Movies Like I Fly for Kicks

If you liked I Fly for Kicks (1963), a movie directed by Koreyoshi Kurahara, 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
Ocean Waves (1993)
★ 6.4/10
At Kichijōji Station, Tokyo, Taku Morisaki glimpses a familiar woman on the platform opposite boarding a train. Later, her photo falls from a shelf as he exits his apartment before flying to Kōchi Prefecture. Picking…
2
Maborosi (1995)
★ 7.5/10
A tragedy strikes a young woman's life without warning or reason. She continues living while searching for meaning in a lonely world.
3
Tamako Love Story (2014)
★ 7.2/10
Devoted to her family’s rice-cake–making business and the high school baton club, Tamako is a little slow when it comes to love. She’s oblivious to her childhood friend Mochizo’s affections, even though all their…
4
Ride Your Wave (2019)
★ 7.5/10
Hinako is a surf-loving college student who has just moved to a small seaside town. When a sudden fire breaks out at her apartment building, she is rescued by Minato, a handsome firefighter, and the two soon fall in…
5
Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal the Movie Part 1 (2021)
★ 7.9/10
After a total solar eclipse, a dark circus troupe appears, Mamoru is stricken with a mysterious malady and bad things start happening across the city. Sequel to the Sailor Moon Crystal TV series.
6
The Wind Rises (2013)
★ 7.8/10
A lifelong love of flight inspires Japanese aviation engineer Jiro Horikoshi, whose storied career includes the creation of the A-6M World War II fighter plane.
7
5 Centimeters per Second (2007)
★ 7.3/10
Three moments in Takaki's life: his relationship with Akari and their forced separation; his friendship with Kanae, who is secretly in love with him; the demands and disappointments of adulthood, an unhappy life in a…
8
Battle Royale (2000)
★ 7.3/10
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.
9
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (2021)
★ 7.2/10
An unexpected love triangle, a seduction trap, and a random encounter are the three episodes, told in three movements to depict three female characters and trace the trajectories between their choices and regrets.
10
Footloose (1984)
★ 6.7/10
When teenager Ren and his family move from big-city Chicago to a small town in the West, he's in for a real case of culture shock after discovering he's living in a place where music and dancing are illegal.
11
Sex and Fury (1973)
★ 6.2/10
Sex & Fury chronicles Ocho's exploits as she searches for her father's killers, each identified by unique tattoos on their backs (a deer, a boar, and a butterfly). Along the way, she also crosses paths with Shunosuke…
12
Hellfighters (1968)
★ 6.3/10
The adventures of oil well fire specialist Chance Buckman (based on real-life Red Adair), who extinguishes massive fires in oil fields around the world.
13
Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! Take On Me (2018)
★ 7.8/10
Yuuta and Rikka are in their third year of high school. One day in Spring, Touka declares that she will take Rikka to Italy with her, as her job has stabilized there and thinks they should migrate together as a family…
14
Giovanni's Island (2014)
★ 7.5/10
In the aftermath of the most devastating conflict mankind had ever experienced, the tiny island of Shikotan became part of the Sakhalin Oblast... and on the unhealed border in this remote corner of the world…
15
Detective Conan: Jolly Roger in the Deep Azure (2007)
★ 6.5/10
The Isle of Koumi, a beautiful island in the Pacific Ocean. On the island, people pass an old legend down from generation to generation that there was the Seabed Palace, an ancient ruin at the bottom of the sea, where…
16
From Up on Poppy Hill (2011)
★ 7.5/10
Yokohama, 1963. Japan is picking itself up from the devastation of World War II and preparing to host the 1964 Olympics—and the mood is one of both optimism and conflict as the young generation struggles to throw off…
17
Dolls (2002)
★ 7.5/10
Dolls takes puppeteering as its overriding motif, which relates thematically to the action provided by the live characters. Chief among those tales is the story of Matsumoto and Sawako, a young couple whose…
18
Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc (2025)
★ 8.5/10
In a brutal war between devils, hunters, and secret enemies, a mysterious girl named Reze has stepped into Denji's world, and he faces his deadliest battle yet, fueled by love in a world where survival knows no rules.
19
Double Suicide (1969)
★ 7/10
Successful and married with children, paper-mill owner Jihei knows better than to contradict the strict social and moral codes of 18th-century Japan. But when he meets the lovely courtesan Koharu, he becomes a man…
20
Teasing Master Takagi-san: The Movie (2022)
★ 8.4/10
Takagi and Nishikata’s final summer in junior high is about to begin, and it’s already off to a heartwarming start! When the pair find an abandoned kitten, they decide to work together and take care of Hana, their…