Best movies like Backlight

Keiko, whom everyone calls Mama, narrates her story: she's a hostess on the Ginza, 30, a widow. She describes life's vicious cycle: acting cheerful around drunks, dressing and living well to convey confidence, needing money for these expenses and for her demanding mother and brother, and knowing she's growing older. She's of an age when she must choose: to seek marriage (difficult given her tarnished occupation), to be a kept woman, or to borrow money to buy a bar of her own. Each route has dangers, including investors demanding a return on their loans. Keiko has a quiet dignity that attracts men, but are they what they seem? Does she actually have choices?

The 12 years old well-bred Lonnie meets the impudent Karen on the street. They spend some time together and Karen teaches Lonnie some of her favorite occupancies, like make-up, shoplifting, skipping school and lying to the parent about it, but confessing to the priest later. But Karen also learns some honesty from Lonnie. A film about social differences and growing up.

Lewis, Sheriff and Tony are three friends vacationing in Malaysia. Sheriff and Tony eventually leave to pursue careers in New York, but Lewis stays behind to work with orangutans. Two years later, Sheriff and Tony learn that, because of their past actions, Lewis has been arrested for drug possession. With Lewis facing a death sentence, the friends are left with a difficult decision: return to Malaysia and split Lewis' sentence, or let him die.

Kiira seems like an ordinary young girl, who likes to talk with her friends and to dress up. Her ultimate goal is to become the world's best baker, but what differentiates her from others is that she is a vampire. She has never told anyone her secret, including her childhood friend Tetsu, whom she played with everyday and liked as a child. After her parents died when Kiira was only 12-years-old, she had to go live with her relatives and lost contact with Tetsu. Now, 8 years later, Tetsu appears at the bakery where Kiira is working part-time. Kiira is ecstatic to see her first love again. Soon, they are dating and Kiira dreams of having a family with Tetsu. Kiira also becomes filled with worries because she is vampire.

Franklin and his pals are excited about returning to school after a fun summer vacation. They have no idea of just how different and exciting it will be until they meet their substitute teacher, Miss Koala, a true wonder from down under! Miss Koala sure has a different way of doing things. At first the class is a little resistant, but she quickly wins them over with her "try-anything-once" attitude. Everyone soon finds themselves learning new things and forming their very first soccer team. Now, it's up to Franklin and his friends to win one for their favorite coach before she's off on a new classroom adventure.

Ben Cooper and his family are struggling to get a grip on household chores, school and work. So when Ben sees that a Smart House is being given away, he enters the competition as often as he can, until they eventually win the house (named Pat). After moving in, Pat's personality begins to radically change, and the family starts to resent her.

During a summer stay on the mainland, Tinker Bell is accidentally discovered while investigating a little girl's fairy house. As the other fairies, led by the brash Vidia, launch a daring rescue in the middle of a fierce storm, Tink develops a special bond with the lonely, little girl.

Five college friends choose to spend their vacation debauching at the riverside. They find the perfect place to camp out, but end up crossing paths with twin brothers, Simon and Stanley. The twins then begins to knock off the campers in some extremely creative (and extremely gruesome) ways.

Vada Sultenfuss is obsessed with death. Her mother is dead, and her father runs a funeral parlor. She is also in love with her English teacher, and joins a poetry class over the summer just to impress him. Thomas J., her best friend, is "allergic to everything", and sticks with Vada despite her hangups. When Vada's father hires Shelly, and begins to fall for her, things take a turn to the worse...

Billy Wyatt (Harmon), a former high school and minor-league baseball baseball player receives a telephone call from his mother revealing that his former child-sitter, and later in his teens, his first love, Katie Chandler (Foster), has died. Wyatt returns home to deal with this tragedy reminescing over his childhood growing up with his father, Katie and best friend Alan Appleby.

The Inkwell is about a 16-year-old boy coming of age on Martha's Vineyard in the summer of 1976.

Rei Kiriyama is a 17-years-old shogi (Japanese chess) player. He debuted as a professional shogi player when he was in middle school. He lives by himself in Tokyo, because his parents and younger sister died in an traffic accident when he was little. One day, Rei Kiriyama meets three sisters who are his neighbors. The three sisters are Akari Kawamoto, Hinata Kawamoto and Momo Kawamoto. This is his first meeting with someone outside of the shogi world in many years. Having meals with the Kawamoto family brings warm feelings to Rei Kiriyama. As Rei Kiriyama continues his shogi career, his interactions with his neighbors allows him to grow as a shogi player and as a person.

