20 best movies like Dongju: The Portrait of a Poet (2016)

List of the best movies like Dongju: The Portrait of a Poet (2016): Fighter In The Wind, The Face Reader, A Taxi Driver, 1987: When the Day Comes, The Last Princess, The Man Standing Next, The Fortress, Stockholm, Swing Kids, A Twelve-Year Night.

Tags: movies similar to Dongju: The Portrait of a Poet (2016) - full list

Markimdb: 6.9
Genreaction, drama, biography, history
CountrySouth Korea
Duration02:00

An account of karate competitor Choi Yeung-Eui who went to Japan after World War II to become a fighter pilot but found a very different path instead. He changed his name to Masutatsu Oyama and went across the country, defeating martial artists one after another. This film concentrates on the period when he is still young, and developing his famous karate style, Kyokushin.

Markimdb: 6.8
Genredrama, biography, history
CountrySouth Korea
Duration02:22

An exceptionally talented face reader becomes entangled in a bloody power struggle between a child king and his uncle who plans to usurp the throne.

Markimdb: 7.9
Genredrama, biography, history
CountrySouth Korea
Duration01:50

May, 1980. Man-seob is a taxi driver in Seoul who lives from hand to mouth, raising his young daughter alone. One day, he hears that there is a foreigner who will pay big money for a drive down to Gwangju city. Not knowing that he’s a German journalist with a hidden agenda, Man-seob takes the job.

Markimdb: 7.8
Genredrama, biography, history
CountrySouth Korea
Duration01:37

In 1987 Korea, under an oppressive military regime, a college student gets killed during a police interrogation involving torture. Government of officials are quick to cover up the death and order the body to be cremated. A prosecutor who is supposed to sign the cremation release, raises questions about a 21-year-old kid dying of a heart attack, and he begins looking into the case for truth. Despite a systematic attempt to silence everyone involved in the case, the truth gets out, causing an eruption of public outrage.

Markimdb: 7
Genredrama, biography, history
CountrySouth Korea
Duration01:21

Under the oppressive Japanese colonial rule, Deok-hye, the last Princess of the declining Joseon Dynasty, is forced to move to Japan. She spends her days missing home, while struggling to maintain dignity as a princess. After a series of failed tries, Deok-hye makes her final attempt to return home with help of her childhood sweetheart, Jang-han.

Markimdb: 7
Genrethriller, drama, biography, history
CountrySouth Korea

In the 1970s, Korea is under the absolute control of the President Park who controls the KCIA, the organization with an edge over any branch of government. The director of KCIA, KIM Gyu-pyeong, is the seemingly most prospective second-in-command. In the midst of reign of fear, a former KCIA director, PARK Yong-gak who knows all about the government’s obscure operations, exiles to the U.S. where the investigation of ‘Koreagate’ is underway. As the tension escalates, the stifling political maneuvering by the all second-in-command’s unfolds.

Markimdb: 6.8
Genredrama, military, biography, history
CountrySouth Korea
Duration01:17

Ancient Korea, 17th century. The powerful Khan of the Jurchen tribe of Manchuria, who fights the Ming dinasty to gain China, becomes the first ruler of the Qing dinasty and demands from King In-jo of Joseon to bow before him; but he refuses, being loyal to the Mings. On December 14th, 1636, the Qing horde invades Joseon, so King In-jo and his court shelter in the mountain fortress of Namhan and prepare to defend the kingdom.

Markimdb: 6.1
Genrecomedy, drama, crime, biography, history
CountryCanada, USA

Based on the extraordinary true story of the European city’s 1973 bank heist and hostage crisis that was documented in the 1974 New Yorker article “The Bank Drama” by Daniel Lang. The events grasped the world’s attention when the hostages bonded with their captors and turned against the authorities, giving rise to the psychological phenomenon known as “Stockholm Syndrome.”

Markimdb: 7.5
Genredrama, military, music, history
CountrySouth Korea
Duration01:21

Rebellious Ki-soo from North Korea is mesmerized by tap dance in prison camps. Ki-soo joins as a team member of a dance team named ‘Swing Kids’. Yet suddenly, their dreams about dancing in prison camps are put in danger.

Markimdb: 7.5
Genredrama, crime, biography, history
CountryUruguay, Spain, Argentina, France, Germany

Uruguay, 1973. Having been crushed by the military dictatorship, surviving members of the Tupamaro guerillas are imprisoned and tortured. They must find a way to endure the coming 12 years.

