Movies like Raise the Red Lantern (1991)

Name: Raise the Red Lantern
Released: 1991

10 films to watch after Raise the Red Lantern, ranked by how well they match its tone — not just its genre.

In 1920s China, 19-year-old Songlian becomes a concubine of a powerful lord and is forced to compete with his three wives for the privileges gained.

1

The Lion in Winter (1968)

Fit 76%

Shares Drama with Raise the Red Lantern.

Christmas 1183, Angevin Empire: King Henry II plans to announce his successor to the throne. Jockeying for the crown, though, is complex. Henry has three sons and wants his boy Prince John to take over. Henry's wife, Queen Eleanor, believes their son Prince Richard should be king. As family and various schemers gather for the holiday, each tries to make the indecisive king choose their option.
2

The Twilight Samurai (2002)

Fit 73%

Shares Drama with Raise the Red Lantern.

Seibei Iguchi leads a difficult life as a low ranking samurai at the turn of the nineteenth century. A widower with a meager income, Seibei struggles to take care of his two daughters and senile mother. New prospects seem to open up when the beautiful Tomoe, a childhood friend, comes back into he and his daughters' life, but as the Japanese feudal system unravels, Seibei is still bound by the code of honor of the samurai and by his own sense of social precedence. How can he find a way to do what is best for those he loves?
3

Othello (1951)

Fit 67%

Shares Drama with Raise the Red Lantern.

Manipulated by his jealous ensign Iago, the Moorish general Othello is driven to believe that his new wife Desdemona is unfaithful, setting in motion a chain of deception, jealousy, and violence that leads to tragedy.
4

The Cat's Meow (2002)

Fit 65%

Shares Drama with Raise the Red Lantern.

Semi-true story of the Hollywood murder that occurred at a star-studded gathering aboard William Randolph Hearst's yacht in 1924.
5

Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

Fit 61%

Shares Drama with Raise the Red Lantern.

Ted Kramer is a career man for whom his work comes before his family. His wife Joanna cannot take this anymore, so she decides to leave him. Ted is now faced with the tasks of housekeeping and taking care of himself and their young son Billy.
6

Julia (1977)

Fit 55%

Shares Drama with Raise the Red Lantern.

At the behest of an old and dear friend, playwright Lillian Hellman undertakes a dangerous mission to smuggle funds into Nazi Germany.
7

Priscilla (2023)

Fit 53%

Shares Drama with Raise the Red Lantern.

When teenage Priscilla Beaulieu meets Elvis Presley at a party, the man who is already a meteoric rock-and-roll superstar becomes someone entirely unexpected in private moments: a thrilling crush, an ally in loneliness, a vulnerable best friend.
8

Sleuth (2007)

Fit 50%

Shares Drama with Raise the Red Lantern.

Locked in a high-tech English manor, bound in a deadly duel of wits, Andrew Wyke and Milo Tindle come together as English gentlemen to discuss the matter of Wyke's wife: the woman both are sleeping with.
9

Mississippi Mermaid (1969)

Fit 49%

Shares Drama with Raise the Red Lantern.

A tobacco planter on Réunion island in the Indian Ocean becomes engaged through correspondence to a French woman he does not know. The woman that arrives does not look like the picture he received, but he marries her anyway.
10

All the King's Men (2006)

Fit 42%

Shares Drama with Raise the Red Lantern.

The story of an idealist's rise to power in the world of Louisiana politics and the corruption that leads to his ultimate downfall. Based on the 1946 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel written by Robert Penn Warren, loosely based on the story of real-life politician Huey Long.