feelsalike.comSign in
After Life poster

Movies that feel likeAfter Life (1999)

On a cold Monday morning, a group of counselors clock in at an old-fashioned social services office. Their task is to interview the recently deceased, record their personal details, then, over the course of the week, assist them in choosing a single memory to keep for eternity.

If you loved After Life, the closest films we have are Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010), The Master and Margarita (2024) and Finding Neverland (2004). All three share After Life's dreamlike and contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is A Chinese Ghost Story (1987).

🍅 88% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.6 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Hirokazu Kore-edadreamlikecontemplative
8 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Amazon Prime Video · Criterion Channel

Can't choose? Answer three questions and get one movie for tonight.

Not on subscription streaming right now. Rent or buy below.

See it on the Mood Map

If After Life hit the spot, these will too

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives poster
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
2010 · dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul
🍅 90%★ 6.7drama · fantasy

Both land dream logic and stillness at once

Suffering from a kidney disease and sure of his death, Uncle Boonmee assembles his relatives in the countryside. He reminisces about his past lives and plans to visit a place before dying.

The Master and Margarita poster
The Master and Margarita
2024 · dir. Michael Lockshin
★ 7.1fantasy · drama

Both lean on dream logic more than on fantasy

The difference: Made in the 2020s, in a different era of the craft

A struggling writer in 1930s Soviet Moscow finds his life transformed when a mysterious professor arrives with his bizarre entourage, including a wisecracking trickster, a deadly assassin, a vampire maid, and a giant talking black cat, turning the city upside down while exposing the hypocrisy of those in power.

Finding Neverland poster
Finding Neverland
2004 · dir. Marc Forster
🍅 83%★ 7.6drama · fantasyRent or buy

Drama built on stillness, twice over

During a writing slump, playwright J.M. Barrie meets a widow and her four children, all young boys—who soon become an important part of Barrie’s life and the inspiration that lead him to create his masterpiece. Peter Pan.

Russian Ark poster
Russian Ark
2002 · dir. Aleksandr Sokurov
🍅 89%★ 7.2drama · fantasy · history

Fantasy with a pulse of dream logic, in both cases

The difference: Sits closer to history than After Life does

A ghost and a French marquis wander through the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, encountering scenes from many different periods of its history.

The Tree of Life poster
The Tree of Life
2011 · dir. Terrence Malick
🍅 86%★ 6.8drama · fantasy

Contemplative drama in both cases

The impressionistic story of a Texas family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father. Jack finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.

A Chinese Ghost Story poster
A Chinese Ghost Story
1987 · dir. Tony Ching Siu-Tung
🍅 70%★ 7.3fantasy · actionPrime Video

Both are fantasy through and through

The difference: Takes it somewhere less contemplative than After Life does

A naïve young tax collector for the imperial government winds up spending the night in a haunted temple. There he falls in love with a beautiful woman who, unfortunately, is dead. With the aid of a powerful Daoist Swordsman, he must defeat undead hordes, overcome a sinister Tree Demoness, and descend to the pits of hell, to fight for the spirit he loves.

Tokyo Story poster
Tokyo Story
1953 · dir. Yasujirō Ozu
🍅 100%★ 8.1dramaMax

Both know what they want from drama

The elderly Shukishi and his wife, Tomi, take the long journey from their small seaside village to visit their adult children in Tokyo. Their elder son, Koichi, a doctor, and their daughter, Shige, a hairdresser, don't have much time to spend with their aged parents, and so it falls to Noriko, the widow of their younger son who was killed in the war, to keep her in-laws company.

I Am Dragon poster
I Am Dragon
2015 · dir. Indar Dzhendubaev
★ 6.8fantasy · romancePrime Video

Fantasy approached the same way

The difference: Trades the stillness of After Life for an angle of its own

In the midst of the wedding princess Miroslava is kidnapped by a dragon and carried away into his castle on the remote island. Mira left everything behind in the past - family, friends and groom. Now the only things she had were a stone cage and a mysterious young man named Arman ... but who is he and what is he doing on that island? Miroslava will know the truth too late: loving a dragon will reveal the bitter truth - love is scary.

Upon the Magic Roads poster
Upon the Magic Roads
2021 · dir. Oleg Pogodin
★ 5.7adventure · fantasy

Both working the same fantasy territory

The difference: Leans harder into adventure than After Life does

Romantic John the Fool and his friend Foal set out on a series of unpredictable adventures in different magical worlds. The two buddies will have to outsmart an evil tyrant king, catch the firebird, and find John’s true love.

Persona poster
Persona
1966 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 91%★ 8dramaMax

Drama in the same key

A young nurse, Alma, is put in charge of Elisabeth Vogler: an actress who is seemingly healthy in all respects, but will not talk. As they spend time together, Alma speaks to Elisabeth constantly, never receiving any answer.

Wild Strawberries poster
Wild Strawberries
1957 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 94%★ 8.1dramaMax

The drama is handled with the same confidence

Crotchety retired doctor Isak Borg travels from Stockholm to Lund, Sweden, with his unhappy daughter-in-law, Marianne, in order to receive an honorary degree from his alma mater. Along the way, they encounter a series of hitchhikers, each of whom causes the elderly doctor to muse upon the pleasures and failures of his own life. These include the vivacious young Sara, a dead ringer for the doctor's own first love.

The Seventh Seal poster
The Seventh Seal
1957 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 93%★ 8.1fantasy · dramaMax

Fantasy of the same temperament

When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof and his wife, Mia, and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.

In the mood for more dreamlike?

all dreamlike movies →

The best-reviewed films that share After Life’s defining feeling.