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Movies Like Sweet Bean (What to Watch After)

If you were moved by Sweet Bean, are likely to find resonance in stories that questions the purpose and weight of our choices all while offering targets the intellect with complex, multi-layered ideas. Carefully balances character depth with narrative flow makes this a solid addition to your watchlist.

Mood Breakdown
Runtime Cluster

Standard feature-length experiences.

Viewer Fit

Best for fans of who appreciate concise storytelling.

Top Picks

Kamome Diner
7.3

Kamome Diner

2006

On a quiet street in Helsinki, Sachie has opened a diner featuring rice balls. For a month she has no customers. Then, in short order, she has her first customer, meets Midori, a gangly Japanese tourist, and invites her to stay with her.

Midnight Diner
7.6

Midnight Diner

2014

A restaurant opens at midnight. Both the menu offerings and personality of the owner draw a series of flawed patrons including Tamako, whose boyfriend has passed away, live-in worker Michiru, and ruckus-raising Kenzo.

Little Forest: Winter/Spring
7.8

Little Forest: Winter/Spring

2015

Ichiko bakes a cake for an end-of-year party with her friends. In the depths of winter, making mochi and curry keeps the people of Komori warm. Later, spring brings thoughts of her absent mother as well as rice planting and sakura, and she begins to think of leaving Komori behind again.

Little Forest: Summer/Autumn
7.7

Little Forest: Summer/Autumn

2014

Fleeing heartbreak in the big city, Ichiko returns to Komori, her rural hometown. She battles summer's rain and humidity, bakes her own bread, grows hothouse tomatoes and tills the fields. During autumn, the time for pickling and preserving fish and sweet potatoes, Ichiko begins reaping rice and recalls her departure five years before.

Rent-a-Cat
7.2

Rent-a-Cat

2012

A young woman who rents out cats to lonely old folks finds her life turned upside down when a young man from her past shows back up in her life.

Julie & Julia
6.7

Julie & Julia

2009

Julia Child and Julie Powell – both of whom wrote memoirs – find their lives intertwined. Though separated by time and space, both women are at loose ends... until they discover that with the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible.

Ramen Shop
6.8

Ramen Shop

2018

Masato is a young ramen chef in Japan. When he finds his late mother's journal after the sudden death of his emotionally distant father, he takes it with him to her native country, Singapore, hoping to piece together the story of his family and his life.

Pompo the Cinephile
7.2

Pompo the Cinephile

2021

Operating out of the movie capital "Nyallywood," Pompo has been shooting one B-grade entertainment flick after another that anyone would enjoy. One day, Pompo's "movie buff" assistant Gene spots a new script written by Pompo and is moved by its exquisite story. In a fit of passion, he proclaims, "I want to see this as a finished work in theaters as soon as possible!" However, Pompo tells him, "So you shoot this film." Thus, Gene takes on his first directing gig. Meanwhile, Natalie, an ordinary girl who just arrived in town with movie actress dreams, has been discovered by Pompo...

More Movies Like Sweet Bean

Hanasaku Iroha the Movie: Home Sweet Home
6.2

Hanasaku Iroha the Movie: Home Sweet Home

2013

While sorting through a mess of books in the staff room, Ohana happens upon one of Denroku's log books from long ago. Within it, it recounts a story of Ohana's mom when she was the same age as her.

Aristocrats
6.9

Aristocrats

2021

Hanako Haibara was born and raised in the city of Tokyo. After she gets dumped by her boyfriend, while in her late 20's, she goes on blind dates to find a man to marry. Miki Tokioka was born in a province. She studied very hard and entered a prestigious university in Tokyo. She experienced difficult financial times, but she now works at an IT company. Due to a man, Hanako Haibara and Miki Tokioka meet each other.

After the Rain
7.5

After the Rain

2018

Akira Tachibana is a soft-spoken high school student who used to be a part of the track and field club. Working part-time at a restaurant, she finds herself inexplicably falling in love with her manager, a divorced 45-year-old man.

Perfect Days
7.8

Perfect Days

2023

Hirayama is content with his life as a toilet cleaner in Tokyo. Outside of his structured routine, he cherishes music on cassette tapes, books, and taking photos of trees. Through unexpected encounters, he reflects on finding beauty in the world.

We Made a Beautiful Bouquet
7.7

We Made a Beautiful Bouquet

2021

Two people meet each other after missing the last train home, leading to a beautiful relationship over five years.

Tokyo!
6.9

Tokyo!

2008

Three distinct tales unfold in the bustling city of Tokyo. Merde, a bizarre sewer-dweller, emerges from a manhole and begins terrorizing pedestrians. After his arrest, he stands trial and lashes out at a hostile courtroom. A man who has resigned himself to a life of solitude reconsiders after meeting a charming pizza delivery woman. And finally, a happy young couple find themselves undergoing a series of frightening metamorphoses.

If Cats Disappeared from the World
6.8

If Cats Disappeared from the World

2016

A postman learns that he doesn't have much time left to live due to a terminal illness. A devil then appears in front of him and offers to extend his life if he picks something in the world that will disappear. The man thinks about his relationships with ex-friends, ex-lovers, relatives and colleagues who will be sincerely sad when he dies.

Tamako in Moratorium
6.0

Tamako in Moratorium

2013

Tamako graduated from a university in Tokyo, but she now lives with her father back in Kofu. Tamako doesn't help her father or tries to get a job. She spends her time just eating and sleeping throughout the four seasons of the year.

Every Day a Good Day
7.2

Every Day a Good Day

2018

A university student attends a Japanese tea ceremony near her house with her cousin. There she has the Japanese tea ceremony in her life and it's there for her during moments when she is sad or happy.

Café Lumière
6.7

Café Lumière

2004

In a distinctly contemporary Tokyo that looks backwards to the city’s disappearing past, Yoko is a writer investigating the life of a modernist composer of the 1930s. She is pregnant by a man she does not want to marry and has found a kindred spirit in a used bookstore owner who aids her research.

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
7.2

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy

2021

An unexpected love triangle, a seduction trap, and a random encounter are the three episodes, told in three movements to depict three female characters and trace the trajectories between their choices and regrets.

The Hundred-Foot Journey
7.3

The Hundred-Foot Journey

2014

A story centered around an Indian family who moves to France and opens a restaurant across the street from a Michelin-starred French restaurant.

Why These Movies Are Similar

These recommendations share core qualities with Sweet Bean (2015): Drama 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 Sweet Bean.

See full details for Sweet Bean (2015)

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