Best movies like The Zen Diary

Maki Eda works for an advertising agency at a large company. She is a single and doesn't have good luck with men. She also isn't very good at cooking and likes eating junk food. One day, she meets Nagisa Katayama. He is an art teacher and a vegetarian. Unlike Maki, Nagisa cooks very well. The two people then happen to live together. Maki realizes that she is in love with Nagisa, but Nagisa is gay. Through his cooking, they solve their own problems and become important to each other.

A daily news editor recalls a married detective and the deadly woman behind his downfall.

How do you put a life into 500 words? Ask the staff obituary writers at the New York Times. OBIT is a first-ever glimpse into the daily rituals, joys and existential angst of the Times obit writers, as they chronicle life after death on the front lines of history.

Unhappily married Richard Mason concocts a meticulous scheme to kill his shrewish wife so that he'll be free to marry her sister.

Katie Clay receives the power to fix her past mistakes by writing them down in a notebook, eating a mushroom and falling asleep. Clay subsequently becomes too eager to fix every little aspect of her life and before long, her newfound ability begins to create ever-new problems that threaten not only to take her further and further from the life she initially had, but the very fabric of time and space itself.

Katy McLaughlin desires to work on her family's mountainside horse ranch, although her father insists she finish boarding school. Katy finds a mustang in the hills near her ranch. The headstrong 16 year old then sets her mind to tame a mustang and prove to her father she can run the ranch. But when tragedy happens, it will take all the love and strength the family can muster to restore hope.

When a theater troupe's master visits his old flame, he unintentionally sets off a chain of unexpected events with devastating consequences.

The brutal former heavyweight boxing champion Cleon "Slammin'" Salmon (Duncan), now owner of a Miami restaurant, institutes a competition to see which waiter can earn the most money in one night: the winner stands to gain $10,000, while the loser will endure a beating at the hands of the champ.

Cheng, 45, a restaurant owner from China, has travelled with his young son halfway around the world to a remote village in Finland. His wife died recently in an accident, and Cheng wanted to have a break from everything by traveling with his son to see an old Finnish friend who lives on a farm in the countryside of Finland. It’s the most remote place Cheng can imagine with endless forests, thousands of lakes, a country with entire population of one-fifth of Cheng’s home town, Shanghai.

When their father is murdered, three brothers descend upon an Oregon mountain river to spread his ashes. After they arrive, one of their children goes missing. One of the brothers was himself abducted 30 years ago when they visited this same river, but he has blocked the incident out of his mind. Only by unlocking the mysteries inside his subconscious, will they be able find the child.

A Korean American family moves to an Arkansas farm in search of its own American dream. Amidst the challenges of this new life in the strange and rugged Ozarks, they discover the undeniable resilience of family and what really makes a home.

Sayaka works at a office. She's not very good at her job or with love. One night, she finds a man, Itsuki, collapsed in front of her home. She takes him inside and they begin to live together. Itsuki teaches Sayaka about cooking wild herbs and collecting wild herbs, but he has a secret.

A seventy-year-old retired school headmaster informs his wife and daughters that he has Alzheimer’s disease. They are all concerned, but react differently due to their individual situations. The family watches as the husband and father regresses due to the disease and loses his memory. Interestingly, there are sparkling moments of his life of which the man will not let go.

Ryosuke lives in a small house in Toshima, Tokyo. Since his wife died, he has adjusted to living alone. He used to teach at a university and he now works as a translator. Meanwhile, Ryosuke has one child, Yuriko. She is married to Shigeyuki, who works as a teacher. Yuriko and Shigeyuki live in Azumino, Nagano Prefecture. One day, Yuriko visits her father Ryosuke without advance notice. Ryosuke is surprised by her sudden visit. Yuriko doesn't give any reason for the visit. Ryosuke only learns that Yuriko isn't sure how long she will stay. They haven't talked as father and daughter in a long time. They begin to live together in a nervous, but warm atmosphere.

Mountain climbers in the Swiss Alps mull over past problems while trying to conquer a perilous peak.

A woman starts a new life in a small Wyoming mountain town after suffering a traumatic event on the other side of the country - but one day, she witnesses a murder in the woods......

Although a successful romance novelist, Terry Russell hasn't had luck in her own love life. After a disastrous first date with cocky, hot-shot New York chef Matthew Everston, she retreats to her friend's French villa for the summer to finish her latest novel, with her reluctant teenage daughter in tow.

The entangled relations between the son of a seductive tea-ceremony teacher and the women in his father's life. Based on the novel by Kawabata Yasunari.

A whiskey-fueled writing assignment takes one man on an epic motorcycle road trip through the bars and taverns across the American West. Riding a 1960 BMW R60/2, the journey leads Sanders from the red rock deserts of Arizona and Utah north to the mountains of Montana. With help of fellow traveler and sage, Northway and a variety of other colorful characters along the way, Sanders gets learns the way of the road and the zen of the bar.

In 1974, Morikazu is 94 years old and his wife Hideko is 76 years old. They live at a house in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. The garden at their home is full of trees, plants and insects. Morikazu paints pictures of the creatures in his garden and also observes them. This has been his daily routine for more than 30 years. Morikazu and Hideko entertain visitors every day including a photographer and the couple living next door.

