Best movies like Iliw
A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Iliw Starring Kaye Abad, Hiroyuki Takashima, Ping Medina, Irma Adlawan, and more. If you liked Iliw then you may also like: Once Before I Die, American Guerrilla in the Philippines, Back to Bataan, Bataan, The Portrait and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.
During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines during World War II, a young girl from Vigan and an idealistic Japanese officer fall in love. With a war between them and disapproval from both sides, the two struggle to find their own piece of happiness in the world as duty and family threaten to tear them apart.
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American Guerrilla in the Philippines
American soldiers stranded in the Philippines after the Japanese invasion form guerrilla bands to fight back.
Back to Bataan
An Army colonel leads a guerrilla campaign against the Japanese in the Philippines.
Bataan
During Japan's invasion of the Philippines in 1942, Capt. Henry Lassiter, Sgt. Bill Dane and a diverse group of American soldiers are ordered to destroy and hold a strategic bridge in order to delay the Japanese forces and allow Gen. MacArthur time to secure Bataan. When the Japanese soldiers begin to rebuild the bridge and advance, the group struggles with not only hunger, sickness and gunfire, but also the knowledge that there is likely no relief on the way.
The Portrait
A musical tale about two impoverished sisters' anguish over whether or not to sell the final masterpiece of their recluse father days before the second world war, in Manila.
El Presidente
The film begins with his capture by Philippine and US forces under Frederick Funston's command in 1901, then flashes back to 1886, when an old woman gives Aguinaldo and his childhood friend Candido Tirona cryptic prophecies. Ten years later, Aguinaldo is inducted into the Katipunan and later assumes leadership of its Cavite chapter while becoming mayor of Cavite El Viejo. When the trouble breaks out in Manila in late August 1896, Aguinaldo tries to assure the Spanish provincial government of non-interference and covertly marshals his forces despite a lack of weapons. Learning that the Spanish mostly put their forces in Manila, Aguinaldo finally mobilizes his troops and take the command of the Katipunan forces in Cavite
Legacy of the 500,000
During World War II, Japan sends gold to the Phillipines. After the war, the gold is lost in the bay of Manille. Former soldier Takeichi Matsuo is now working as a business executive. He meets Mintsura Gunji, the boss of a large company, who offers him to go to the Philippines and bring back the gold.
Blue Moon
Corazon (Boots Anson Roa), an old Filipina who lives in Boston, wrote to each Manuel Pineda in her home a letter. She hopes to find her love again. In the Philippines experiences of the old Manuel Pineda (Eddie Garcia), meanwhile, that he has cancer and has only months to live. He goes in search of his Corazon.There were two Corazons in his life: before the Second World War, he spent (Mark Herras) and his buddy Domingo (Polo Ravales) a lot of time with the shy "Cora" (Jennylyn Mercado) and the lively " Azon "(Pauline Luna).
Aishite Imasu 1941: Mahal Kita
Inya, a heroine of the Philippine resistance against the Japanese during World War II, recalls events involving her husband Edilberto and their childhood friend Ignacio, a transvestite who, masquerading as a woman also named Inya, becomes the lover of the local Japanese commander, Ichiru, and is caught between a duty to be a spy for his country and friends and his reluctant but growing love for Ichiru.
Kaaway Hanggang Hukay
Two police officers who used to be the best friends are now torn between friendship and the call of duty. Cols. Baltazar and Ricarte graduated from the same class in Philippine Marine Academy. They even worked on the same assignment right after graduation. But that was the last news they heard about each other until they were caught in an awkward situation. Col. Ricarte is now considered a rebellious while Col. Baltazar is tasked to go after him. Now he has to set aside his personal interest for the welfare of the country.
So Little Time
During World War II, German soldiers occupy the home of a beautiful Belgian girl and her mother.
The Liberation of Skopje
Eight-year-old Zoran is the hero of this story set in Skopje during the German occupation of the city in World War II. Through his eyes, we experience all the cruelty, poverty and suffering of wartime. A love affair between his Macedonian mother and a German officer will help his family get through the hard times…
Ika-Sampu
A story about a descendant of a rich hispanic family that lived in the Philippines in the 1800s (1896). Nine years ago, Alexa Nicole de la Vega started having dreams about a mansion where she always used to play as a child, These dreams gradually turn darker and leading to a part of the mansion which was described in her dreams as a "door she cannot open". Every year, her dreams about the mansion turn darker and more grotesque. One day a lawyer visits in her office informing her that she has inherited a house passed on by her father in his last will. She calls her best friend Daniella, a collector and a curator of a Spanish museum, suggesting to her that there many be many treasures hidden there. This turns out to be a good opportunity to get her dad's company back to its prime. Alexa decides to go to the house she inherited to look for this rumored treasure. She later found nine pieces of golden coins in her great great grandfathers old study - then things start to change.
