Best movies like The Kid from the Big Apple

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like The Kid from the Big Apple Starring Ti Lung, Sarah Tan, Jessica Hsuan, Jayson Tan, and more. If you liked The Kid from the Big Apple then you may also like: Zombitopia, Not Without My Daughter, The Old Swimmin' Hole, The Jazz Singer, The Journey 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.

Sarah, raised in New York, visits Malaysia for the first time and learns why her grandfather, Gen, and mother, Sophia, have not seen each other since she was born, and why they care so much about their cultural traditions.

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Zombitopia

After Hassan discovers Zidik living alone on the streets, he takes him in and cares for him like a son. Zidik now works together with Hassan in the junkyard but both men are stuck in the past. 15 years ago, they lost their loved ones to a virus that turned people violent. Hassan often "forgets" that the virus killed his wife, while Zidik still remembers his sister attacking his mother and his father sacrificing himself to save Zidik. He also often thinks of Zooey, the girl he met at the orphanage he briefly stayed at before being kicked out by the evil Kak Lily. Meanwhile, Dr. Rahman, a disgraced scientist who previously managed to contain the virus, manufactures a new strain of zombie virus to create chaos. Amid this new zombie outbreak, Zidik encounters a zombified Zooey who tries to attack him but she slowly begins to remember who he is. Zidik then gets taken prisoner by Dr. Rahman when the doctor discovers that he is immune to the virus.

Not Without My Daughter

An American woman, trapped in Islamic Iran by her brutish husband, must find a way to escape with her daughter as well.

The Old Swimmin' Hole

Teenager Betty Elliott has decided to take over the business and social affairs of her father Doc Elliott. She thinks her father should marry the widowed mother, Julie Harper, of her boyfriend Chris Harper. Doc has been a real friend and father to Chris, who, under his guidance, has learned to take care of all the sick animals in town, but lack of money keeps the widow from sending Chris on to finish high school and medical training is out of the question. Wealthy Grandpa Harper sends his attorney Baker to tell Mrs. Harper that all of Jimmy's dreams could be realized if the widow, whom the grandfather dislikes, would give up custody of her son. The lawyer also begins to court Julie and this throws a kink in Betty's plans to see her father and the widow get married. Written by Les Adams

The Jazz Singer

A young Jewish man is torn between tradition and individuality when his old-fashioned family objects to his career as a jazz singer. This is the first full length feature film to use synchronized sound, and is the original film musical.

The Journey

The Journey is a cross-continental story that explores the idea of culture, not just as tradition but as an expression of love. When Bee (Yew) returns to Malaysia for the first time in a decade - she introduces her conservative father Uncle Chuan (Lee) to her happy-go-lucky British fiancé, Benji (Pfeiffer). With Benji's lack of cultural understanding and comprehension of Chinese traditions, Chuan opposes their marriage. Unexpected circumstances ensue, and Chuan reluctantly submits to their union, on the condition that their wedding adheres to Chinese tradition. Part of that tradition is that Chuan must invite all of his childhood friends personally. So the quintessential odd couple, Benji and Chuan, embark on a cross country adventure to deliver the invitations. Despite language barriers and initial hesitation from both parties, the two men come to realize that their priorities are essentially one and the same.

The Keeper: The Legend of Omar Khayyam

Kamran is a 12 year old boy in the present day who discovers that his ancestor is the 11th Century Mathematician, Astronomer, Poet of Persia, Omar Khayyam. The story has been passed down in his family from one generation to another, and now it is his responsibility to keep the story alive for future generations. The film takes us from the modern day to the epic past where the relationship between Omar Khayyam, Hassan Sabbah (the original creator of the sect of Assassins) and their mutual love for a beautiful woman separate them from their eternal bond of friendship. Filmed almost entirely on location in Samarkand and Bukhara, Uzbekistan.

