Movies Similar to Behind the Rising Sun

Memoirs of a Geisha(2005)

In the years before World War II, a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house.

7.7

Mothra vs. Godzilla(1964)

Journalists Ichiro Sakai and Junko cover the wreckage of a typhoon when an enormous egg is found and claimed by greedy entrepreneurs. Mothra's fairies arrive and are aided by the journalists in a plea for its return. As their requests are denied, Godzilla arises near Nagoya and the people of Infant Island must decide if they are willing to answer Japan's own pleas for help.

7.0

To End All Wars(2001)

Based on a real-life story, this drama focuses on a small group of Allied soldiers in Burma who are held captive by the Japanese. Capt. Ernest Gordon, Lt. Jim Reardon and Maj. Ian Campbell are among the military officers kept imprisoned and routinely beaten and deprived of food. While Campbell wants to rebel and attempt an escape, Gordon tries to take a more stoic approach, an attitude that proves to be surprisingly resonant.

6.4

Ichiko(2023)

On August 12, 2015, Hasegawa proposed to Ichiko. Ichiko is moved by Hasegawa's proposal and sheds tears, but the next day, she suddenly leaves home, seemingly shocked after seeing the TV news. Where did Ichiko go? Hasegawa reports the disappearance to the police, and the detective in charge of the investigation tells an unexpected story.

7.6

Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade(1999)

A member of an elite paramilitary counter-terrorism unit becomes traumatized after witnessing the suicide bombing of a young girl and is forced to undergo retraining. However, unbeknownst to him, he becomes a key player in a dispute between rival police divisions, as he finds himself increasingly involved with the sister of the girl he saw die.

7.4

The Bridge on the River Kwai(1957)

The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson, the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.

7.8

Dolls(2002)

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 relationship is about to be broken apart by the former's parents, who have insisted their son take part in an arranged marriage to his boss' daughter.

7.6

Lost in Translation(2003)

Two lost souls visiting Tokyo -- the young, neglected wife of a photographer and a washed-up movie star shooting a TV commercial -- find an odd solace and pensive freedom to be real in each other's company, away from their lives in America.

7.4

Zatoichi(2003)

Blind traveler Zatoichi is a master swordsman and a masseur with a fondness for gambling on dice games. When he arrives in a village torn apart by warring gangs, he sets out to protect the townspeople.

7.2

Bed and Board(1970)

Parisian everyman Antoine Doinel has married his sweetheart Christine Darbon, and the newlyweds have set up a cozy domestic life of selling flowers and giving violin lessons while Antoine fitfully works on his long-gestating novel. As Christine becomes pregnant with the couple's first child, Antoine finds himself enraptured with a young Japanese beauty. The complications change the course of their relationship forever.

7.1

Seven Samurai(1954)

A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food.

8.5

Little Peach(1958)

Anzukko (Little Peach) is the daughter of a successful writer. She turns down each one of her suitors, until she marries a beginning writer named Ryokichi. Their life quickly sinks into despair.

5.8

Kubi(2023)

Lord Oda Nobunaga plans to control Japan where rival warlords battle by waging war against several clans. His vassal Araki Murashige stages a rebellion and promptly disappears.

7.1

The Pledge to Megumi(2021)

A film depicting the story of Yokota Megumi who was abducted by North Korean agents in 1977.

7.3

The Tokyo Night Sky Is Always the Densest Shade of Blue(2017)

Mika works as a nurse by day; by night she entertains covetous men at a girls' bar. Shinji is blind in one eye and ekes out a living as a construction worker. Young and grown-up at the same time, they both lead a lonely existence, but somehow their paths keep miraculously crossing under the Tokyo sky.

6.7

Dawn of the Felines(2017)

A story of three escort girls living in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. They work at the same escort service while feeling lonely in their urban lives.

5.9

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy(2021)

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.

7.2

The Third Murder(2017)

A lawyer tasked with defending a robbery-and-murder suspect begins developing doubts about what truly happened.

6.6

Moon Rabbit(2018)

Seven-year-old Rio visits her grandparents in Japan for the first time. She observes the beauty and unfamiliarity of the household, sensing a distance between her American family and the Japanese relatives. When her mother, Seiko, reveals an open secret during tea, the children are excused from the room and something happens behind closed doors.

2.0

Little Boy(2015)

An eight-year-old boy is willing to do whatever it takes to end World War II so he can bring his father home. The story reveals the indescribable love a father has for his little boy and the love a son has for his father.

7.2