Pete, an eight-year-old Catholic boy growing up in the suburbs of Chicago in the mid-1970s, attends Catholic school, where as classes let out for the summer, he's admonished by a nun to follow the path of the Lord, and not that of the Devil. Perhaps taking this message a bit too seriously, Pete decides it's his goal for the summer to help someone get into heaven - by trying to convert a Jew to Catholicism.

A college senior, Shuhei, is blackmailed by a professor into joining the school's sumo team. He is aided by a group of misfits who must team together to defeat their rivals or face disgrace and the disbandment of the sumo club.

Nobody likes self-centered realtor Oren Little, and he prefers it that way. He's deliberately mean to anyone who crosses his path and wants nothing more than to sell one final house and retire. His life turns upside-down when his estranged son drops off a granddaughter he never knew existed. Suddenly left in charge of her and with no idea how to take care of a child, he pawns the girl off on his neighbor, Leah -- but he eventually learns how to open his heart.

After failing her university entrance exam, Sakuko is invited by her aunt Mikie to spend summer vacation in a beautiful seaside town. Sakuko gets to know the people of the town, including Takashi, a shy relative of her childhood friend.

A transgender teenage girl on summer vacation in LA fights to survive after she falls in with four queer feminist vampires, who try to rid the city's streets of predatory men.

This award-winning film by André Melançon -- set on a ranch on the pampas of Argentina -- tells the story of three children spending a summer with their grandfather. The youngest, Felipe, makes friends with a puppy; his older brother, Daniel, breaks and train his first horse; their 13-year-old sister, Laura, struggles with the transition between childhood and growing up. The kids find it difficult to adapt to their proud and stubborn grandfather, and he learns that he has to change his ways and try to understand them as they all experience the joys and sorrows of growing up and growing old. ~ Alice Duncan, Rovi

Four best friends, on the brink of starting middle school, realize their lives are about to change forever. So on the last weekend of summer, they set out to make the most of it. Nothing could prepare them, though, for the startling discovery they make while revisiting one of their favorite haunts.

Sweeney is a playwright on a career decline. He spends much of his time wheedling money and beer out of his artistic friend Moriarty. One of his few highlights is weekly sex with his ex-wife Georgia. She is remarried to a rich but vile construction developer, but Sweeney and Gorgina are still in love.

Twenty years ago Danny Summer found his father hanging from the rafters on Christmas Eve. Ever since that night he has been plotting revenge. When Brian Hartwell moves into Jessica Michael's guesthouse, she has no idea that her new tenant has a deadly agenda to go with his new identity. Her daughter Laura doesn't trust him from the beginning but can't convince her mother that there's more to "The Perfect Tenant" than meets the eye.

When single mom Megan Nolan moves to a new town, she feels guilty for uprooting her ten-year-old daughter Caitlin. Seeing that the little girl's only friend is a neighbor's dog, Megan decides to adopt a shelter pet for Caitlin. She immediately regrets her decision when Caitlin gravitates to the biggest, sloppiest dog in the pound, Jake. Megan's beautiful new home is now in shambles and, as Megan considers returning Jake to the shelter, handsome ballplayer Ben shows up claiming Jake is his dog, the regrettable outcome of his roommate leaving a gate open. Megan and Ben butt heads. Ben wants to take his dog and leave, until he sees that Caitlin loves Jake as much as he ever could. Now it is clear: the pound puppy everyone loves deserves no less than joint custody.

After his parent's divorce, Kazuo Saito moves with his mother from Onomichi and must leave his girlfriend behind. At his new school, Kazuo is surprised to reunite with his childhood friend Kazumi.

Every year, sisters Samantha and Maggie fly home to spend Fourth of July with their parents. But this year Samantha's new husband Dan has mapped out the perfect road trip. With Maggie's husband's Jeep packed to the brim, they head out. But the fun is cut short when their car gets stolen, leaving them stranded in the middle of the desert. With no car, and no cell service, they are forced to seek the help of some small town locals. As the stranded travellers wait for the Sheriff to locate their car, it becomes painfully obvious that the locals have other plans for them. When there's nowhere to hide, all they can do is Run Like Hell.

