Movies Similar to Year One in the North

A Tender Place(2001)

Kasumi is in the midst of an affair with Ishiyama, one of her husband's clients. When Kasumi and her family visit Ishiyama's villa in Hokkaido, she plans to abandon them to be with Ishiyama. The next morning, her daughter Yuka disappears, which throws Kasumi's life into turmoil. Years later, Yuka remains missing, and Kasumi journeys back to Hokkaido with Utsumi, a terminally-ill former detective, and tries to follow any leads she can.

5.6

Gone with the Wind(1939)

The spoiled daughter of a Georgia plantation owner conducts a tumultuous romance with a cynical profiteer during the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era.

7.9

Lady Snowblood(1973)

Yuki's family is nearly wiped out before she is born due to the machinations of a band of criminals. These criminals kidnap and brutalize her mother but leave her alive. Later her mother ends up in prison with only revenge to keep her alive. She creates an instrument for this revenge by purposefully getting pregnant. Yuki never knows the love of a family but only killing and revenge.

7.5

Kinbakuka: Biniku no Mori(1985)

At the beginning of the Meiji era, Sayoko, the daughter of a large banker in Tokyo, comes to Sotobo's villa for the first time in eight years, guided by her student, Yasu. In fact, Yasu is the son of Keizo Naya, the keeper of this villa. His father and older sister, Kyoko, live quietly in this place, where people rarely visit, like recluses. Sayoko, who grew up sickly and full of selfishness, treats Yasu, who has feelings for her, like a slave, blindfolds him, makes him help her change clothes, and makes him imitate Sansuke in the bathroom.

2.0

Les Damnés de la Commune(2021)

Exclusively created with period engravings, this animated feature explores the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and the ensuing Paris Commune revolution in 1871.

7.1

Abashiri Prison(1965)

Abashiri Prison is located in the coldest place in Japan. Two men, handcuffed together have escaped from the prison, one a yakuza, the other a petty criminal, and although they hate each other they must work together if they are to evade capture in this harshest of climates.

7.1

Laughing Under the Clouds(2018)

In the dawn of the Meiji period, the Gokumonjou, an inescapable prison, has been established in the middle of an enormous lake to counter the soaring crime rates the new era has brought. Serving as the ferrymen are the famous Kumou brothers: the eccentric family head, Tenka; the reckless but noble second son, Soramaru; and the guileless youngest, Chuutarou. In spite of their grim work, the three lead relatively peaceful lives in the ever-cloudy town of Oumi, together with their housekeeper, Shirasu Kinjou. But buried in the long history of Oumi is the legend of the terrifying "Orochi," a serpentine beast that awakens every three hundred years in a human vessel. Unbeknownst to Soramaru and Chuutarou, the actual job of the Kumou family is to seal the Orochi away before it fully revives—or the world will be plunged into destruction. Amid the monster's next resurrection, the Kumou family must find the resolve to keep laughing under the clouds.

5.3

Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance(1974)

Lady Snowblood is caught by the police and sentenced to death for her crimes. As she is sent to the gallows she is rescued by the secret police who offer her a deal to assassinate some revolutionaries.

6.4

Millennium Actress(2002)

Documentary filmmaker Genya Tachibana has tracked down the legendary actress Chiyoko Fujiwara, who mysteriously vanished at the height of her career. When he presents her with a key she had lost and thought was gone forever, the filmmaker could not have imagined that it would not only unlock the long-held secrets of Chiyoko’s life... but also his own.

7.8

Why Not?(1981)

The film depicts carnivalesque atmosphere summed up by the cry "Ei ja nai ka" ("Why not?") in Japan in 1867 and 1868 in the days leading to the Meiji Restoration. It examines the effects of the political and social upheaval of the time, and culminates in a revelrous march on the Tokyo Imperial Palace, which turns into a massacre. Characteristically, Imamura focuses not on the leaders of the country, but on characters in the lower classes and on the fringes of society.

6.4

Solitary Gourmet New Year's Special ~Midwinter Hokkaido Asahikawa Business Trip Edition~(2016)

First business trip away from Tokyo in a while

9.0

The Rickshaw Man(1958)

A poor rickshaw driver finds himself helping a young woman and her son after the woman's husband dies suddenly.

7.2

Sakura Guardian in the North(2018)

The film follows the relationship between a mother and her son. In 1945, the mother played by Sayuri Yoshinaga fled with her two sons from the Russians to Hokkaido. In 1972, her son played by Masato Sakai returns to Japan after finding success in the U.S.

8.0

Voice(2024)

Hokkaido, Japan: An old woman -- formerly a man -- lives by a lake in the northern reaches of Japan, gazing at Nakajima Island in its center where her daughter's body was found long ago. She hasn't been able to visit for almost 50 years. Tokyo: A middle-aged man lives on an island where criminals were once exiled in the past, earning a sparse living as a cattle herder. He is descended from such exiled criminals. He raised his only daughter by himself after losing his wife in an accident. One day, the daughter comes home from the mainland, seemingly pregnant but unwilling to explain.

4.0

Soldier Blue(1970)

After a cavalry group is massacred by the Cheyenne, only two survivors remain: Honus, a naive private devoted to his duty, and Cresta, a young woman who had lived with the Cheyenne two years and whose sympathies lie more with them than with the US government. Together, they must try to reach the cavalry's main base camp. As they travel onward, Honus is torn between his growing affection for Cresta.

6.8

Empire of Passion(1978)

In a small Japanese village at the end of the 19th century, a rickshaw driver's wife takes on a much younger lover and the two conspire to murder him.

7.0

Washington Square(1997)

In 1870s New York, spinster heiress Catherine Sloper is courted by the much younger, penniless Morris Townsend, much to the chagrin of her overprotective father. Catherine must decide whether to spend the rest of her life alone, or marry a man interested in her solely for her inheritence.

6.2

Snow on The Blades(2014)

At Sakurada Gate in 1860, the shogun’s chief minister and his retinue of bodyguards are ambushed and annihilated. Bearing the responsibility and shame for this failure is Shimura Kingo, master swordsman and chief of the guard. Forbidden to take his own life in atonement, he is instead tasked with hunting down the remaining assassins; however, fate intervenes and now only one is left. Devoted to his late lord and his duty, he relentlessly pursues the sole remaining assassin for the next thirteen years. But times are changing in Japan and the way of the sword has become outlawed. What does this mean for Kingo?

6.6

The Valley of Decision(1945)

Mary Rafferty comes from a poor family of steel mill workers in 19th Century Pittsburgh. Her family objects when she goes to work as a maid for the wealthy Scott family which controls the mill. Mary catches the attention of handsome scion Paul Scott, but their romance is complicated by Paul's engagement to someone else and a bitter strike among the mill workers.

7.3

Butcher's Crossing(2023)

In the 1870s, a young Harvard dropout seeks his destiny out West by tying his fate to a team of buffalo hunters led by a man named Miller. Together, they embark on a harrowing journey risking life and sanity.

5.9