Movies Similar to Balance of the Five Elements

The First Emperor of China(1989)

This historical drama tells the story of Qin Shihuang, who unified China's vast territory and declared himself emperor in 221 B.C. During his reign, he introduced sweeping reforms, built a vast network of roads and connected the Great Wall of China. From the grandiose inner sanctum of Emperor Qin's royal palace, to fierce battles with feudal kings, this film re-creates the glory and the terror of the Qin Dynasty, including footage of Qin's life-sized terra cotta army, constructed 2,200 years ago for his tomb.

4.3

La grande histoire de la Bretagne(2022)

From time immemorial, the Bretons have fought many battles to safeguard their culture, rich in language, music and dance. However, Brittany was for a long time a forgotten land, neglected by the Republic which forbade its language. From the 1960s onwards, the agricultural revolution turned peasant life upside down. Its culture, which had long been supported by Catholic priests, was emancipated in the seventies, carried by a new breath of air that accompanied the Breton angers. The youth then reappropriated their language and culture. From the long years of relegation to their great anger, the Bretons have written a fascinating saga since the end of the 19th century.

7.0

504(2024)

It was aboard the legendary and sturdy Peugeot 504 and Renault 12 that most North African families made the "route du bled," a ritual return to their homeland for summer vacations in Morocco or Algeria. The film chronicles a summer migration across the Mediterranean from the 1970s to the 1990s. The memory of these epic journeys punctuates the history of North Africans in France with bittersweet nostalgia, where travel stories blend industrial automotive heritage with personal memories.

7.0

China's Van Goghs(2016)

An intimate portrait of a peasant-turned oil painter transitioning from making copies of iconic Western paintings to creating his own authentic works of art.

6.7

Bernard Blier, façon puzzle(2020)

In a career spanning more than half a century, Bernard Blier has shot more than 180 films. He alone represents a history of French cinema without having spent his time cultivating its legend. He crossed his century as an actor with the modesty of a craftsman. He believed in learning, know-how and transmission. He considered himself, like the butcher or the cabinetmaker, as a man useful to his fellow men. Bernard Blier found in Louis Jouvet, who was his teacher at the Conservatory, a master at playing, a mentor and even a spiritual father. Jouvet taught Blier the love of acting, theater and Molière. And if he knew how to take hold of Michel Audiard's best tirades like no one else, notably those of the "Tontons Flingueurs", it is to this apprenticeship that he owes it.

8.0

in the name of tradition(2013)

The destiny of women is irrevocably linked to blood. Between tradition and modernity, the female body has been marketed, honored, and mutilated.

0.0

Profils paysans : l'approche(2001)

The first of a documentary serie about rural France.

7.4

Profils paysans : le quotidien(2005)

Second documentary of a trilogy produced on the long term (together with Profils paysans: l'approche (2001) and Profils paysans: La vie moderne (2008)), showing the simple lives of farmers in contemporary Southern France.

7.2

Modern Life(2008)

For ten years, Raymond Depardon has followed the lives of farmer living in the mountain ranges. He allows us to enter their farms with astounding naturalness. This moving film speaks, with great serenity, of our roots and of the future of the people who work on the land. This the last part of Depardon's triptych "Profils paysans" about what it is like to be a farmer today in an isolated highland area in France. "La vie moderne" examines what has become of the persons he has followed for ten years, while featuring younger people who try to farm or raise cattle or poultry, come hell or high water.

7.5

Journey to the East(2021)

Could our mounting modern problems have ancient solutions? Travel to the depths of China to find out.

0.0

Up the Yangtze(2007)

At the edge of the Yangtze River, not far from the Three Gorges Dam, young men and women take up employment on a cruise ship, where they confront rising waters and a radically changing China.

7.3

Mysteries of Ancient China(2016)

Archeologists discover a pit filled with terracotta warriors buried to protect the grave of the First Emperor of China.

6.8

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Temple Family(2021)

The sites and sounds at the 800-year-old Horenji Temple in Kyoto — electro music, English, takoyaki, a kaleidoscopic elephant — would seem to belie its long history. But in order for the family-run temple to thrive in the 21st century, it must continue to reinvent itself. Intimately following future head priest Scion (30) along with his fiancée Haruka and firstborn sister Ariya, critically-acclaimed director Ema Ryan Yamazaki captures one unexpected corner of Japanese society's struggle to balance tradition with progress.

0.0

The Making of a Japanese(2024)

Intimately following 1st and 6th graders at a public elementary school in Tokyo, we observe kids learning the traits necessary to become part of Japanese society.

7.7

The Drunkmen’s Marseillaise(2024)

In the summer of 1961, a group of young Italian anthropologists made a clandestine journey through Spain, in order to record popular songs that supported anti-Franco resistance. As a result of their work, they were prosecuted and their recordings were censored. Sixty years later, and guided by Emilio Jona, aged 92, the last living member of that group of travellers, we recover the unpublished recordings and reconstruct the journey, today, across an emotional and political landscape, regaining historical memories through these songs, as relevant today as they were then.

8.0

Maestras Voluntarias(2022)

Ana Deborah Mola and Belkis Lescaille were among the first young teachers who started pilot programs around the island of Cuba in 1960, laying foundation for the massive National Literacy Campaign that would take place the following year.

0.0

A Journey(2017)

A cinematic journey through the world. Non-verbal.

8.0

The Last Igloo(2019)

Documentary that follows a lone Inuit as he hunts, fishes and constructs an igloo, a way of life threatened by climate change.

7.7

Alphas(2025)

They proclaim themselves masters of virility and seduce thousands of young Quebecers. Who are they? Journalist Simon Coutu delves into the world of influencers who claim the role of alpha male.

0.0

Darshan - The Embrance(2005)

Amma, one of India's most famous "Mahatmas" or spiritual guides, is known internationally for her charitable donations, fight for peace, and work with illiteracy. In 2002, she won the Gandhi King Prize for her work, joining a prestigious group of winners that include, Nelson Mandela and Khofi Annan. Here is a chronicle of her journey throughout India, traveling with her inner circle to visit with her disciples.

5.4