11 best movies like The Yen Family (1988)

Ivan is a 400-pound silverback gorilla who shares a communal habitat in a suburban shopping mall with Stella the elephant, Bob the dog, and various other animals. He has few memories of the jungle where he was captured, but when a baby elephant named Ruby arrives, it touches something deep within him. Ruby is recently separated from her family in the wild, which causes him to question his life, where he comes from and where he ultimately wants to be.

Toji Seryo is a popular first year high school student. It's well known that Toji Seryo will date anyone that confesses their affection for him on a Monday, but he will break up with that person by Sunday. Yuzuru Shino is a third year student at the same high school. He looks pretty, but all of his former girlfriends end up dumping him. Yuzuru Shino becomes curious about Toji Seryo. On a whim, half serious and half joking, Yuzuru Shino asks Toji Seryo to date. The film is based on a comic. Part 1 follows Monday to Thursday. Part 2 follows Friday to Sunday.

A young girl named Kiki (Fuka Koshiba) must leave her home for a year to begin training in witchcraft. She leaves on her broom, but first says goodbye to her friends and family. Kiki then begins her new life with her trusted cat Jiji.

"Hankyu Densha" follows the lives of various people who commute on Hankyu Railway's Imazu Line - connecting the cities of Nishinomiya and Takarazuka in Hyogo prefecture. One of the commuters is Shoko (Miki Nakatani), an office worker in her 30s who lost her boyfriend to a younger colleague. There's also a college student (Erika Toda) who is so easily persuaded by her no good boyfriend. Other commuters include a grandmother & granddaughter, a house wife, a female high school student, and a female otaku college student. Although the train ride takes only 15 minutes between two stations, the lives of these commuters are changed as they interact with each other...

Unemployed 35 year old Sakurai aspired to become an actor, but failed miserably. He decides to end his own life, but first he goes to purify himself at a public bathhouse. While there, he meets the very prosperous Kondo, who subsequently suffers a fall, erasing his memory. On a whim, Sakurai switches locker keys, steals the man's belongings, and decides to pass himself off as Kondo. What Sakurai does not know is that Kondo runs an illegal business, which brings him into contact with ornery Yakuza members. Meanwhile, Kondo has been convinced that he is actually the failed actor Sakurai and he faces the dismal reality of that life with increasing bewilderment. Fortunately, at the hospital he meets the lovely Kanae who, while yearning for marriage, goes out of her way to help "Sakurai" pull himself together. Eventually Kondo regains his memory, but before he can make a new life with Kanae, he has to solve the many problems caused by the theft of his identity.

A terminally ill single mother is determined to reconcile her splintered family.

A Japanophile young Belgian woman in Tokyo falls into a whirlwind romance with a Francophile Japanese student, in this charming and tender tale of young love and cultural discovery.

A detective probes the brutal murder of a woman in a red light district while a housewife hides her double life as a prostitute from her husband.

After losing his wife seven years earlier, the eccentric Dr. John Dolittle, famed doctor and veterinarian of Queen Victoria’s England, hermits himself away behind the high walls of Dolittle Manor with only his menagerie of exotic animals for company. But when the young queen falls gravely ill, a reluctant Dolittle is forced to set sail on an epic adventure to a mythical island in search of a cure, regaining his wit and courage as he crosses old adversaries and discovers wondrous creatures.

Having thought that monogamy was never possible, a commitment-phobic career woman may have to face her fears when she meets a good guy.

Keiko, daughter of a famous sushi chef, leaves home to escape his overbearing training in both sushi-making and martial arts. Finding work at a rural inn, she is bullied by the staff and ridiculed by the guests, including the president of Komatsu Pharmaceuticals, who has come to the inn for a vacation with his associates. Little do they know, however, that disgruntled Komatsu researcher Yamada has followed them there with designs on revenge, using a serum he developed that can awaken the murderous instincts of fish on rice, creating…killer sushi! Bloodthirsty tuna and squid soon descend upon the humans, killing many and turning the remainder into zombie-like creatures.