Movies Like Sweet-Smelling Movie: Be a Light to the World

If you liked Sweet-Smelling Movie: Be a Light to the World (2016), a drama and music movie directed by Mai Sakai, 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
Rascal Does Not Dream of a Knapsack Kid (2023)
★ 7.7/10Also drama
Finally, the day of Mai's high school graduation has arrived. While Sakuta eagerly waits for his girlfriend, an elementary schooler who looks exactly like her appears before him. Suspicious, and for all the wrong…
2
Liz and the Blue Bird (2018)
★ 7.5/10Also drama and music
In their last year of high school, two girls in the brass band club perform a song inspired by a fairy tale that parallels their friendship.
3
Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out (2023)
★ 7.7/10Also drama
After a draining December, Sakuta is quickly nearing the end of his second year of high school. Since Mai is a third-year student, they don't have much time left together before graduation rolls around. Meanwhile, his…
4
All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001)
★ 7.5/10Also drama
Charts the troubled teenage years of students Yūichi Hasumi and Shūsuke Hoshino, exploring the shifting and complex power dynamics of their relationship against the backdrop of Yūichi's love for the dreamy and abstract…
5
The Colors Within (2024)
★ 6.9/10Also drama and music
Totsuko is a high school student with the ability to see the 'colors' of others. Colors of bliss, excitement, and serenity, plus a color she treasures as her favorite. Kimi, a classmate at her school, gives off the…
6
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…
7
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006)
★ 7.8/10Also drama
When 17-year-old Makoto Konno gains the ability to 'leap' backwards through time, she immediately sets about improving her grades and preventing personal mishaps. However, she soon realises that changing the past isn't…
8
Too Late Blues (1961)
★ 6.4/10Also drama and music
Ghost is an ideological musician and leader of a jazz band who would rather play his blues in the park to the birds than compromise himself. His peripatetic performances lead him to cross paths with a singer, while his…
9
Teen Spirit (2019)
★ 6/10Also music and drama
A shy teenager living on the Isle of Wight dreams of pop stardom. With the help of an unlikely mentor, she enters a singing competition that will test her integrity, talent, and ambition.
10
Hounddog (2008)
★ 6.5/10Also drama and music
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
11
Orange (2015)
★ 7.3/10Also drama
A girl mysteriously receives advice from her future self and as a result her group of friends, along with a newly arrived, troubled classmate, learn how to be better friends and a better community.
12
Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal the Movie Part 2 (2021)
★ 8.2/10Also drama
While under the care of the Outer Sailor Guardians, Hotaru begins to age rapidly. Then, the time comes for all the Sailor Guardians to reunite!
13
Grace Unplugged (2013)
★ 6/10Also drama and music
A talented young singer and aspiring songwriter’s Christian faith and family ties are tested when she defies her worship-pastor father and pursues pop-music stardom in GRACE UNPLUGGED, a moving and inspiring new film…
14
Poupelle of Chimney Town (2020)
★ 6.5/10Also drama
The story is about a young boy named Lubicchi and a trashman named Poupelle who meet on a Halloween night in a city that is full of tall chimneys. The chimneys pour out black smoke and the true sky cannot be seen.
15
Cosmic Princess Kaguya! (2026)
★ 8.1/10Also music
Iroha's life gets knocked off its orbit when Kaguya, a carefree runaway from the Moon, moves in and convinces her to perform in a virtual world together.
16
Before I Fall (2017)
★ 7/10Also drama
Samantha Kingston has everything. Then, everything changes. After one fateful night, she wakes up with no future at all. Trapped into reliving the same day over and over, she begins to question just how perfect her…
17
Blue Spring (2001)
★ 7.1/10Also drama
Soon after being named the new leader of his high school's gang system, Kujo grows bored with the violence and hatred that surround him. He wants desperately to abandon his post… but his once-enviable position of power…
18
Battle Royale (2000)
★ 7.3/10Also drama
In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act.
19
Bleach the Movie: Fade to Black (2008)
★ 7.1/10Also drama
A strange disturbance in the World of the Living sends Ichigo and Kon to the Soul Society, where the Seireitei has been devastated by an explosion of reishi and Rukia is missing. Stranger still, none of the Soul…
20
The Piano Forest (2007)
★ 7.1/10Also music and drama
Shuhei Amamiya transfers to Moriwaki Elementary filled with hope and ambition. But it doesn't take long before he gets picked on by the class bullies, and gets involved in a dare to play the mysterious piano in the…