Markimdb: 7
Genrethriller, drama, biography, history
CountrySouth Korea
Duration01:50

On September 4, 1984, democracy movement leader Kim Jong Tae (Park Won Sang) is arrested and taken to an infamous interrogation facility in Namyeong-dong. For the next 22 days, he would be cruelly and continuously tortured in all manners by interrogators intent on forcing him to confess to communist collaboration.

Markimdb: 7.3
Genredrama, military, biography, history
CountryUSA, United Kingdom, Germany

The story of an unsung hero, Franz Jägerstätter, who refused to fight for the Nazis in World War II. Based on real events.

Markimdb: 6.1
Genrethriller, drama, biography, history
CountrySouth Korea

The story of Joseon's tyrant king Yeonsan who exploits the populace for his own carnal pleasures, his seemingly loyal retainer who controls him and all court dealings, and a woman who seeks vengeance.

Markimdb: 6.9
Genrethriller, drama, biography, history
CountryUSA
Duration02:30

This film is based on the actual events that took place in 1971 when Stanford professor Dr. Philip Zimbardo created what became one of the most shocking and famous social experiments of all time.

Markimdb: 5.8
Genredrama, crime, biography, history
CountryUSA
Duration01:29

Inspired by actual events in the late nineties when Hasidic Jews were recruited as mules to smuggle ecstasy from Europe into the United States.

Markimdb: 7.2
Genredrama, biography, history
CountrySouth Korea

The struggles of an artist. Jang Seung-up (1843-1897), also called Owon, focusing on the years 1882 to 1897, when Korea was in political upheaval, caught between China and Japan, the conservative dynasty dying, and peasant revolt at hand. Jang, born poor, has genius; a merchant, Kim, becomes his patron, finding him a teacher. Jang must convince others that a commoner can have talent, then move beyond his ability to copy old masters and find his own style. He's bedeviled by a temper and alcohol, arguments with patrons as he seeks commissions, and relationships with kisaeng, particularly Mae-hyang, that start and stop. It's the life of a restless spirit producing great art.

Markimdb: 7.1
Genredrama, biography, history
CountrySouth Korea

Ancient Korea, July 4, 1762. The Crown Prince Hyojang, posthumously named Sado, son of King Yeongjo of Joseon, is accused of treason. Thus, the king asks him to commit suicide, but his closest vassals prevent it, so the king orders the prince to get inside a wooden rice chest, where he suffers deprivation of food and water.

Markimdb: 6.7
Genredrama, biography, history
CountrySouth Korea
Duration02:15

In 1777, one year since he had taken reign, King Jeong-jo bears a perilous palace life with his dedicated court servant, Gap-soo, amidst opposition and threats from those around with political ambitions. Meanwhile, Eul-soo, a member of a secret assassin group, receives orders to kill Jeong-jo. Gap-soo, who had also been in the same secret assassin ring as Eul-soo, later confesses to Jeong-jo about his dark past and his motive for coming into the palace. To Gap-soo's surprise, Jeong-jo asks Gap-soo when he had given up being an assassin, then orders him to just leave the palace. However, Gap-soo finds out that there is another assassin besides him and frantically returns to the court, only to discover Eul-soo in combat with Jeong-jo. (c)

Markimdb: 7.3
Genredrama, military, music, biography, history
CountryUSA

The story of Washington D.C. radio personality Ralph "Petey" Greene, an ex-con who became a popular talk show host and community activist in the 1960s.

Markimdb: 6.5
Genredrama, biography, history
CountrySouth Korea

Based on the life of the Korean anarchist Park Yeol (Lee Je-hoon), the film shows his struggle to counter the massacre of Koreans by the government during the 1923 great Kanto earthquake, focusing on his activities as the leader of the anti-Japanese organization Bulryeongsa and his relationship with Japanese comrade Fumiko Kaneko (Choi Hee-seo).

Markimdb: 8.3
Genredrama, military, biography, history
CountryTurkey, South Korea

In 1950, amidst the ravages of the Korean War, Sergeant Süleyman stumbles upon a a half-frozen little girl, with no parents and no help in sight. Frantic, scared and on the verge of death, this little girl captures the heart of Süleyman, who risks his own life to save her, smuggling her into his Army base and out of harms way. Not knowing her name and unable to communicate with her, Süleyman names her Ayla, in reminiscence of the moon on the fateful night during which they met. The two form an instantaneous and inseparable bond, and Ayla, almost effortlessly, brings an uncanny joy to the Turkish brigade in the grip of war. As the war comes to a close however, Süleyman's brigade is told that they will be returning home. Süleyman cannot bear abandoning Ayla, and does everything within his power to take her with him. After repeated failure, he is forced to give Ayla to an orphanage, but doesn't give up on the hope of one day reuniting with her. Will the two ever get back together?

