Best movies like Late Chrysanthemums

Reclusive Dr. Zorba has died and left his mansion to his nephew Cyrus and his family. They will need to search the house to find the doctor's fortune, but along with the property they have also inherited the occultist's collection of 13 ghosts.

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?

Critics and the public say Karen Stone is too old -- as she approaches 50 -- for her role in a play she is about to take to Broadway. Her businessman husband, 20 years her senior, has been the angel for the play and gives her a way out: They are off to a holiday in Rome for his health. He suffers a fatal heart attack on the plane. Mrs. Stone stays in Rome. She leases a magnificent apartment with a view of the seven hills from the terrace. Then the contessa comes calling to introduce a young man named Paolo to her. The contessa knows many presentable young men and lonely American widows.

Charming LA architect Harrison, also a great cook and lover, gets engaged to Cate, a San Francisco landscape architect he meets while collaborating on a major project, after they get locked in by a malfunctioning elevator. She moves to LA for him and volunteers, while he's on mission in Tokyo, to mind his widowed mother Evelyn, still a major force in his life. However Cate gets paranoid when feeling weak and hearing rumors that his former girlfriend disappeared mysteriously years earlier, even cancels the engagement. Then the truth gets out, clearing Harrison and uncovering a lurking danger.

After the murder of a beauty queen, an investigation reveals the suspects to be a former lover, a rival contestant, and a stage mother.

A struggling, indebted business man leaves his family immediately after Christmas to pursue a lucrative property deal that could solve all of his problems: buying foreclosed properties from banks at a fraction of their value, refitting them for a minimum cost, and then selling them for a large profit. He hires a local chauffeur for 24 hours to drive him around the mountainous area but, as night sets in and the weather worsens, the car is trapped on an icy road and the men face an uncertain fate.

Two detectives begin a stakeout based on the slim chance of catching a murderer whom they suspect will try to reunite with an old flame.

In the post-war Gion district of Kyoto, the geisha Miyoharu agrees to apprentice the 16 year-old Eiko, whose mother was a former geisha who had just died. After a year of training they have to find a large sum of money before Eiko can debut. Miyoharu borrows the money from the tea-house owner, Okimi, who in turn obtains the money from the businessman Kusuda. Kusuda fancies Eiko himself and wants to give Miyoharu to Kanzaki in order to close a large business deal. However both geishas have minds of their own and, going against tradition, want to be able to say no to clients.

A man struggling to find purpose in life is enlightened by a drunk ailing widow.

Self-described misanthrope Elle Reid has her protective bubble burst when her 18-year-old granddaughter, Sage, shows up needing help. The two of them go on a day-long journey that causes Elle to come to terms with her past and Sage to confront her future.

A rebellious young graffiti artist, who targets the homes of the wealthy elite, discovers a shocking secret that leads him on a journey endangering himself and those closest to him.

Marshovia, a small European kingdom, is on the brink of bankruptcy but the country may be saved if the wealthy American Crystal Radek, widow of a Marshovian, can be convinced to part with her money and marry the king's nephew count Danilo. Arriving to Marshovia on a visit, Crystal Radek change places with her secretary Kitty. Following them to Paris, Danilo has a hard time wooing the widow after meeting an attractive young woman at a nightclub, the same Crystal Radek who presents herself as Fifi the chorus girl. Plot by Mattias Thuresson.

In an updated contemporary version of the beloved stage play and 1989 film, "Steel Magnolias" chronicles the lives and friendship of six women in Louisiana. Supporting each other through their triumphs and tragedies, they congregate at Truvy’s beauty shop to ponder the mysteries of life and death, husbands and children - and hair and nails - all the important topics that truly unite and celebrate women.

The lives of five prostitutes employed at a Japanese brothel while the nation is debating the passage of an anti-prostitution law.

The residents of Ho Chi Minh City face modernization amid widespread poverty. A retired American Marine arrives on a search for his daughter, whom he abandoned at the end of the Vietnam War. Elsewhere, a cyclo driver falls for a troubled prostitute and schemes to raise money so he can spend time with her. Additionally, a young women begins harvesting lotuses for a writer suffering from leprosy, and a child trinket seller loses his traveling case.

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.

Jean-Pierre is a hit man in Paris. He wants to stop; an incentive is reconnecting to Michelle, a childhood friend. He's ready to commit himself to her, but she has her own secrets: she sells bomb components to thugs. He hears rumors of a missing briefcase, which he finds in Michelle's flat. He asks no questions, and soon both of them are in trouble with Jean-Pierre's ex-employer and with her bomb buyers. Two other characters complicate the maneuvering: Jean-Pierre's best friend, who's always losing money on the ponies, and the ex-employer's new contract killer, a seemingly fragile woman. Is there any way that Jean-Pierre can protect Michelle and escape with his life? Written by

Tetsuko "Alice" Arisugawa has just moved to a new house with her recently divorced mother and enrolled at a school where a strange rumor lingers among the students about "Judas," who is said to have been murdered over a year before. She is told that if anybody knows his fate it would be Hana Arai, the recluse in the house next door who has been unable to bring herself to attend class since "Judas" disappeared.

Gloria is a free-spirited divorcée who spends her days at a straight-laced office job and her nights on the dance floor, joyfully letting loose at clubs around Los Angeles. After meeting Arnold on a night out, she finds herself thrust into an unexpected new romance, filled with both the joys of budding love and the complications of dating, identity, and family.

