Movies Like The Flowers of War

If you liked The Flowers of War (2011), a drama and history movie directed by Zhang Yimou, 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
City of Life and Death (2009)
★ 7.4/10Also drama and history
In 1937, during the height of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Imperial Japanese Army has just captured Nanjing, then-capital of the Republic of China. What followed was known as the Nanking Massacre, or the Rape of…
2
Dead to Rights (2025)
★ 7.9/10Also war and drama
During the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, a postman poses as a photo developer, helping Japanese forces while secretly sheltering Chinese refugees. He later risks his life evacuating them and revealing evidence of the…
3
The Children of Huang Shi (2008)
★ 6.7/10Also drama and war
About young British journalist, George Hogg, who with the assistance of a courageous Australian nurse, saves a group of orphaned children during the Japanese occupation of China in 1937.
4
Rescue at Dongji (2025)
★ 8.4/10Also drama and history
Inspired by the real life rescue of over 300 British soldiers in 1942, Dongji Rescue is a rousing, action-packed story of heroism on the high seas. When the Japanese warship Lisbon Maru is torpedoed off the coast of…
5
Waiting for the Barbarians (2020)
★ 5.9/10Also drama and history
At an isolated frontier outpost, a colonial magistrate suffers a crisis of conscience when an army colonel arrives looking to interrogate the locals about an impending uprising, using cruel tactics that horrify the…
6
The Eight Hundred (2020)
★ 7/10Also war and history
In 1937, eight hundred Chinese soldiers fight under siege from a warehouse in the middle of the Shanghai battlefield, completely surrounded by the Japanese army.
7
Casualties of War (1989)
★ 7.2/10Also drama and history
During the Vietnam War, a soldier finds himself the outsider of his own squad when they unnecessarily kidnap a female villager.
8
Pork Chop Hill (1959)
★ 6.7/10Also drama and history
Korean War, April 1953. Lieutenant Clemons, leader of the King company of the United States Infantry, is ordered to recapture Pork Chop Hill, occupied by a powerful Chinese Army force, while, just seventy miles away…
9
Outlaws - For Greater Glory (2012)
★ 7/10Also history and drama
A chronicle of the Cristeros War (1926-1929), which was touched off by a rebellion against the Mexican government's attempt to secularize the country.
10
The Beguiled (1971)
★ 7/10Also history and drama
Offbeat Civil War drama in which a wounded Yankee soldier, after finding refuge in an isolated girls' school in the South towards the end of the war, becomes the object of the young women's sexual fantasies. The…
11
The Lost Bladesman (2011)
★ 6.2/10Also history and drama
During the warring period of the three kingdoms, ancient China is in turmoil. To unify the country, general Cao Cao, the real power behind the Emperor, enlists the aid of the greatest warrior in the land, Guan Yu…
12
Savior (1998)
★ 7.1/10Also history and drama
A hardened mercenary in the Foreign Legion begins to find his own humanity when confronted with atrocities during the fighting in Bosnia.
13
Play Dirty (1969)
★ 6.3/10Also war and drama
During World War II in North Africa, a group of British commandos disguised as Italian soldiers must travel behind enemy lines and destroy a vital Nazi oil depot.
14
The Secrets We Keep (2020)
★ 6/10Also history and drama
In post-World War II America, a woman, rebuilding her life in the suburbs with her husband, kidnaps her neighbor and seeks vengeance for the heinous war crimes she believes he committed against her.
15
Heaven & Earth (1993)
★ 6.6/10Also history and war
In a small Vietnamese village torn apart by war, a young woman faces unimaginable horrors before deciding to escape to the city. There, she encounters a compassionate Marine who offers her hope and a chance at a new…
16
The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
★ 7.4/10Also history and war
In war-torn colonial America, in the midst of a bloody battle between British, the French and Native American allies, the aristocratic daughter of a British Colonel and her party are captured by a group of Huron…
17
Schindler's List (1993)
★ 8.6/10Also drama and history
The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.
18
7 Women (1965)
★ 6.5/10Also drama and history
In a mission in China in 1935, a group of women are preyed on by Mongolian bandits, led by Warlord chief Tunga Khan.
19
Zulu (1964)
★ 7.4/10Also drama and history
In 1879, during the Anglo-Zulu War, man-of-the-people Lt. Chard and snooty Lt. Bromhead are in charge of defending the isolated and vastly outnumbered Natal outpost of Rorke's Drift from tribal hordes.
20
The Battle at Lake Changjin (2021)
★ 6.4/10Also drama and war
Korean War, winter 1950. In the frozen and snowy area of Changjin Lake, a bloody battle is about to begin between the elite troops of the United States and China.