Movies like Ikiru (1952)

10 films to watch after Ikiru, ranked by how well they match its tone — not just its genre.

Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.

1

Tokyo Story (1953)

Fit 78%

Shares Drama with Ikiru.

The elderly Shukishi and his wife, Tomi, take the long journey from their small seaside village to visit their adult children in Tokyo. Their elder son, Koichi, a doctor, and their daughter, Shige, a hairdresser, don't have much time to spend with their aged parents, and so it falls to Noriko, the widow of their younger son who was killed in the war, to keep her in-laws company.
2

An Autumn Afternoon (1962)

Fit 75%

Shares Drama with Ikiru.

Widower Shuhei Hirayama's caretaker is his 24-year-old daughter, Michiko. Gradually, he comes to realize that Michiko should not be obliged to look after him for the rest of his life, so he arranges a marriage for her.
3

Plan 75 (2022)

Fit 74%

Shares Drama with Ikiru.

In a Japan of the near future, the government program Plan 75 encourages senior citizens to be voluntarily euthanized to remedy a super-aged society. An elderly woman whose means of survival are vanishing, a pragmatic Plan 75 salesman, and a young Filipino laborer face choices of life and death.
4

Perfect Days (2023)

Fit 73%

Shares Drama with Ikiru.

Hirayama is content with his life as a toilet cleaner in Tokyo. Outside of his structured routine, he cherishes music on cassette tapes, books, and taking photos of trees. Through unexpected encounters, he reflects on finding beauty in the world.
5

The Lost Weekend (1945)

Fit 70%

Shares Drama with Ikiru.

Longtime alcoholic Don Birnam has been sober for ten days and appears to be over the worst... but his craving has just become more insidious. Evading a country weekend planned by his brother and girlfriend, he begins a four-day bender that just might be his last – one way or another.
6

The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)

Fit 69%

Shares Drama with Ikiru.

After handing in a report on the treatment of Chinese colonial labor, Kaji is offered the post of labour chief at a large mining operation in Manchuria, which also grants him exemption from military service. He accepts and moves with his newlywed wife Michiko, but when he tries to put his ideas of more humane treatment into practice, he finds himself at odds with scheming officials, cruel foremen, and the military police.
7

All of a Sudden (2026)

Fit 58%

Shares Drama with Ikiru.

Marie-Lou Fontaine, director of a nursing home in the Paris suburbs, defies convention by adopting the 'Humanitude' method despite her team’s resistance. Her encounter with Mari Morisaki, a terminally ill Japanese playwright, transforms her life. Together, they turn the facility into a symbol of resistance and humanity against the system’s limits.
8

Happy Hour (2015)

Fit 51%

Shares Drama with Ikiru.

Four women in their thirties reevaluate their relationships, both shared and private, after a startling revelation concerning one's marriage forces each of them to ask one of life's biggest questions: "Am I who I want to be?"
9

Hereafter (2010)

Fit 49%

Shares Drama with Ikiru.

Three people — a blue-collar American, a French journalist and a London school boy — are touched by death in different ways.
10

McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

Fit 48%

Shares Drama with Ikiru.

A gambler and a prostitute become thriving business partners in a remote Old West mining town until a large corporation arrives on the scene.