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Movies Like Manila in the Claws of Light

If you liked Manila in the Claws of Light (1975), a drama and mystery movie directed by Lino Brocka, 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. 1Insiang

    Insiang (1976)

    ★ 7/10Also drama

    A story about the life of a young girl living with her mother in the slums of Manila, which becomes unbearable when her mother's young boyfriend moves in with them.

  2. 2Metro Manila

    Metro Manila (2013)

    ★ 7.3/10Also drama

    Looking for a brighter future in metropolitan Manila, Oscar Ramirez and his family leave their miserable life in the rice terraces of Banaue, in the northern Philippines. In the sweltering capital, where all kind of…

  3. 3Hereafter

    Hereafter (2010)

    ★ 6.2/10Also drama

    Three people — a blue-collar American, a French journalist and a London school boy — are touched by death in different ways.

  4. 4Lilting

    Lilting (2014)

    ★ 7/10Also drama

    A young man of Chinese-Cambodian descent dies, leaving behind his isolated mother and his lover of four years. Though the two don't share a language, they grow close through their grief.

  5. 5Where the Day Takes You

    Where the Day Takes You (1992)

    ★ 6.1/10Also drama

    King is a young man, but he's already a veteran of life on the streets of Los Angeles. The de facto leader of a group of teenage runaways, King acts as a mentor to troubled kids such as gay hustler Little J and junkie…

  6. 6Horns

    Horns (2013)

    ★ 6.3/10Also drama

    In the aftermath of his girlfriend's mysterious death, a young man awakens to strange horns sprouting from his temples.

  7. 7Mammal

    Mammal (2016)

    ★ 6.3/10Also drama

    After Margaret, a divorcée living in Dublin, loses her teenage son, she develops an unorthodox relationship with Joe, a homeless youth. Their tentative trust is threatened by his involvement with a violent gang and the…

  8. 8Cardboard Boxer

    Cardboard Boxer (2016)

    ★ 6.5/10Also drama

    Gentle and broken, a homeless man fights others on video for money but soon finds comfort in an unlikely friend and the lost diary of a young girl.

  9. 9Closet Monster

    Closet Monster (2016)

    ★ 7/10Also drama and mystery

    A creative and driven teenager is desperate to escape his hometown and the haunting memories of his turbulent childhood.

  10. 10House of Sand and Fog

    House of Sand and Fog (2003)

    ★ 7.1/10Also drama

    Behrani, an Iranian immigrant buys a California bungalow, thinking he can fix it up, sell it again, and make enough money to send his son to college. However, the house is the legal property of former drug addict…

  11. 11Moonlight

    Moonlight (2016)

    ★ 7.4/10Also drama

    The tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while grappling with his…

  12. 12Mothers' Instinct

    Mothers' Instinct (2024)

    ★ 6.8/10Also drama

    Housewives Alice and Celine are best friends and neighbours who seem to have it all. However, when a tragic accident shatters the harmony of their lives, guilt, suspicion and paranoia begin to unravel their sisterly…

  13. 13Dream Lover

    Dream Lover (1994)

    ★ 6.8/10Also drama and mystery

    Not long after they cross paths at an art gallery, architect Ray Reardon and hypnotically sensual Lena are married with children. But as strange incidents occur, Ray begins to realize he may not really know the woman…

  14. 14Night Always Comes

    Night Always Comes (2025)

    ★ 6.1/10Also drama

    Facing eviction in a city her family can no longer afford, a woman plunges into a desperate and increasingly dangerous all-night search to raise $25,000.

  15. 15Brand Upon the Brain!

    Brand Upon the Brain! (2007)

    ★ 6.6/10Also drama and mystery

    After returning home to his long-estranged mother upon a request from her deathbed, a man raised by his parents in an orphanage has to confront the childhood memories that have long haunted him.

  16. 16The Deep End of the Ocean

    The Deep End of the Ocean (1999)

    ★ 6.6/10Also drama and mystery

    A three-year-old boy disappears during his mother's high school reunion. Nine years later, by chance, he turns up in the town in which the family has just relocated.

  17. 17Crimes of Passion

    Crimes of Passion (1984)

    ★ 6.3/10Also drama

    Fashion designer Joanna Crane leads a double life. By night she is China Blue, a prostitute who's attracted the attention of a sexually frustrated private detective, and a psychopathic priest in possession of a…

  18. 18Cassandra's Dream

    Cassandra's Dream (2007)

    ★ 6.3/10Also drama

    The tale of two brothers with serious financial woes. When a third party proposes they turn to crime, things go bad and the two become enemies.

  19. 19Only God Forgives

    Only God Forgives (2013)

    ★ 5.8/10Also drama

    Julian, who runs a Thai boxing club as a front organization for his family's drug smuggling operation, is forced by his mother Crystal to find and kill the individual responsible for his brother's recent death.

  20. 20Pacific Heights

    Pacific Heights (1990)

    ★ 6.3/10Also drama and mystery

    A couple works hard to renovate their dream house and become landlords to pay for it. Unfortunately one of their tenants has plans of his own.

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