A greedy, materialistic family attempts to cover-up the embezzlement committed by the son while keeping their other schemes active. They discover there are other, equally conniving players involved.

In 1986, ten-year-old Tate Millikin is forced to spend a lonely summer witnessing the breakup of his parents' marriage. Tate eventually befriends his new next-door neighbors - recently retired English professor, Edward Bryant and his transgender daughter, Gossamer. Despite his father’s knee-jerk transphobia and his mother’s misplaced protectiveness, Tate forms a deep friendship with fellow misfit Gossamer, that changes his and their family's life.

Nick Anderson, Kevin Daniels, and Tracey Green do everything together. They are the best of friends, and yet they couldn't be more different. Neighbors from adolescence, they finish each other's thoughts and sentences, joys and pains, happiness and tears. Using Nick's house as their own members only clubhouse, they escape into their own world of contentment. Yet the inevitable intrusion of others tests their stability in ways never imagined.

Jane, a high school teenager, tries to deal with the discovery that she is a lesbian after developing an intense friendship with another girl who makes her discover her true sexuality, which is only the start of Jane's troubles when Jane's unaccepting mother, Janice, struggles with her surprising revelation of brought forth by her only daughter.

The Devil Never Sleeps is a “whodunit” documentary about family secrets. Filmmaker Lourdes Portillo received a phone call informing her of the mysterious death of her wealthy Mexican uncle Oscar. Officially ruled a suicide, Portillo’s relatives claimed murder, offering several possible suspects including a business partner, a ranch hand, and Oscar’s young widow who stood to inherit everything. Traveling to Mexico, Portillo attempts to learn the truth about her powerful uncle. Using interviews, old snapshots and home movies, she finds a complicated web of family secrets, intrigue, rumor and betrayal that makes her enigmatic uncle’s murder seem ever more likely, yet ever more obscure. As the Mexican saying goes, “When evil is lurking, the devil never sleeps.”

To try and overcome a lifetime of bitterness and resentment, an older lady decides to climb a mountain in Scotland.

Yukiko's fiance learns her mother runs a geisha house and ends their engagement. She despises what her mother does until one of her clients shows interest and starts to woo her.

As Christmas approaches, a single mother (played by Reba McEntire) struggles to raise her son and keep up the payments on her Oregon ranch, which is difficult since she's heavily in debt. But she's a tough cookie, and proves that a steadfast attitude and an open heart go a long way in surviving the cold hearts and greed of the Scrooges around her.

When a desperate kid tries to steal the car of a famous movie director to help his family pay their debt to a predatory lender, the director and his special effects crew decide to help the kid teach the greedy man a lesson.

After the bankruptcy of her foster-father's condom factory, Tamae sets out to make a living on her own and ends up working as a geisha at a hot spring resort. After rising in popularity, a climactic sex battle is held to decide who gets to lay claim to her.

As rumors spread about a hidden treasure worth 300 billion yen buried somewhere underneath a mountain hot spring resort large numbers of people flock to the local inn hotel managed by a madam with 2 things on their mind.....treasure hunting in the daytime and sex hunting in the night time. The geishas at the inn have their hands full as the inn is fully booked. The rumors even attract a shrewd rich tycoon named Yagisawa to the inn. Yagisawa immediately makes an offer to buy the inn at 80 million yen which is considered too low by the madam. However when "news" that some gold pieces have been unearthed Yagisawa agrees to buy the inn at madams asking price of 100 million yen. Is this a con job or are the buried treasures real?

A dramatisation of Christopher Reid's narrative poem that tells the story of an unnamed book editor who, fifteen years after their break-up, is meeting his former love for a nostalgic lunch at Zanzotti's, the Soho restaurant they used to frequent.

Yukiko is a nurse working at a general hospital. Because of the long, hard hours she keeps, she is under a great deal of stress. One day, she meets Kenta, a handsome patient hospitalized with a broken leg. After an unexpected turn of events, they end up having a bout of wild, hospital sex. Yukiko falls madly in love with him and has never felt so happy. Meanwhile, Taeko, Yukiko's fellow nurse, is dating an intern who is heir to a fantastic fortune. Taeko shows all her skills in sadomasochistic play as she trains Dr. Yamada to obey her every command. Kaori, a humble, somewhat square nurse, releases her daily stress with bouts of shopping which only drag her deeper into debt. Then she starts working as an "actress" at the Image Club.

Love to Kill is about Francis Sweet, a young gorgeous woman who uses her beauty and charm to lure wealthy men into giving her all their money and then she kills them. Francis is a mysterious attractive woman who catches the eye of Nicholas, a widower and an aspiring politician. Nicholas falls head over heels but he may have fallen for the wrong girl and he's not the only one. Is she deceiving him or is she worse...a black widow?

From director Masaru Konuma comes this tale of sorrow and nostalgia mixed with pop songs and feminine strength.

Toku, a factory worker gives food to a starving woman, Tsuru, who then follows him home. He shares a shack in a shanty village in Kawasaki with his friend Pin-chan. The two men try to get rid of her but then let her stay when she gives them money. Tsuru tells the people of the village that she lost her job due to a strike, then was robbed of her severance pay, then sold to a brothel in Tsuchiura. She ran away with a friend from Kawasaki. Toku and Pin-chan sell her to a geisha house and spend the money. She is thrown out. The owner demands his money back. Tsuru earns the money to pay their debt by working as a prostitute outside the station. The other prostitutes beat her. She fends them off with a policeman's revolver and is then shot dead by the police.