New York yuppies Amy & Max arrive in the wealthy resort town of Jackson Hole, Wyoming for a summer vacation. When Max is called away on business, Amy finds a friend in Loren, a local wilderness guide. They spend the week together exploring the Tetons. Both lonely and lost in their own lives, Amy & Loren share an instant connection. As her bond with Loren grows into something more than friendship, Amy questions whether she’ll return to NYC with Max after all.

Hatori Matsuzaki is a female high school student. She has a crush on her childhood friend Rita Terasaka and believes he will eventually choose her as her heroine, but Rita Terasaka begins dating Miho Adachi. Meanwhile, the most popular male student, Kosuke Hiromitsu takes an interest in Hatori Matsuzaki.

Zack is a young, divorced father who starts to develop romantic feelings towards his friend Rebecca, whom he refers to as "Crazy Eyes". He spends a lot of time at a bar run by his best friend Dan Drake and hanging out with Autumn. As he pursues a sexual relationship with Rebecca, Zack grows increasingly aware of the importance of his son's role in his life amidst the failing health of his own father.

After learning her job is on the line, Eden returns to Lake Tahoe where she used to spend her summers growing up. There she’s reunited with her childhood friend Riley and finds that the draw of her past might direct her future to a happiness she’s been missing in her life.

John Logan, a widower and father of two daughters, is struggling to balance his job and parenting. Luckily, he has the help of Jillian, his wife’s best friend. When an attractive woman moves in across the street, John finds himself enjoying her company. Alice, the new neighbor, starts spending time at the Logan house, even helping John with the girls. This new woman in John’s life is a bit mysterious and she starts getting caught in some lies raising the suspicion of Jillian and John’s older daughter, Chelsea. When Alice’s ex-husband is found dead, everyone starts to wonder if Alice is as sweet as she seems

Antoine, 13, spends the summer vacation with his parents in a rented cottage on an island in the middle of the Saint-Lawrence River. His neighbour, 17-year-old Anna, is an enigmatic and lively young woman. Antoine begins to experience the first stirrings of love-which soon yield a troubling brew of anxiety, desire and obsession. He eventually comes across a terrible secret that will forever change his life.

A young woman moves into a hippy commune and spends an idyllic summer with the young brother of one of the residents.

Keisuke and Shizuko grew up by the Kitakami river and came to fall in love before they knew it. Eighteen years ago, Shizuko was left an orphan and was taken in by Keisuke's parents, who had raised her as their own child. At the riverside when the cherry blossoms are falling, Keisuke, now enrolled in university, promises Shizuko that he will tell his parents about them at the start of the summer vacation. He then sets off for Tokyo...

Dark thriller about a young British man of Indian origin who finds himself trapped in a loveless marriage. Unemployed, he spends his days driving his car, hanging out with a motley crew of listless friends and visiting his wealthy old aunt's house - where he eventually starts an illicit affair with the aunt's young care worker. As hopes of a job and of improvement in his personal circumstances recede further, he resolves to take drastic measures to change the course of his life.

Seiji (Yasuyuki Sakurai), who dropped out of high school, was aiming for high school graduation and university entrance exams, thanks in part to his private tutor Chieko (Sumire Nagai). Chieko is an active female college student, and Seiji's age and home environment are close, so her mother, Fumie (Handa Sasa), pours her excessive interference into her son. It made me hate. One day, Fumie discovers that her classmate Midori (Miu Kiritani), who likes Seiji, is about to have her first experience with Seiji, and she is furious. She even ripped the two apart with her insane protests to Midori's parents. A few days later, Seiji, who has cut off his relationship, promises to meet Midori in the park at night, but Fumie quietly follows Seiji, who has left home...

Aika, a college student who has returned home during summer vacation, is delighted to see Haruna, Yankee, and Nana. All four grow up in families where premarital sex is prohibited. Four childhood friends with no sexual experience spend the summer trying to lose their virginity. Haruhi Oguri, the female director who was the first to challenge the pink film, vividly reflects the sexuality and life of women with different complexes and habits, and this work of her was highly praised.