Big Eden

Henry Hart is a young gay artist living in New York City. When his grandfather has a stroke, Henry puts his career on hold and returns home to the small town of Big Eden, Montana, to care for him. While there, Henry hopes to strike up a romance with Dean Stewart, his high-school best friend for whom he still has feelings. But he's surprised when he finds that Pike, a quiet Native American who owns the local general store, may have a crush on him.

East Is East

In 1971 Salford fish-and-chip shop owner George Khan expects his family to follow his strict Pakistani Muslim ways. But his children, with an English mother and having been born and brought up in Britain, increasingly see themselves as British and start to reject their father's rules on dress, food, religion, and living in general.

Family Business

Jessie is an aging career criminal who has been in more jails, fights, schemes, and lineups than just about anyone else. His son Vito, while currently on the straight and narrow, has had a fairly shady past and is indeed no stranger to illegal activity. They both have great hope for Adam, Vito's son and Jessie's grandson, who is bright, good-looking, and without a criminal past.

Father's Little Dividend

In this sequel to Father of the Bride, newly married Kay Dunstan announces that she and her husband are going to have a baby, leaving her father having to come to grips with the fact that he will soon be a granddad.

Frozen

A young 20-year-old-woman named Wing (Lan Wei) visits her grandfather's laboratory in Hong Kong. By accident, Wing opens a chamber and resurrects a woman about her age. Wing then discovers the woman awaken is her mother Gigi (Janice Man), who was cryogenically frozen shortly after becoming involved in a fatal car accident some 20 years ago. Gigi, on the other hand, must also come to grips with her daughter being the same age as her and also her favorite actor Leslie Cheung having long passed away. The newly acquainted mother and daughter duo then set out to find Gigi's boyfriend Kit (Aarif Lee) who is also Wing's biological father. When they find Kit, they learn that he's not the same man as he was twenty years ago and, in fact, a middle-aged homeless man who lives under a bridge ...

HAQ

HAQ is the action-packed story of two brothers gifted with special powers, one good and the other evil, who must either overcome or succumb to their own demons when they finally confront each other. Haq, the more caring and responsible of the two, was born with a gift of special powers passed down through his lineage. It is a gift nurtured and treasured by his family, used only when required.

Pushing Hands

Mr. Chu is an elderly widower who teaches tai chi chuan in Beijing. He moves to America to live with his son's family, but finds the cultural adjustment difficult. Since his daughter-in-law is a white woman who does not speak Chinese, Mr. Chu's son, Alex, must mediate.

Stillwater

Bill Baker, an American oil-rig roughneck from Oklahoma, travels to Marseille to visit his estranged daughter, Allison, who is in prison for a murder she claims she did not commit. Confronted with language barriers, cultural differences, and a complicated legal system, Bill builds a new life for himself in France as he makes it his personal mission to exonerate his daughter.

A Thousand and One

Struggling but unapologetically living on her own terms, Inez is moving from shelter to shelter in mid-1990s New York City. With her 6-year-old son Terry in foster care and unable to leave him again, she kidnaps him so they can build their life together. As the years go by, their family grows and Terry becomes a smart yet quiet teenager, but the secret that has defined their lives threatens to destroy the home they have so improbably built.

Little White Lie

Lacey Schwartz grew up in a typical upper-middle-class Jewish household in Woodstock, NY, with loving parents and a strong sense of her Jewish identity - despite the open questions from those around her about how a white girl could have such dark skin. She believes her family's explanation that her looks were inherited from her dark-skinned Sicilian grandfather. But when her parents abruptly split, her gut starts to tell her something different. At age of 18, she finally confronts her mother and learns the truth: her biological father was not the man who raised her, but a black man named Rodney with whom her mother had had an affair.

Twilight Time

After spending 20 years in America, aging widower Marko Sekulovic (Karl Malden) returns to his Yugoslavian homeland to take care of his two young grandchildren. But Marko's quiet life is in for a shake up when he meets the pretty new village schoolteacher, Lana (Jodi Thelen). Malden pays tribute to his Yugoslav heritage in this affecting 1982 drama.

