Here's A List Of 22 Foreign Films To Watch Based On American Films You Already Like

“Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” — Bong Joon-ho.

1. If you like Boyhood (2014), you should watch 1981: The Year I Became a Liar (2009)

Universal/Go Films

Synopsis of foreign film: "Filmmaker Ricardo Trogi recalls the events surrounding his family moving to a new neighborhood when he was 11-years-old."

2. If you like Eighth Grade (2018), you should watch Fish Tank (2009)

A24/BBC Films

Synopsis of foreign film: "Everything changes for 15-year-old Mia when her mum brings home a new boyfriend."

3. If you like Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), you should watch Lady Snowblood (1973)

Miramax/Toho

Synopsis of foreign film: "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."

*I think the covers and summary can explain the similarities better than I can.*

4. If you like Birdman (2014), you should watch 8 1/2 (1963)

Fox Searchlight/Cineriz

Synopsis of foreign film: "Guido Anselmi, a film director, finds himself creatively barren at the peak of his career. Urged by his doctors to rest, Anselmi heads for a luxurious resort, but a sorry group gathers—his producer, staff, actors, wife, mistress, and relatives—each one begging him to get on with the show. In retreat from their dependency, he fantasizes about past women and dreams of his childhood."

5. If you like (500) Days of Summer (2009), you should watch Chungking Express (1994)

Fox Searchlight/Ocean Shores Video

Synopsis of foreign film: "Two melancholic Hong Kong policemen fall in love: one with a mysterious underworld figure, the other with a beautiful and ethereal server at a late-night restaurant he frequents."

6. If you like The Shawshank Redemption (1994), you should watch A Man Escaped (1956)

Columbia Pictures/Gaumont Film Company

Synopsis of foreign film: "A captured French Resistance fighter during World War II engineers a daunting escape from prison."

7. If you like Gone Girl (2014), you should watch Burning (2018)

20th Century Fox/Pinehouse Film

Synopsis of foreign film: "Deliveryman Jongsu is out on a job when he runs into Haemi, a girl who once lived in his neighborhood. She asks if he’d mind looking after her cat while she’s away on a trip to Africa. On her return she introduces to Jongsu an enigmatic young man named Ben, who she met during her trip. And one day Ben tells Jongsu about his most unusual hobby…"

8. If you like Pretty in Pink (1986), you should watch Jules and Jim (1962)

Paramount Pictures/Janus Films

Synopsis of foreign film: "In the carefree days before World War I, introverted Austrian author Jules strikes up a friendship with the exuberant Frenchman Jim. Both men fall for the impulsive and beautiful Catherine, but it’s Jules who wins her hand. After the war, Jim visits Jules, Catherine and their daughter in their Austrian home and discovers not only that his feelings for Catherine are unchanged, but also that they’re reciprocated."

9. If you like La La Land (2016), you should watch The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)

Lionsgate/20th Century Fox

Synopsis of foreign film: "This simple romantic tragedy begins in 1957. Guy Foucher, a 20-year-old French auto mechanic, has fallen in love with 17-year-old Geneviève Emery, an employee in her widowed mother’s chic but financially embattled umbrella shop. On the evening before Guy is to leave for a two-year tour of combat in Algeria, he and Geneviève make love. She becomes pregnant and must choose between waiting for Guy’s return or accepting an offer of marriage from a wealthy diamond merchant."

WARNING: This is a COMPLETELY sung-through musical. All the dialogue is in song-form so if that does not appeal to you, you've been warned. But this movie is so good and La La Land director, Damien Chazelle, has said that this film provided a lot of inspiration for his Oscar-winning hit.

10. If you like When Harry Met Sally (1989), you should watch Romantics Anonymous (2010)

Columbia Pictures/StudioCanal

Synopsis of foreign film: "What happens when a man and a woman share a common passion? They fall in love. And this is what happens to Jean-René, the boss of a small chocolate factory, and Angélique, a gifted chocolate maker he has just hired. What occurs when a highly emotional man meets a highly emotional woman? They fall in love, and this is what occurs to Jean-René and Angélique who share the same handicap. But being pathologically timid does not make things easy for them. So whether they will manage to get together, join their solitudes and live happily ever after is a guessing matter."

11. If you like Now and Then (1995), you should watch Sunny (2011)

New Line Cinema/CJ Entertainment

Synopsis of foreign film: "Na-mi, a transfer student, becomes a laughing-stock on her first day of school because of her strong southern dialect. Six girls jump in to help the new kid adapt to the new environment, and the girls come to call their circle of friends Sunny."

