Best movies like The Big Wave
A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like The Big Wave Starring Jūzō Itami, Mickey Curtis, Heihachirô Ôkawa, Chieko Murata, and more. If you liked The Big Wave then you may also like: The Uninvited, When Eight Bells Toll, From Up on Poppy Hill, Around the World Under the Sea, Bad Boys 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.
Yukio, a farm boy, and Toru, a fisherboy, live in a small Japanese village that is periodically threatened by a volcano on one side and tidal waves on the other. Yukio's younger sister Setsu follows then and dreams of becoming a pearl diver. Toru is preparing to go fishing with his father when a bell tolls and a danger flag is hung high on the hill behind the village to warn of an impending tidal wave by the village patriarch, known as Old Gentleman.
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When Eight Bells Toll
In a vein similar to Bond movies, a British agent Philip Calvert is on a mission to determine the whereabouts of a ship that disappeared near the coast of Scotland.
From Up on Poppy Hill
Two high schoolers find hope as they fight to save an old wartime era clubhouse from destruction during the preparations for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
Around the World Under the Sea
A five man submarine plants sensors around the worlds oceans to monitor for a impending earthquake.
Beyond the Poseidon Adventure
After "The Poseidon Adventure", in which the ship got flipped over by a tidal wave, the ship drifts bottom-up in the sea. While the passengers are still on board waiting to be rescued, two rivaling salvage parties enter the ship on search for money, gold and a small amount of plutonium.
Tarzan and the Mermaids
A high priest tries to force a young beauty to marry a pearl trader who is masquerading as the god Balu.
Dragon Seed
The lives of a small Chinese village are turned Upside down when the Japanese invade it. An heroic young Chinese woman leads her fellow villagers in an uprising against Japanese Invaders.
Latitude Zero
A massive underwater volcano erupts and puts a group of investigative scientists in danger. They are rescued by an atomic super submarine named The Alpha under the command of Captain McKenzie. The group is quickly taken to a vast underwater city known as Latitude Zero, a fantastic, Atlantean type utopia, a world beneath the ocean with its own sun. It is soon discovered that Captain McKenzie is at war with the evil Dr. Malic, a cruel scientist who wishes to rule mankind all the while conducting genetic experiments on humans and animals. Malic sends his agents to kidnap Dr. Okada, a human scientist who has created a serum that can immunize exposure to radiation.
MacArthur's Children
In this drama at the end of World War II, the inhabitants of a small Japanese fishing village must come to terms with their nation's defeat and the sudden occupation of General MacArthur and his troops.
Profound Desires of the Gods
Tokyo engineer Kariya arrives on a primitive tropical island, where he interacts with the Futori clan, to drill a well to power a sugar mill.
Twister
An oddball family on a Kansas farm are trapped in their farmhouse by an impending storm. The patriarch of the clan is a retired soda pop tycoon. He is currently dating a children's TV evangelist. Also living at the farm is his layabout daughter and her precocious 8 year old daughter, his would-be artist son, the son's fiancée, and the black maid. Also thrown into the mix is the daughter's ex-husband, a ne-er-do-well who is seeking to get back in his ex-wife's good graces.
Lantern Hill
In 1935 Toronto, Jane Stuart's mother has taken ill, and the two of them have temporarily moved in with her rich, snobbish grandmother, where Jane is verbally abused and her mother bullied. Jane is forced into a private academy, in which the other girls tell her that her father, whom Jane believes to be dead, is actually alive. Soon after, Andrew Stuart sends word that he would like to meet his long-lost daughter, so Jane is sent by train to Bright River to stay with him, where she encounters an old mystery that she must help her father overcome, new friends, and the chance to bring her father and mother back together again.
Dream No Evil
Grace is a troubled young lady with some serious daddy issues. She was adopted as a young girl and raised up in a family of traveling faith healers. After the patriarch of that little group passes away Grace's world is thrown into turmoil. The eldest brother turns his back on the family business in favor of medical school despite being engaged to Grace and she is left alone with the shady younger son who puts Grace in a skimpy leotard and incorporates some circus style showmanship to draw in the rubes.
Chronicle of My Mother
Best-selling novelist Kosaku Igami has made a career out of using his family as fodder for his novels, much to their dismay. When his mother, the spirited family matriarch, is diagnosed with dementia, Igami must come to terms with the toll his own behavior has taken on his increasingly distant family and resolve his own long-simmering resentments. Evocative of classic Ozu, this gorgeously wrought epic family portrait explores the tenderness and trappings of familial bonds.
Flood
Timely yet terrifying, The Flood predicts the unthinkable. When a raging storm coincides with high seas it unleashes a colossal tidal surge, which travels mercilessly down England's East Coast and into the Thames Estuary. Overwhelming the Barrier, torrents of water pour into the city. The lives of millions of Londoners are at stake.
License to Live
Yutaka was fourteen years old when he was run over by a car and fell into a coma. Now, ten years later, he wakes up and realizes that his family is not intact anymore: father, mother and sister live at different places. Yutaka decides to re-open the pony farm that his family once ran.
The Black Pearl
The young Ramon Salazar, son of a village owner, dreams of becoming a pearl fisherman. His father agrees to let him experience this job. Ramon enters a forbidden cave, den of a giant skate nicknamed the Manta Diablo. He finds an oyster containing a black pearl of unusual size. His father donates it to the Virgin rather than sell it to dishonest traffickers. Shortly after, the flotilla of the village led by Salazar perishes at sea. Ramon must face the Manta Diablo with another fisherman to bring prosperity to the village ..
