Best movies like Insiang

An adaptation of Bishop T.D. Jakes' self-help novel, chronciling a woman's struggle to come to terms with her legacy of abuse, addiction and poverty.

A story of incomprehensible abuse delivered by an explosively violent mother of four. Journey through the mind of a child that experiences a living hell, defined and defended by the twisted religious beliefs of her mother (imdb.com)

Renowned actress Joan Crawford, at the height of her career, adopts two orphans — Christina and Christopher — to fill the lonely gap in her personal life. However, as her professional and romantic relationships sour, Joan's already callous and abusive behavior towards Christina intensifies. Christina leaves home to pursue an acting path of her own, only to find her mother's presence still overshadowing her.

A neglected and unloved orphan raised by poor relatives in the slums of Manila is wrongfully convicted of murder that resulted from a heist he was compelled to join. Unable to prove his innocence and his minor age, he is thrown into the cruel, perilous and horrifying world of death row where he is introduced to other inmates all awaiting their execution by lethal injection. One of them is a 70-year-old man who detests the jungle of jail and is feared by all the convicts. He would serve as the boy’s protector and savior and in the process touch and shape enormously the violated youth’s life in prison and beyond.

A riches story amidst the filth and squalor of the Smokey Mountain. A scavenger among the garbage who had to carry her crippled mother on her back while begging on the steps of the Manila Cathedral. Raped by an unknown man she left her poverty laden existence and won success as a singer.

Angela Delmar works as a waitress for one of the seedier bars in Manila. There she meets five patrons of the bar, who also turn out to be a gang specializing in drugging and raping girls and later on selling them to prostitution.

Thelma, together with her husband Dado and teenage sons Gerald and Yuri, are a poor urban family hired by a local foster care facility to provide temporary home and care to abandoned babies pending the latter's formal adoption.

Georgia Rule follows a rebellious, uncontrollable teenager who is hauled off by her dysfunctional mother to spend the summer with her grandmother. Her journey will lead all three women to revelations of buried family secrets and an understanding that - regardless what happens - the ties that bind can never be broken.

Looking for a brighter future in metropolitan Manila, Oscar Ramirez and his family leave their miserable life in the rice terraces of Banaue, in the northern Philippines. In the sweltering capital, where all kind of perils lurk in every corner, Oscar catches a lucky break when he is offered a steady work for an armored truck company and the senior officer Ong takes him under his wing.

Julio, a young fisherman from a provincial village, descends into social alienation as he arrives in Manila to search for his loved one.

A grandfather is on the brink of bankruptcy and brings his grandchildren back to the community that made nd shaped him, only to find that the place is no longer the same.

An inventor and his bride get testy in the city as they try to make ends meet.

A young girl and her boyfriend go on a trip to Mexico, but are kidnapped by three thugs and taken to a mountain cabin.

At the height of the Great Depression, Tommy's mother has been out of work for months when Eddie's father loses his job. Eager not to burden their parents, the two high school Sophomores decide to hop the freight trains and look for work.

Brothers Joel, Dennis and Sonny work together as dancers at a low-rent gay bar in downtown Manila, in the Philippines. Despite his mother's pleas, Sonny decides to quit college to work full-time at the bar, while Dennis has moved beyond dancing into prostitution at the urging of the manipulative club manager. Joel, the eldest, tries to balance his secret gay life with his socially respectable role as a husband and father.

Kim-Dusik, who committed a murder in Korea, fled to Manila and has lived there nearly 15 years. He lives with his Filipino wife, Medusa, and their 15-year old son, Philip. Dusik, his irresistible yearning for his mother, turns into violence inflicted on his son, and sexual abuse inflicted on his wife. He only looks forward to going back to Korea as the 15 year statute of limitations runs out. As Philip grows up he confronts his father about his mistreatment of his mother. Philip, in spite of himself, takes after his father's violent behavior. Medusa finds out that Dusik is leaving for Korea in a few months and begs him to take Philip with him to raise him as a Korean.

Lilet Never Happened is the rollercoaster story of how a young girl, struggling to survive in the streets of Manila, spirals down into child prostitution. She is a fighter. She is a dreamer. She is a rebel and she thinks she can handle the world with her wits. But she has to face up to reality when she runs out of innocent dreams.

Anton, a wealthy logger marries Serafina, a woman from the slums of Manila. They move to Anton's house on a tropical island where they live with Anton's domineering and disapproving mother.