Markimdb: 7.1
Genredrama, biography, history
CountryGermany, France, Luxembourg, United Kingdom, USA
Duration01:05

A young woman's desperate search for her abducted boyfriend that draws her into the infamous Colonia Dignidad, a sect nobody ever escaped from.

Markimdb: 6.2
Genremelodrama, drama, biography, history
CountryUkraine
Duration02:03

The film focuses on the little-known love affair of the terrorist Fanny Kaplan with the brother of Vladimir Lenin, Dmitriy Ilyich Ulyanov, and questions whether she really tried to assassinate Lenin in 1918.

Markimdb: 5.8
Genredrama, military, biography, history
CountryHungary, United Kingdom

Based upon the final confession of Adolf Eichmann, made before his execution in Israel, of his role in Hitler's plan for the final solution.

Markimdb: 5.8
Genremelodrama, drama, biography, history
CountryCzech Republic, Slovakia

A film about the black-and-white era actress Lída Baarová and her doomed love affair.

Markimdb: 6.3
Genredrama, biography, history
CountryCzech Republic, USA

The story of communist show-trial victim Milada Horáková. Horáková was one of the first victims of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. She opposed the communist coup in 1948 but did not leave the country. She was arrested and tried for treason on fabricated charges in a show trial that was broadcast on the radio and shown in film clips. The film focuses on the time from 1945 to 1950 when the communists took over, but also goes back a little further in Horáková's life into the late 1930s

Markimdb: 4.9
Genremelodrama, drama, military, biography, history
CountryUSA
Duration01:47

Docudrama about American poet Hart Crane, who committed suicide in April 1932 at the age of 32 by jumping off the steamship SS Orizaba.

Markimdb: 7.5
Genrecomedy, drama, biography, history
CountryUnited Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, USA
Duration01:55

England, early 18th century. The close relationship between Queen Anne and Sarah Churchill is threatened by the arrival of Sarah's cousin, Abigail Hill, resulting in a bitter rivalry between the two cousins to be the Queen's favourite.

Markimdb: 7.4
Genredrama, biography, history
CountryUSA
Duration01:58

Based on the book by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, Game Change focuses on the Republican run of the 2008 Presidential election, when candidate John McCain picks a relative unknown, Alaskan governor Sarah Palin, to be his running mate. As the campaign kicks into high gear, her lack of experience, in both political and media savvy, becomes a drain upon McCain and his strategists. Directed by Jay Roach, who previously directed the HBO film Recount and the Austin Powers movies, Game Change premiered on HBO on March 10th, 2012.

Markimdb: 7.4
Genredrama, crime, biography, history
CountryUSA

Bill O'Neal infiltrates the Black Panthers on the orders of FBI Agent Mitchell and J. Edgar Hoover. As Black Panther Chairman Fred Hampton ascends—falling for a fellow revolutionary en route—a battle wages for O’Neal’s soul.

Markimdb: 6.9
Genredrama, biography, history
CountryUnited Kingdom, France
Duration02:35

    Based on true events about the foot soldiers of the early feminist movement who were forced underground to evade the State.

    Markimdb: 8.4
    Genredrama, musical, biography, history
    CountryUSA

    Presenting the tale of American founding father Alexander Hamilton, this filmed version of the original Broadway smash hit is the story of America then, told by America now.

    Markimdb: 6.1
    Genredrama, biography, history
    CountryUSA

    The true story of Madalyn Murray O'Hair -- iconoclast, opportunist, and outspoken atheist -- from her controversial rise to her untimely demise.

    Markimdb: 6.1
    Genredrama, biography, history
    CountryFrance

    Paris, June 1940. The de Gaulle couple is confronted with the military and political collapse of France. Charles de Gaulle joins London while Yvonne, his wife, finds herself with her three children on the road of the exodus.

    Markimdb: 7.1
    Genredrama, biography, history
    CountryUnited Kingdom, Australia
    Duration01:45

    The story of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham, who uncovers one of the most significant social scandals in recent times – the forced migration of children from the United Kingdom. Almost singlehandedly, Margaret reunited thousands of families, brought authorities to account and worldwide attention to an extraordinary miscarriage of justice.




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