Diving In
A high school diver fights his fear of heights and diving to get onto the team. He gets onto the team, only to find that he must dive the high platform in order to compete. His problems are further compounded by social issues out of the pool. His sister is being taken advantage of by the local tough-guy, and his coach writes him off as a loser. To aid in his overcoming of his phobia, he enlists in a previous women's olympic coach, whom he falls for and crosses the line between business and pleasure. During his training with the new coach, he experiences a bad diving accident and is warned not to dive in the championship. He ignores these warnings, and enters the competition.
A Shine of Rainbows
An orphaned boy named Tomás is adopted by Maire O’Donnell to live on a whimsical Irish isle filled with new friends, secret caves and a lost baby pup seal stranded on the coast. But when Maire's reluctant husband Alec refuses to accept Tomás as his own son, the boy drifts down a fateful path of adventure and self-discovery, illuminating how rainbows can shine around - and within - us all.
The Surf
Lonely youth Shinji meets Hatsue, a pretty pearl diver, on the beach and the two fall in love. But Shinji has a rival for Hatsue's affections, Yasuo. Yasuo spreads unpleasant gossip about his rival, and Hatsue's father forbids her to see Shinji. But when the boy saves the passengers on a boat owned by Hatsue's father, his luck in love begins to change.
Shiosai
Lonely youth Shinji meets Hatsue, a pretty pearl diver, on the beach and the two fall in love. But Shinji has a rival for Hatsue's affections, Yasuo. Yasuo spreads unpleasant gossip about his rival, and Hatsue's father forbids her to see Shinji. But when the boy saves the passengers on a boat owned by Hatsue's father, his luck in love begins to change. —Jim Beaver
Shiosai
Lonely youth Shinji meets Hatsue, a pretty pearl diver, on the beach and the two fall in love. But Shinji has a rival for Hatsue's affections, Yasuo. Yasuo spreads unpleasant gossip about his rival, and Hatsue's father forbids her to see Shinji. But when the boy saves the passengers on a boat owned by Hatsue's father, his luck in love begins to change.
Global Meltdown
A helicopter pilot and an environmental scientist lead a exodus of survivors in a search for a safe haven after a catastrophic tectonic event causes the crust of the earth to break apart.
Tidal Wave: No Escape
A retired and disgruntled scientist is brought out of retirement to explain why tidal waves are wiping out coastal communities. But is he part of the problem?
Ninja vs Shark
In the Edo period, at the remote village of Okitsu, the evil cult leader Koushirou uses ninjutsu to bewitch sharks and forces them to attack local pearl divers so the cult can steal the pearls from their mangled corpses. Desperate for help, the village chief hires Kotaro Shiozaki, a guard at a nearby temple, but Kotaro soon finds his path blocked by lady ninja Kikuma and a gigantic shark that doesn't seem like something from this world.
Cocolors
Aki isn’t a brave little boy, but he’s dedicated nonetheless to safeguarding his sickly, mute friend Fuyu. They and their little gang live deep underground, in the concrete warrens to which survivors have fled following the eruption of Mt. Fuji. The community is in decline, however, as illness and despair take their toll. Fuyu dreams of the outside world, which he is too frail to ever reach. But what colour is the sky out there?
Woman Diver's Terror
Chie, who's chosen as 'Ms. Woman Diver', and her friend Yuki, have been missing for several days after they left for Tokyo to be interviewed by a magazine. Later, Yuki is found dead in the sea. Yoshi, Chie's sister, along with sailor Shunsuke, try to find Chie. Soon they learn about a conspiracy with diamonds in a ship sunk in the sea.
Nympho Diver: G-String Festival
A once-thriving village is in dire need of women to help with diving duties. Times are tough and the current diver is definitely no spring chicken, so the mayor’s son finds some beautiful maidens to fill the position. The arrival of the new recruits gets a rise out of the village’s male members.
Silver Spoon
Ooejo Agricultural High School is located in Hokkaido. Most students are from families involved in agriculture and their dreams are to continue working in agriculture. Meanwhile, Yuugo (Kento Nakajima), who graduated from a prestigious middle school, applied to the Ooejo Agricultural High School just because the school has a dormitory. Yuugo, who grew up in the city, finds himself in an unfamiliar environment at Ooejo Agricultural High School, surrounded by nature and animals. Yuugo is also the only one who doesn't know what type of career he wants to pursue. Yuugo becomes impatient. He goes through struggles everyday, but he also gets to know the other students and rural life in general. He begins to grow as a person.
Hitler's Secret Attack on America
For the first time in history, National Geographic Channel and a group of scientists search the ocean floor for a series of shipwrecks many Americans never heard about. Everyone knows that on December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. But what most don't know is just days later, Hitler sent his own force to devastate the East Coast. On December 19, the German Naval War Staff sent three U-boats to American waters. It was an assault so deadly, it was covered up by the U.S. government.
Nasty Diver
The amorous adventures of Reiko, who lives and works in a rural fishing village.
Calm at Sunset
Drama about a young man who defies his parents by dropping out of college to pursue his dream of owning a fishing boat, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather.
Haunted Cave
The treasures of the Aoyamas were buried at the bottom of the sea when a large earthquake occurred years before. Yumi Aoyama is the only person who knows the location, but her family dies one after another through curious incidents, as if the family were under a curse. Yumi is surprised by the ghost of a dead sister who looks the same as the grim figure who jumped into the old well alter stabbing herself with a sword. Fearful that a similar fate awaits her, Yumi seeks the help of her friend Kyoko. Later the ghost appears before Kyoko and her fiancé, Detective Nonomiya. In a haunted cave, Kyoko and Yumi are in deadly peril from those who seek treasures of the Aoyamas.
The Uninvited
Anna returns home after spending time in a psychiatric facility following her mother's tragic death and discovers that her mother's former nurse, Rachel, has moved into their house and become engaged to her father. Soon after she learns this shocking news, Anna is visited by her mother's ghost, who warns her that Rachel has evil intentions.