12. If you like Fight Club (1999), you should watch Tokyo Fist (1995)

20th Century Fox/Kaijyu Theater

Synopsis of foreign film: "A businessman, Tsuda, runs into a childhood friend, Tajuki, on the subway. Tajuki is working as a semiprofessional boxer. Tsuda soon begins to suspect that Tajuki might be having an affair with his fiancée Hizuru. After an altercation, Tsuda begins training rigorously himself, leading to an extremely bloody, violent confrontation."

13. If you like Rear Window (1954), you should watch Diabolique (1955)

Paramount/UMPO

Synopsis of foreign film: "The cruel and abusive headmaster of a boarding school, Michel Delassalle, is murdered by an unlikely duo – his meek wife and the mistress he brazenly flaunts. The women become increasingly unhinged by a series of odd occurrences after Delassalle’s corpse mysteriously disappears."

14. If you like Memento (2000), you should watch Rashomon (1950)

Newmarket Films/Daiei Film

Synopsis of foreign film: "Brimming with action while incisively examining the nature of truth, “Rashomon” is perhaps the finest film ever to investigate the philosophy of justice. Through an ingenious use of camera and flashbacks, Kurosawa reveals the complexities of human nature as four people recount different versions of the story of a man’s murder and the rape of his wife."

15. If you like Good Time (2017), you should watch Victoria (2015)

A24/Senator Film

Synopsis of foreign film: "A young Spanish woman who has newly moved to Berlin finds her flirtation with a local guy turn potentially deadly as their night out with his friends reveals a dangerous secret."

16. If you like Blair Witch (2016), you should watch Dark Woods (2003)

Lionsgate/ORO Film

Synopsis of foreign film: "5 Norwegians head for a cabin in the wilderness for a few days of team building. But strange things start happening – especially down by the water where they find an abandoned tent. Is there someone else?"

17. If you like Captain Phillips (2013), you should watch A Hijacking (2012)

Sony Pictures

Synopsis of foreign film: "Tensions are high after a Danish freighter is captured and held for ransom by Somali pirates, leading to weeks of high-stakes negotiations – and an escalating potential for explosive violence."

18. If you like Zodiac (2007), you should watch Memories of Murder (2003)

Paramount/CJ Entertainment

Synopsis of foreign film: "1986 Gyunggi Province. The body of a young woman is found brutally raped and murdered. Two months later, a series of rapes and murders commences under similar circumstances. And in a country that had never known such crimes, the dark whispers about a serial murderer grow louder. A special task force is set up in the area, with two local detectives Park Doo-Man and Jo Young-Goo joined by a detective from Seoul who requested to be assigned to the case."

19. If you like Matilda (1996), you should watch Wadjda (2012)

TriStar Pictures/Koch Media

Synopsis of foreign film: "Wadjda is a 10-year-old girl living in a suburb of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. Although she lives in a conservative world, Wadjda is fun loving, entrepreneurial and always pushing the boundaries of what she can get away with. After a fight with her friend Abdullah, a neighborhood boy she shouldn’t be playing with, Wadjda sees a beautiful green bicycle for sale. She wants the bicycle desperately so that she can beat Abdullah in a race. But Wadjda’s mother won’t allow it, fearing repercussions from a society that sees bicycles as dangerous to a girl’s virtue. So Wadjda decides to try and raise the money herself."

20. If you like Casablanca (1942), you should watch Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959)

Warner Bros./Pathé Films

Synopsis of foreign film: "The deep conversation between a Japanese architect and a French actress forms the basis of this celebrated French film, considered one of the vanguard productions of the French New Wave. Set in Hiroshima after the end of World War II, the couple – lovers turned friends – recount, over many hours, previous romances and life experiences. The two intertwine their stories about the past with pondering the devastation wrought by the atomic bomb dropped on the city."

21. If you like The Matrix (1999), you should watch World on a Wire (1973)

Warner Bros./Janus Films

Synopsis of foreign film: "Cybernetics engineer Fred Stiller uncovers a massive corporate conspiracy involving a virtual reality computer project."

22. Last but not least, if you like Avatar (2009), you should watch Princess Mononoke (1997)

20th Century Fox/Studio Ghibli

Synopsis of foreign film: "Ashitaka, a prince of the disappearing Emishi people, is cursed by a demonized boar god and must journey to the west to find a cure. Along the way, he encounters San, a young human woman fighting to protect the forest, and Lady Eboshi, who is trying to destroy it. Ashitaka must find a way to bring balance to this conflict."