Miracle Maker - A Christmas Tale

It all starts with one little seed of love."The Miracle Maker is coming!" Everyone in the tiny hamlet is excited when they hear the news that the renowned man of wonders is coming to their village. But the humble traveler who appears isn't what anyone expected. They were looking forward to someone magnificent who would change their lives. But it seems this man can barely take care of himself, let alone fulfill the dreams of others. However, miracles can come in all shapes and sizes and sometimes from unexpected places.

The Day the Ponies Come Back

Daniel Moulin goes to New York on a business trip and decides to take advantage of his time in the Big Apple to try and locate the father he never knew. The only thing he has to go on however is an address in the Bronx that is 25 years old.

The Ballad of Ramblin' Jack

With the help of her mother, family, friends, and fellow musicians, Aiyana Elliott reaches for her father, legendary cowboy troubadour, Ramblin' Jack Elliott. She explores who he is and how he got there, working back and forth between archival and contemporary footage. Born in 1932 in Brooklyn, busking through the South and West in the early 50s, a year with Woody Guthrie, six years flatpicking in Europe, a triumphant return to Greenwich Village in the early 60s, mentoring Bob Dylan, then life on the road, from gig to gig, singing and telling stories. A Grammy and the National Medal of Arts await Jack near the end of a long trail. What will Aiyana find for herself?

First Comes Love

With great wit and insight, New York City filmmaker Nina Davenport documents her quest to have a baby as a single mother over forty. Davenport's film taps into the zeitgeist topic of how the modern family is being re-imagined. (TIFF)

Navy Born

A naval officer gets more than he bargained for when he adopts a recently orphaned young boy, the son of his late best friends. Despite the resistance of the lad's surviving relatives, who worry that growing in the Navy will be hard on the boy, the officer loves and takes good care of the boy. At least he does until the child is abducted by a gangster who has mistaken him for his long-lost boy. Fortunately for the young fellow, the officer rallies the entire Navy and comes to the rescue.

Eat a Bowl of Tea

An American-Chinese man brings over his wife from China to America, but the challenges of making a living and adjusting to a new life, plus the attentions of a gambler threaten their marriage.

American Desi

College freshman Krishna Reddy, who has never cared for his Indian-American cultural heritage, looks forward to a new life on campus but is surprised to find that he has been assigned Indian roommates.

The Matador

Growing up in Granada, Spain, young David Fandila always dreamed of being a matador. This documentary captures the rise of "El Fandi," one of Spain's most renowned bullfighters, who first entered the ring at age 14. While it's never in doubt that Fandila is at the top of his game, filmmakers Stephen Higgins and Nina Gilden Seavey weigh the significance of bullfighting as a cultural tradition against its inherent danger and cruelty.

Hathi

5000 years ago, in India, men started to capture and tame elephants for war, parades and worship. Still today, the young Makbul grows up in daily contact with the wild and domesticated elephants that live in the forest around his native village in southern India. Over the objections of his mother, Makbul follows in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, going deep into the forest to learn the age-old profession of the mahout, or elephant handler in the government's employ. When an elephant calf named Vikrama is born, the animal is placed under Makbul's care.

Saving Sarah Cain

When Sarah Cain, a self-involved big-city newspaper columnist, travels to Pennsylvania for the funeral of her Amish sister, she soon discovers that she is the legal guardian of her five Amish nieces and nephews. Rather than choose to move to Lancaster County to finish raising them there herself, or let them be separated by the foster care system, Sarah decides to take them with her back to Portland where she believes she can make a new life for them. However, she soon realizes that the modern world has forced them to compromise who they are, and that she has moved them there for all the wrong reasons - a motive which is soon exposed - because secrets can really never be kept secret. In order to find her own redemption, she knows she must make a choice to give them back their lives in Amish Country. And whether she remains part of their lives will have a lot to do with how much she has grown to love them.

The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble

Follow several talented members of the ensemble as they gather in locations across the world, exploring the ways art can both preserve traditions and shape cultural evolution.