After fast-paced New York City high-end real estate broker Fiona Rangely (Lacey Chabert) gets dumped by her boyfriend, she escapes to her family’s quaint Vermont Inn for a few days to slow down and evaluate her life. When her ex-boyfriend Nate shows up at the Inn with a brand new girlfriend, Fiona quickly devises a plan to win him back: pretend the handsome and very laid- back head chef Derek (Carlo Marks) is her new boyfriend! Much to the surprise of Derek --and to Fiona herself-- in pretending to be in love, she realizes that she’s been thrown a curveball: sometimes the best things in life are worth the wait.

A restaurant opens at midnight. Both the menu offerings and personality of the owner draw a series of flawed patrons including Tamako, whose boyfriend has passed away, live-in worker Michiru, and ruckus-raising Kenzo.

NYC-based copy editor, Alex, is sent to Ridgeline Resort, an extreme sports outpost, to write a story for a travel writing competition. At first, she fails at everything – much to the chagrin of Cole, an extreme sports enthusiast who thinks this city girl should head back to New York. But when Alex offers to assist Cole with his local arts festival, he reluctantly obliges to be her guide as she faces her fears doing one extreme sport after the next.

Asuka, who lost her father and mother due to a natural disaster, revisits the hot spring inn that they once visited. Asuka hears that there is a way to pick up Nakai's vegetables or reunite with a dead person, and begins training.

New mother Molly (Eléonore Hendricks) is overcome with the need to run away. Feeling abandoned by her husband and unable to connect with her infant son, she takes up an invitation from her old high school group of guy friends to go on a weekend trip to the mountains. Without the pressure of daily responsibilities and with the help of psychoactive mushrooms, Molly comes out of her shell and is ready to accept the beauty and love that can be found in nature. When Molly's “trip” turns into a dark out-of-body experience she is forced to choose between the person she was and the person she's become.

Set on a tropical island in Thailand, the strange plight of a beleaguered chef who, while romancing a mysterious woman, discovers the diabolical Zen of cooking. Following a near death escape, he returns to Montreal and falls hard for the woman of his life who unfortunately craves only his cooking but not his loving. Worse still, strange things surfacing around him indicate that his journey to the Far East has deep, divine implications. The stage is set for him to take the 1st bite of true love and end the cycle of suffering for all involved.

Trapped by daily routine, a man experiences complete freedom by dreaming himself across the country in a psychedelic Volkswagen with the guiding words of philosopher Alan Watts.

The story takes place during a summer of continuous sunshine when water supply restrictions are issued in the city. Shunsaku Iwakiri works for the city's water department and his job is to visit homes and stores that are behind on their bills and either collect the money or shut off the water supply (water suspension enforcement). Shunsaku is separated from his wife and children, and his heart grows thirsty as he spends his days visiting poor households and being abhorred. One day, during a water shutoff, Shunsaku meets two young sisters who have been neglected. He sees them as his own children and offers them a helping hand.

Yoshito grew up with his mother Yasue after his father passed away. His mother ran a yakiniku (grilled meat) restaurant that his father had left behind. Yoshito enjoyed eating his mother's cooking and their restaurant was loved by many people. Things changed after popular food critic Furuyama Tatsuya published false statements about their yakiniku restaurant. Due to that, their restaurant saw a sharp drop in customers. Yasue worked hard to recover business for the restaurant. Due to Yoshito's behavior in wanting attention from his mom, Yasue decided to shut down the restaurant. 18 years later, Yoshito lives alone and he works as a freelance writer. One day, he takes work for a new online foodie website. He works with editor Takenaka Shizuka. Their first assignment involves yakiniku. Around that time, Yoshito hears that his estranged mother Yasue has collapsed.

Two sisters Tae and Yo come back to their old house which is soon to be torn down. Clearing up the family mementos, Tae finds a red box full of recipes and letters written by their mother who died 20 years ago. In these recipes and letters, she finds out how her mother had struggled in her life due to relocation from Japan to Taiwan, the death of her Taiwanese husband, and a battle with cancer. Tae travels to Taiwan to trace her mother's past, reminiscing about the dishes she made for the family.

Noriyasu seems like an average third-grader, but his life goes haywire after he catches his mother reading his private daily journal. In an effort to astonish her, he begins writing outlandish lies about a giant snake in the bathroom, cooking pencils for dinner, and a rain of pigs, but Noriyasu is the one who's shocked when his writings play out in reality and everyone else treats the events as normal. Things become even more chaotic when he takes several stabs at being a newspaperman, producing “fake news” that become the talk of the town and one resulting in an apocalyptic porcine holiday.

An author is forced to work with her ex-boyfriend, who is also her editor.

The lives of a young yakuza and his girlfriend.

Rieko Sugita, a young and beautiful hairdresser who happens to visit a bedding shop owned by Yoshitaro (Emoto) and the latter becomes so besotted with her that they begin an affair without his wife's knowledge. On the other hand, Rieko hates her late mother (Fueki Yuko) for sleeping around with other men but is actually following in her footsteps by sleeping with men for money. One day, she reunites with her first love Naoki (Ozawa) who has become an assistant professor and shares a dark secret with her. Soon, the romance between them is rekindled. However, Yoshitaro who has lost his fortune and is about to lose Rieko, becomes consumed by jealousy which brings Rieko, Naoki and him to the point of no return. -- Dorama World

A Zen priest in San Francisco and cookbook author use Zen Buddhism and cooking to relate to everyday life.