Movies like Kabei: Our Mother: 20 to watch next
If you loved Kabei: Our Mother (2008) — a family and drama film directed by Yoji Yamada — these 20 movies are the closest matches.
The first picks are what fans of Kabei: Our Mother most often go on to watch; the rest share its genres and themes like mother, japan and widow. 8 of them are streaming in India right now — each entry shows where.
Where to watch Kabei: Our Mother →·Get picks for your whole taste →
- 1
Grave of the Fireflies 2005★ 8.0
Shares: Drama
Hisako loses her home in Tokyo to Allied bombing. With her husband fighting somewhere in Asia, she and her two children evacuate to a suburb of Kobe, where they share a house with Hisako's cousin, Kyoko. Kobe is bombed and Kyoko is killed. Hisako is forced to take care of Kyoko's two children in addition to her own, but there is not enough food for everyone.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 2
The Only Son 1936★ 7.4
Shares: Drama
A rural widow sends her only son to Tokyo to receive a better education. Years later, she visits him and finds he has become a night school teacher struggling to support his wife and son.
Stream in India on Plex
- 3
Rhapsody in August 1991★ 7.2
Shares: Drama
An elderly Nagasaki hibakusha spends a summer caring for her four grandchildren, whose curiosity about the 1945 bombing stirs buried memories and moral questions. When an American nephew from Hawaii visits, the family confronts grief, guilt, and the possibility of reconciliation across generations.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 4
Shoplifters 2018★ 7.8
Shares: Drama
In the outskirts of Tokyo, a poor but close-knit group living on the fringes of society survives through shoplifting and odd jobs. When Osamu and his son take in a neglected young girl, their already fragile existence begins to unravel. As the family grows attached to her, buried secrets surface, forcing them to confront the true meaning of love, belonging, and what makes a family.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 5
Late Spring 1949★ 8.0
Shares: Drama
Noriko is perfectly happy living at home with her widowed father, Shukichi, and has no plans to marry -- that is, until her aunt Masa convinces Shukichi that unless he marries off his 27-year-old daughter soon, she will likely remain alone for the rest of her life. When Noriko resists Masa's matchmaking, Shukichi is forced to deceive his daughter and sacrifice his own happiness to do what he believes is right.
Stream in India on Plex
- 6
A Hen in the Wind 1948★ 7.2
Shares: Drama
Tokiko patiently awaits her husband's return from WWII when her four-year old son falls ill. She takes him to the doctor but has no means of paying, so she resorts to prostitution. A month later, her husband returns to find his desperate wife, who tells him the truth. Together, they must deal with the consequences.
Stream in India on Plex
- 7
An Autumn Afternoon 1962★ 7.9
Shares: Drama
Widower Shuhei Hirayama's caretaker is his 24-year-old daughter, Michiko. Gradually, he comes to realize that Michiko should not be obliged to look after him for the rest of his life, so he arranges a marriage for her.
Stream in India on Plex
- 8
Tokyo Story 1953★ 8.1
Shares: Drama
The elderly Shukishi and his wife, Tomi, take the long journey from their small seaside village to visit their adult children in Tokyo. Their elder son, Koichi, a doctor, and their daughter, Shige, a hairdresser, don't have much time to spend with their aged parents, and so it falls to Noriko, the widow of their younger son who was killed in the war, to keep her in-laws company.
Stream in India on Tubi TV, Plex
- 9
Black Rain 1989★ 7.6
Shares: Drama
Shigematsu Shizuma, who lives with his family in a village near Fukuyama, was in Hiroshima with his wife and niece just after the devastating atomic bombing, a tragedy that cruelly took the lives of thousands of people and forever marked the harsh existence of the survivors.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 10
MOTHER 2020★ 7.0
Shares: Drama
Shuhei is leading a tough life. His alcoholic mother Akiko can only hook up with bad guys and order Shuhei to go get money from his disapproving grandparents instead of going to school. Except raising the little half-sister, his rock-bottom life seems to have no end.
Stream in India on Netflix
- 11
Nobody Knows 2004★ 8.0
Shares: Drama
In a small Tokyo apartment, twelve-year-old Akira must care for his younger siblings after their mother leaves them and shows no sign of returning.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 12
Maborosi 1995★ 7.5
Shares: Drama
A tragedy strikes a young woman's life without warning or reason. She continues living while searching for meaning in a lonely world.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 13
A Man 2022★ 7.1
Shares: Drama
Akira works as a lawyer. One day, he meets with his former client Rie, who asks Akira to perform a background check on her late husband Daisuke.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 14
In This Corner of the World 2016★ 7.9
Shares: Drama
Japan, 1943, during World War II. Young Suzu leaves her village near Hiroshima to marry and live with her in-laws in Kure, a military harbor. Her creativity to overcome deprivation quickly makes her indispensable at home. Inhabited by an ancestral wisdom, Suzu impregnates the simple gestures of everyday life with poetry and beauty. The many hardships, the loss of loved ones, the frequent air raids of the enemy, nothing alters her enthusiasm…
Stream in India on Crunchyroll, Sony Liv, Crunchyroll Amazon Channel
- 15
Tokyo Twilight 1957★ 7.7
Shares: Drama
Two sisters learn about the existence of their long-lost biological mother, but the younger is unable to accept the fact that she was abandoned as a child.
Stream in India on Plex
- 16
Confessions 2010★ 7.6
Shares: Drama
Devastated at the death of her four-year-old daughter, a grieving middle school teacher is horrified to discover that her students aren't as innocent as she thinks.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 17
The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice 1952★ 7.6
Shares: Drama
The arranged marriage between a capricious woman from Tokyo high society and a quiet rustic man is tested by a marital crisis.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 18
After the Storm 2016★ 7.2
Shares: Drama
Ryota is an unpopular writer although he won a literary award 15 years ago. Now, Ryota works as a private detective. He is divorced from his ex-wife Kyoko and he has an 11-year-old son Shingo. His mother Yoshiko lives alone at her apartment. One day, Ryota, his ex-wife Kyoko, and son Shingo gather at Yoshiko's apartment. A typhoon passes and the family must stay there all night long.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 19
Early Summer 1951★ 7.9
Shares: Drama
In postwar Tokyo, Noriko lives with her extended family. Although she enjoys her career and her social life, her more traditional family worries about her single marital status at the advanced age of 28. 40-year-old business associate Takako proposes, Noriko's family press her into accepting, but when her widowed childhood friend Kenkichi returns to the neighborhood, she finds her heart leading in another direction.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 20
Barefoot Gen 2 1986★ 6.9
Shares: Drama
Three years after the Hiroshima bombing, a teenager helps a group of orphans to survive and find their new life.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now