Age Out

Fresh out of foster care at age 18, a young drifter turns to petty crime to survive, and discovers an impossible love in an unlikely friend.

Christmas Waltz

After Avery’s storybook Christmas wedding is canceled unexpectedly, dance instructor Roman helps her rebuild her dreams.

Kill-Fist

Zhang, a middle aged man struggling with a dead end job as an insurance sales person, on the verge of divorce with his wife, losing custody of her daughter, and on top of all this he has to take care of his father who is suffering from Alzheimer's. Unknowingly Zhang is invited to join an underground fighting game for financial purposes, but eventually Zhang becomes hooked on the fights and turns professional.

I'm Not a Terrorist

Born in Kashmir, Ummar was sent by his mother to live with his aunt in Malaysia. There, he becomes acquitted and slowly develops a relationship with Dayana, who is the daughter of a famous businessman. When Ummar finds out that his mother is dying from an illness back home, Dayana helps him purchase a flight ticket to Kashmir. What he doesn't know is that Dayana has also bought another ticket for herself due to her curious and adventurous nature. While there, Dayana learns the truth behind why Ummar was sent away and soon finds herself in the middle of a terrorist plot.

Adnan Sempit 2

The sequel to the successful "Adnan Sempit" by Ismail Bob Hashim in 2010 which told the story of Adnan, an orphaned street biker who is cared for by his aunt. On the other hand, Nadia is born to a wealthy family and currently owns a stable job. These two opposites soon encounter one another by chance and end up being in a relationship. Now, in "Adnan Sempit 2", it sees Shaheizy Sam reprising his role as Adnan, and his trials and tribulations in life and his relationship with Nadia.

Queen of Glory

Brainy scientist Sarah, a doctoral student at Columbia University, is weeks away from following her very married boyfriend to Ohio when her mother dies suddenly, leaving Sarah the owner of a small but beloved Christian bookstore in the Bronx. Tasked with planning a culturally respectful funeral befitting the family matriarch, Sarah must juggle the expectations of her loving yet demanding family while navigating the reappearance of her estranged father all while grappling with what to do with the bookstore. Aided by an only-in-New York ensemble of Eastern European neighbors, feisty African aunties and a no-nonsense ex-con co-worker, Sarah faces her new responsibilities while figuring out how to remain true to herself.

The Color of Love: Jacey's Story

Set in a small town in the South, movie centers on Georgia Potter, an old-fashioned widow (Rowlands), whose life changes drastically when her estranged daughter and the son-in-law she never met die in a car crash. When she visits her granddaughter Jacey in the hospital, she’s shocked to discover that she’s half black, but conceals her misgivings and decides to raise her by herself.

Eraser

Depicts perfectly to the concept of unconditional love, mutual respect and patriotism towards beloved country through a Malaysian flag eraser. The journey of how a ruined family survives the broken pieces from the love of a family of different cultural beliefs. As love witnesses no gender, race and religion but respect and humanity actions between individuals.

Coyote

A cook in his heyday, Camilo is now a worn-out fifty-year-old who works for a cleaning company. We can guess a personal failure in the past of this solitary Mexican living in Montreal. However, Camilo wants to get back on track and an opportunity to recover his culinary passion finally presents itself. Everything is in place for this new beginning when Camilo receives a visit from his daughter Tania, with whom he had cut ties because of her drug addiction. She tells him that he is a grandfather and asks him to take care of the child while she undergoes her umpteenth rehab. The arrival of this grandson will upset Camilo’s plans. There will be a new beginning for him, certainly, but not as he imagined it.

Sarah, Plain and Tall: Winter's End

The third installment of the Sarah trilogy provides a glorious and touching story of a family drawn together by adversity. On a cold winter day a stranger shows up at the farm. He is slow to reveal his identity. When they find out he is Jacobs father, John Witting, thought long ago dead, hard questions about the past are difficult to get answered.