Lost Battalion
In the Philippines during World War II, a girl is rescued from bandits by a guerrilla fighter.
The Longest Hundred Miles
During the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, an assorted group of refugees, including an American soldier, an Army nurse, a priest and a group of local children, try to make their getaway aboard a rattletrap, creaky bus.
In My Mother's Skin
Stranded in the Philippines during World War II, a young girl finds that her duty to protect her dying mother is complicated by her misplaced trust in a beguiling, flesh-eating fairy.
Ang Mangliligpit
A story about a guerilla assassin tasked to kill fascist collaborators and sympathizers in the Japanese occupation of the Philippines.
Sampung Labuyo
Directed by Cesar Gallardo. With Dolphy, Dolphy Jr., Liza Lorena, Victor Wood.
Sigaw ng Digmaan
A handful of soldiers holed up on a hilltop to repel the horde of advancing Japanese troops, sacrificing their lives for their beloved country.
Suicide Commandoes
The story line, although in fiction, was set in the last days of the Second World War in the Philippines, particularly the Bessang Pass in the island of Luzon. The combined Filipino and American military forces are having a hard time in defeating the Japanese Imperial Army. Because of this situation, many military personnel and civilians on the side of the Filipino and Americans caught between the opposing forces are dying in large numbers everyday. Equipment and logistics in large quantities are also lost during the same time. The top brass of the United States Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) decided to select six Filipinos from various several guerrilla units under its command to execute a mission codenamed “Mission X-310”:
The Buelta Force
Buelta Force is a hilarious but fearless group of men doing their duty for the greater good of humanity and peace.
Markova: Comfort Gay
Escaping the torment of growing up with an abusive older brother, he and his friends found further suffering at the hands of Japanese soldiers, forced into sex work to survive. But even after the war, Markova's struggle continued.
Girl, Boy, Bakla, Tomboy
Quadruplet siblings (two boys and two girls) played by Vice Ganda were separated after birth when their grandmother steals two of the siblings (a boy and a girl) away from their mother. The stolen siblings lived a comfortable life in the US, not knowing that their mother and siblings, a gay and a lesbian, struggled to make ends meet in the Philippines. When the boy develops hepatitis that requires him to have a liver transplant from a compatible donor, their father tells them about their siblings in the Philippines, who may be possible candidates as donors. But once the siblings finally meet, pent up resentment and animosity between the girl and the gay siblings, has threatened the chances of the boy sibling's survival.
Rescue in the Philippines: Refuge from the Holocaust
The moral courage of an influential few in the Philippines saved the lives of 1,300 Jewish men, women, and children in Nazi Europe in the days leading to World War II.
Ambush Bay
A Marine unit on a Japanese-held island in the Philippines tries to hook up with local Filipino guerrillas.
The Third Half
Spitz is the German-Jewish coach of the football team Macedonia during World War II. Under his leadership, the team fights to become the champion of Bulgaria's National Football League
Quezon's Game
The film centers around Philippine President Manuel L. Quezon and his plan to shelter Jews in the Philippines who were fleeing from Nazi Germany during the World War II era.
Salute to the Marines
It is a comic book propaganda film which has Beery as a retired USMC NCO who, when the Japanese invade the Philippines, leads a heroic defense, first by strangling a Nazi agent, and then dying in his dress blues uniform while blowing up a bridge.
Three Godless Years
A woman fell in love with a Japanese soldier, during the Japanese Occupation in the Philippines. The whole town turned against her.
Closer to Home
Closer to Home weaves a universal, haunting tale of two people inexorably drawn together for vastly different reasons. Dalisay struggles to journey from the Philippine countryside to New York City to marry Dean, a disillusioned ex-merchant marine. She's hoping to buy a cure for her dying sister and, ultimately, a future for her debt-ridden family, while he hopes to escape his disintegrating American family through love and a family of his own. A powerful, controversial film that quietly builds to a shattering collision of aspirations and cultures.
Manila, Open City
War drama set in the closing stages of World War Two. As Allied Forces are nearing the defeat of the Japanese Army in Manila, the Japanese Empire's soldiers begin attacking innocent civilians. A brutal month-long battle ensues.
Magkaibang Lahi
A story about two sisters, Corazon del Rio, a former movie star before the war, and Nenita. Cora was among the victims of Japanese atrocities during the last few weeks before the fall of Manila in 1945. It tackled the controversial and almost taboo interracial relationships that occasionally developed between American officers or G.I.s and Filipino women.
Once Before I Die
Stranded behind enemy lines when the Japanese attack the Philippines in late 1941, Lt. Bailey must lead a group of soldiers and their families to safety and the streets of Manila. During the perilous trek, Alex befriends a virginal young soldier whose only desire is to have sex once before he dies.