A young woman and her mother fight over one man in this dramatic film about three people who genuinely love each other yet express their affection the wrong way.

Roger Kimsky runs a huge arms-dealing organisation, the Black Ninja Empire - a ruthless band trying to gain control of the free world. Whatever the reason, whoever he has to kill, Kimsky will do it to achieve his ambition. A policewoman, Jane, undercover as a boutique sales girl, manages to capture the affections of Mark, a significant figure in the Black Ninja Empire. Risking her life she must get closer to the Empire's headquarters. Detectives Alex and Jerry Brown want justice. The two together determine to put away their deadliest opponent, Mark. In order to prevent firther investigation, Mark orders the deaths of Alex's wife and son. The two bloody deaths drive Alex into an uncontrollable rage of revenge, a rage which could put Janes life into further jeopardy.

Abandoned by his wife, Mitch finds respite from his depression by spying on beautiful new neighbor Jack; next thing you know, the pair becomes intimately acquainted. But trouble lies ahead: It seems that Jack's lover has ties to Manila's underworld, and Mitch soon finds himself in grave danger.

Ty's pal J.J. frames him in a murder and cocaine theft in Hong Kong in 1992. Ty's wife Rachel may be in on the con, so, when Ty gets early release from prison as a gesture of good will from the city's new Mainland government, he doesn't bother to look her up. But she finds him in Southern California to warn him that J.J. wants him dead. Whack J.J. first, she tells Ty, so he heads for Manila where J.J. runs a lucrative business under the cover of exporting tropical fish. But what is that business and who's pulling the strings? With the help of Inez, a young Filipina prostitute, Ty gets to the heart of the matter even after Inez no longer has the stomach to pursue the guilty ones.

Several members of a platoon of American soldiers not only kill a Japanese general, but also rape and murder the man's wife. The couple's son, Kimon, witnesses these ghastly events and vows revenge. Thirty-three years later the platoon get back together in Manila for a reunion. The adult Kimon also shows up to pick off the platoon members who are responsible for butchering his parents.

Well done bio pic of a notorious Filipino gangster in the late 40's until his death at the age of 26 in 1951.

Valentin Zapanta (Eddie Garcia) was know as "Ninong" ("Godfather") by the whole of Tondo. Because of his large territory, many tried to usurp his hold on Tondo. And when the time came, it was the least of his expectations that his closest "friend," whom he treated as his own son, would be the one to betray him.

Pitong Gatang is a barangay in Tondo where Berting Cayabyab is the barangay chairman. He holds a dark secret that no one knows about. Mariposa is an adjacent barangay where Lamberta Enriquez or Lambing, for short, is the new barangay chairwoman. She is strict, tough and idealistic. All these began to change when she met the leader of Barangay Pitong Gatang.

A story about Magno a fight junkie and his adopted step-sister Teresa.

Three boys from the slums of Manila find their luck has changed when one of them learns he's the heir of a rich man.

A tribute to the real potential of digital cinema, Slingshot is a slum epic on steroids. It weaves stories left and right into a shocking tableau about life for the lowest of the low in the Philippines poorest and most crime-ridden districts. National elections are coming up so in the usual attempt to appear “tough-on-crime”, The Big Boys have been sent into crack down on the the local squatters, thieves and miscreants who litter the film like broken bottle. And since no sweep is ever a clean sweep, the cops brutal shock-force tactics quickly ripple outwards with jagged repurcussions.

A three-paneled look at the worldwide AIDS crisis: in Montreal, a porn actor schemes to pass his mandatory blood test; a young nun makes a personal sacrifice for the benefit of a South African village; in rural China, a black market operative posing as a government-sanctioned blood drawer jeopardizes an entire village's safety

The hidden nightlife of ordinary people living in Manila unveils. Lovers and families conflict with each other as they live on the streets, which are rampant with drugs and prostitution.

Bomba Queen is loosely based on the story of Josephine "Yvonne" Samson one of the biggest bold stars of the 70s. Before she was Yvonne she was Rose, a provincial girl sold to one of the discreet brothels in Manila. Soon enough Rose was able to escape and make a name for herself as she became Yvonne, the bomba queen. Bomba Queen follows Rose through the successes and pitfalls of her newfound stardom and eventual descent back to poverty.

A poor Filipino woman (Assunta de Rossi) tries to take care of her mentally handicapped sister amid the poverty and violence of the shantytown in which they live.

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.

Recreation of the widespread rapes and murders of Filipina women by Japanese soldiers during WWII.