Buried Treasure

Harry Jenkins is a self-made business man, who one day receives a message that his only daughter has died in a car crash. Last time he saw his daughter was at his wife's funeral. When trying to deal with his daughter's affairs, he finds out he is a grandfather of a nine-year-old girl, named Saffron. Since he is her only relative, social services hands over Saffron to him. At first he tries to get rid of her, but he soon finds out that they share more than his daughter, Saffron's mother. They take a trip from Manchester to London, to find Saffron's estranged father, but they find so much more

Two Turtle Doves

Dr. Sharon Hayes searches for a beloved family heirloom in a small Christmas town. When she unexpectedly discovers an adorable little girl and her disheartened father, she realizes that Christmas miracles really do happen.

Out of the Woods

Matt, a self-absorbed young attorney, goes to visit his grandfather - an eccentric recluse who lives in the backwoods without gas, electricity, or phone - to convince him not to give away his estate as he plans to do. But in the end, it is Matt who is convinced to make some life changes. Jason London and Ed Asner star. When a woman needs someone to look after her aging father (Ed Asner), her irresponsible son isn't her first choice. Matt (Jason London) can't get his career, love life, or wallet in order, so how can he be expected to check in on his grandfather? But desperation leads Matt to visit his grandfather at his home in the middle of nowhere. For Matt, this barebones life takes some adjustment, but then he meets a single mother who helps him learn about the simple life.

Sometime, Sometime

Zi Kien and his mother Ah Lin only have each other in their lives until one day, Ah Lin starts dating Mr. Lee. Zi Kien feels his place in his mother's life is threatened, and he starts to change himself. This is a story about a mother and son who care too much about each other, yet pretend not to.

Spinning Gasing

Members of a Malaysian band must overcome their racial, religious and cultural differences to overcome the difficulties of love, relationships and day to day issues in modern day Malaysia.

Roads in February

Driven by childhood memories and the hope of a reencounter, Sarah visits her paternal grandmother in her village in Uruguay. She takes long to understand the prevailing unease… But she is soon faced with the gap between her fantasy regarding the place of origin and that village of old people forgotten by Modernity where the heat is overwhelming and the days seem to last forever. Cultural shock, humor, tenderness and sadness give shape to this bitter-sweet film.

Born & Raised

This intelligently crafted, seven-time award winning festival favorite, tells the story of a young man, in a small seaside town, who learns a thing or two about love, luck and life from his well-traveled, outlaw grandfather. Born & Raised is a gritty, coming-of-age drama with a lot of heart and a ton of laughs.

This Little Life

A powerful one-off drama written by Rosemary Kay , winner of the BBC's Dennis Potter award for new screenwriting. Sadie and Richie MacGregor are thrown into the terrifying world of neo-natal intensive care when their son Luke is born prematurely. Willed on by his desperate parents, he gradually grows in strength - but as Sadie develops a unique bond with her son, her relationship with Richie begins to suffer.

Beautiful Pain

A boy with autism causes a lot of hardships for his parents, as his father isn`t accepting the fact that he is different from the rest while his mother is trying her best to fit his needs. His mother later finds the right people to help her son live his life.

The Seeding of Sarah Burns

A young woman volunteers to carry an embryo transplant for a couple that has tried and failed to have a baby. Soon, however, she begins to have second thoughts about giving up the baby after it's born.

Bisik Pada Langit

Wak Selamat is the father of one Siti Hajar, who wishes to study abroad. As a father, Wak does everything he can in order to fulfill her dreams. Her two brothers are also more than willing to sacrifice their own future just so their sister could further her studies. The family has high hopes for her when Siti finally makes it to Perth, Australia. However, things take a turn when Siti gets involved in an accident and Wak has to find a way to visit his daughter who is now lying in a coma.

Waruga: Kutukan Ilmu Hitam

After the death of his estranged father, Yamin inherits his father's old house. When he goes to visit the house with his wife, he finds a charming young girl named Anom living there, who he believes to be his father's adopted child. Yamin's wife is uncomfortable with Anom's presence and the fact that Yamin's father was a black magic practitioner.

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