates is a state of "emancipated manhood" -- thrown into tragic disarray by Consuela Castillo, a well-mannered student who awakens a sense of sexual…
10
Spider-Man 3 (2007)
★ 6.5/10
The seemingly invincible Spider-Man goes up against an all-new crop of villains—including the shape-shifting Sandman. While Spider-Man’s superpowers are altered by an alien organism, his alter ego, Peter Parker, deals…
11
Age of Consent (1969)
★ 6/10
An elderly artist thinks he has become too stale and is past his prime. His friend (and agent) persuades him to go to an offshore island to try once more. On the island he re-discovers his muse in the form of a young…
12
Hereafter (2010)
★ 6.2/10
Three people — a blue-collar American, a French journalist and a London school boy — are touched by death in different ways.
13
The End of the Tour (2015)
★ 7/10
The story of the five-day interview between Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky and acclaimed novelist David Foster Wallace, which took place right after the 1996 publication of Wallace's groundbreaking epic novel…
14
Iris (2001)
★ 6.4/10
True story of the lifelong romance between novelist Iris Murdoch and her husband John Bayley, from their student days through her battle with Alzheimer's disease.
15
Isle of Dogs (2018)
★ 7.8/10
In the future, an outbreak of canine flu leads the mayor of a Japanese city to banish all dogs to an island used as a garbage dump. The outcasts must soon embark on an epic journey when a 12-year-old boy arrives on the…
16
Final Portrait (2017)
★ 6/10
Paris, 1964. The Swiss sculptor and painter Alberto Giacometti, one of the most accomplished and respected artists of his generation, asks his friend, the American writer James Lord, to sit for a portrait, assuring him…
17
Sayonara (1957)
★ 6.7/10
Air Force Major Lloyd Gruver is reassigned to a Japanese air base and is confronted with US racial prejudice against the Japanese people. The issue is compounded because a number of the soldiers become romantically…
18
Burrow (2020)
★ 7.4/10
A young rabbit embarks on a journey to dig the burrow of her dreams, despite not having a clue what she's doing. Rather than reveal to her neighbors her imperfections, she digs herself deeper and deeper into trouble…
19
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (2014)
★ 6.6/10
Frustrated with her mundane life, a Tokyo office worker becomes obsessed with a fictional movie that she mistakes for a documentary. Fixating on a scene where stolen cash is buried in North Dakota, she travels to…
20
Causeway (2022)
★ 6.5/10
A US soldier suffers a traumatic brain injury while fighting in Afghanistan and struggles to adjust to life back home in New Orleans. When she meets local mechanic James, the pair begin to forge an unexpected bond.