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A Brighter Summer Day poster

Movies that feel likeA Brighter Summer Day (1991)

A boy experiences first love, friendships and injustices growing up in 1960s Taiwan.

If you loved A Brighter Summer Day, the closest films we have are Devdas (2002), As Tears Go By (1988) and Days of Being Wild (1990). All three share A Brighter Summer Day's contemplative and romantic feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is A Summer's Tale (1996).

9 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Criterion Channel

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If A Brighter Summer Day hit the spot, these will too

Devdas poster
Devdas
2002 · dir. Sanjay Leela Bhansali
★ 7.6drama · romance

Both land stillness and romance at once

The difference: Easier on the grit than A Brighter Summer Day

In 1900s India, Calcuttan zamindar Devdas Mukherjee — unable to marry his lover — takes up alcohol and the company of a courtesan to alleviate the pain.

As Tears Go By poster
As Tears Go By
1988 · dir. Wong Kar-Wai
🍅 85%★ 7drama · crime · romanceMax

Gritty where it counts, tender underneath

Mid-level gangster Wah falls in love with his beautiful cousin, but must also continue to protect his volatile partner-in-crime and friend, Fly.

Days of Being Wild poster
Days of Being Wild
1990 · dir. Wong Kar-Wai
🍅 91%★ 7.4crime · drama · romanceMax

Crime built on grit, twice over

Yuddy, a Hong Kong playboy known for breaking girls' hearts, tries to find solace and truth after discovering the woman who raised him isn't his mother.

Cinema Paradiso poster
Cinema Paradiso
1988 · dir. Giuseppe Tornatore
🍅 90%★ 8.5drama · romance

The same preoccupation in both: growing up

A filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village's theater and formed a deep friendship with the theater's projectionist.

A Walk to Remember poster
A Walk to Remember
2002 · dir. Adam Shankman
🍅 30%★ 7.3drama · romance

Common ground: high school

The difference: The scrappier of the two with critics

When the popular, restless Landon Carter is forced to participate in the school drama production, he falls in love with Jamie Sullivan, the daughter of the town's minister. Jamie has a "to-do" list for her life, as well as a very big secret she must keep from Landon.

The Way He Looks poster
The Way He Looks
2014 · dir. Daniel Ribeiro
🍅 93%★ 7.9drama · romance

Both keep coming back to the same thing: growing up

The difference: Made in the 2010s, in a different era of the craft

Leonardo is a blind teenager dealing with an overprotective mother while trying to live a more independent life. To the disappointment of his best friend, Giovana, he plans to go on an exchange program abroad. When Gabriel, a new student in town, arrives at their classroom, new feelings blossom in Leonardo making him question his plans.

Y Tu Mamá También poster
Y Tu Mamá También
2001 · dir. Alfonso Cuarón
🍅 90%★ 7.7drama · romance

Wistful drama in both cases

In Mexico, two teenage boys and an attractive older woman embark on a road trip and learn a thing or two about life, friendship, sex, and each other.

Read My Lips poster
Read My Lips
2001 · dir. Jacques Audiard
🍅 97%★ 7.3crime · drama · romance

Contemplative romance, and it commits to that

The difference: Sits closer to thriller than A Brighter Summer Day does

She is almost deaf and she lip-reads. He is an ex-convict. She wants to help him. He thinks no one can help except himself.

3-Iron poster
3-Iron
2004 · dir. Kim Ki-duk
🍅 87%★ 7.9drama · romance · crime

Crime with a pulse of romance, in both cases

A drifter lives in people's houses while they are away and repays them by doing chores for them. His life changes when he meets a beautiful woman who wants to escape her unhappy marriage.

Better Days poster
Better Days
2019 · dir. Derek Tsang Kwok-Cheung
🍅 97%★ 7.6drama · crime · romanceRent or buy

Both lean on tenderness more than on drama

A bullied teenage girl forms an unlikely friendship with a mysterious young man who protects her from her assailants, while she copes with the pressures of her final examinations.

Badlands poster
Badlands
1973 · dir. Terrence Malick
🍅 97%★ 7.7drama · romance · crime

Both are built on the same subject: a true story

An impressionable teenage girl from a dead-end town and her older greaser boyfriend embark on a killing spree in the South Dakota badlands.

A Summer's Tale poster
A Summer's Tale
1996 · dir. Éric Rohmer
🍅 98%★ 7.6romance · drama · comedyMax

Wistful romance in both cases

The difference: Leans harder into comedy than A Brighter Summer Day does

Awaiting his girlfriend Léna’s arrival at the Breton seaside resort of Dinard, Gaspard befriends — and flirts heavily with — two other women, the companionable ethnology student Margot and the sensual townie Solène, making for a rather complicated situation when Léna finally arrives.

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The best-reviewed films that share A Brighter Summer Day’s defining feeling.