Movies Like 1987: When the Day Comes
If you loved 1987: When the Day Comes's Drama and History storytelling, these films deliver a similar experience — carefully selected for tone, themes, and emotional depth. Each pick includes where to watch it right now.
★ Top Picks

May 18
The citizens of Gwangju lead a relatively peaceful life, until one day the military takes over the city, accusing the residents of conspiracy and claiming that they are communist sympathisers preparing a revolution against the current government. Seeing as the soldiers beat defenceless people, mainly students, to death, the citizens are in for retaliation and form a militia.

The Attorney
Song Woo-seok is a lawyer with no clients. When his friend's son is falsely accused of a crime and tortured, he takes up the case and the course of his life changes for good.

The President's Last Bang
On October 26, 1979, President Park Chung-hee, who had ruled South Korea since 1961, was assassinated by his director of intelligence. The film depicts the events of that night.

Once Upon a Time in High School
A model student transfers to the notorious Jungmoon High School known for its severe corporal punishment by teachers and power struggles between school gangs.

The Deadly Affair
Charles Dobbs is a British secret agent investigating the apparent suicide of Foreign Office official Samuel Fennan. Dobbs suspects that Fennan's wife, Elsa, a survivor of a Nazi Germany extermination camp, might have some clues, but other officials want Dobbs to drop the case. So Dobbs hires a retiring inspector, Mendel, to quietly make inquiries. Dobbs isn't at all sure as there are a number of anomalies that simply can't be explained away. Dobbs is also having trouble at home with his errant wife, whom he very much loves, having frequent affairs. He's also pleased to see an old friend, Dieter Frey, who he recruited after the war. With the assistance of a colleague and a retired policeman, Dobbs tries to piece together just who is the spy and who in fact assassinated Fennan.

Battle of Jangsari
Korean War, September 1950. In order to fight the enemy forces based in the South of the peninsula, General MacArthur orders the start of the Incheon Landing Operation, deploying diversionary attacks in other locations. Without real military forces to spare, 772 very young Korean student soldiers, barely trained, are sent to Jangsari Beach, where they will face a heroic fate and discover the value of friendship. (A sequel to Operation Chromite, released in 2016.)

Remember
Pil-ju, an Alzheimer's patient in his 80s, who lost all his family during the Japanese colonial era, and devotes his lifelong revenge before his memories disappear, and a young man in his 20s who helps him.
More Movies Like 1987: When the Day Comes

Phantom
In 1933, when Korea was under Japanese occupation, five people in Gyeongseong are suspected to be "Phantom" spies of the anti-Japanese organization.

Commitment
The son of a North Korean spy decides to follow in his father's footsteps to protect his little sister.

Daisy
A painter in Amsterdam receives flowers from a mysterious admirer, while a hitman and cop find themselves in conflict.

Children...
On March 26, 1991, five boys set off to the mountain to go frog hunting and never come back to their family. While a documentary producer, detective and professor try to solve the mystery of the incident, one of the boys' parents is a suspect.

Detective K: Secret of Virtuous Widow
In 1782, King Jeong-jo of Joseon asks detective K to investigate a series of murders related to a case of corruption within the government.

A Better Tomorrow
An idealistic policeman must bring down his estranged older brother, now a powerful gangster in a South Korean port city.

Diary of June
Two teenagers joining the same class in a high school die on the same day. The one to be top of the class is killed by a big knife on the street, the other - the second best of the class indeed - seems to be jumped from the top of the school building. Everybody believes that he first killed his classmate and than himself. But when the police finds small pill boxes into the stomachs of both kids confessing their murder two South Korean cops are torn into a new case of murder series. While they try to hunt down the serial killer, more pupils are getting killed...

Ordinary Person
Major crimes unit detective Seong-jin arrests Tae-sung for petty crimes, but shocked to find out that he is the notorious serial killer. However, Seong-jin becomes doubtful of his identity as the serial murder case is investigated.

Ransomed
In Beirut 1986, during the Lebanese civil war a Korean diplomat is taken hostage without a trace. Two years pass and long forgotten, a young diplomat Min-jun receives a phone call proving that the hostage is still alive. With the given mission, Min-jun is sent to Beirut to save the hostage with a bag of ransom money.

Silmido
On 31 January 1968, 31 North Korean commandos infiltrated South Korea in a failed mission to assassinate President Park Chung-hee. In revenge, the South Korean military assembled a team of 31 criminals on the island of Silmido to kill Kim Il-sung for a suicide mission to redeem their honor, but was cancelled, leaving them frustrated. It is loosely based on a military uprising in the 1970s.

Serve the People
Mu-kwang volunteers to be a kitchen police of Sa-taek, the divisional commander, dreaming of success. One day, Mu-kwang meets Su-ryeon by chance, who is a young and beautiful wife of the commander. Soon, he feels a strong attraction by her.

2009: Lost Memories
There are breakpoints in the history, the result of a single event may change the whole course. In 1909, an assassination attempt of a Japanese governor fails. Now, in 2009, Korea is just another state of Japan's Empire & Seoul has become a major city. A Korean resistance group fights for liberty, independence & the restoration of true history. Two cops, Japanese & Korean, investigate the group.
Why These Movies Are Similar
These recommendations share core qualities with 1987: When the Day Comes (2017): Drama and History themes, similar narrative structure, and comparable emotional depth. NoBadPicks uses a combination of TMDB collaborative filtering, genre matching, and AI analysis to surface films most likely to resonate with fans of 1987: When the Day Comes.
See full details for 1987: When the Day Comes (2017)
