Movies Like To Live (1994)

To Live is a 1994 drama, romance, war film from Zhang Yimou with a MovieMagicScore of 8.1/10. Here are 20 similar films, ranked by real viewer ratings — starting with The Right Stuff and Tommy.

Drama Romance War

The Right Stuff

1983

At the dawn of the Space Race, seven test pilots set out to become the first American astronauts to enter space. However, the road to making history brings momentous challenges.

7.4

MagicScore

Tommy

1975

After a series of traumatic childhood events, a psychosomatically deaf, dumb and blind boy becomes a master pinball player and the object of a religious cult.

6.5

MagicScore

Sight

2024

Ming Wang is an impoverished Chinese prodigy who flees Communist China to become a pioneering eye surgeon in America. When tasked with restoring the sight of an orphan in India, who was blinded by her stepmother, Wang must confront the trauma of living through the violent uprising in his youth, the Cultural Revolution.

6.1

MagicScore

The Last Emperor

1987

A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People's Republic.

7.6

MagicScore

Shanghai Express

1932

A beautiful temptress re-kindles an old romance while trying to escape her past during a tension-packed train journey.

6.9

MagicScore

The Bitter Tea of General Yen

1932

An American missionary is gradually seduced by a courtly warlord holding her in Shanghai.

6.2

MagicScore

The Butler

2013

A look at the life of Cecil Gaines, who served eight presidents as the White House's head butler from 1952 to 1986, and had a unique front-row seat as political and racial history was made.

7.3

MagicScore

The Time to Live and the Time to Die

1985

An autobiographical film based on Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien's memories of his youth growing up in Taiwan after emigrating from mainland China.

7.3

MagicScore

Driving Miss Daisy

1989

The story of an old Jewish widow named Daisy Werthan and her relationship with her black chauffeur, Hoke. From an initial mere work relationship grew in 25 years a strong friendship between the two very different characters, in a time when those types of relationships were shunned.

7.2

MagicScore

#10

The Insect Woman

1963

A woman, Tome, is born to a lower class family in Japan in 1918. The title refers to an insect, repeating its mistakes, as in an infinite circle. Imamura, with this metaphor, introduces the life of Tome, who keeps trying to change her poor life.

7.2

MagicScore

#11

Le Bal

1983

In a French nightclub, choreographed song and dance routines are performed, rather than a streamlined narrative. They tell the story of Parisian culture and politics from the 1920s—1980s. A disparate, anachronistic series of characters, including an ordinary waiter, a Nazi collaborator, resistance fighters, and 1960s student protestors gather to celebrate and satirize 20th century France's icons, demons, and social changes.

7.0

MagicScore

#12

Reagan

2024

Told through the voice of former KGB agent Viktor Petrovich, whose life becomes inextricably linked with Ronald Reagan's when Reagan first caught the Soviets’ attention as an actor in Hollywood, Reagan overcomes the odds to become the 40th president of the United States.

6.3

MagicScore

#13

The Annuity

1972

In 1930, Louis Martinet, a peaceful sexagenarian, no longer has a long life to live according to the words of his doctor, Leon Galipeau, who sees to take advantage of the very interesting situation of the "future deceased". This one indeed has a small house in Saint-Tropez. Galipeau sniffs the windfall. Following his advice, Martinet agrees to give it in life to the brother of the doctor, Emile, and then rushes back to a health of iron. Worse, he even survives the war. Galipeau, exhausted, decide to use the great means to get rid of the importunce who persists in thwarting their project ...

6.6

MagicScore

#14

Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing

1955

A widowed doctor of both Chinese and European descent falls in love with a married American correspondent in Hong Kong during China's Communist revolution.

6.0

MagicScore

#15

Hibiscus Town

1987

Based on a novel by the same name written by Gu Hua, a melodrama about the life and travails of a young woman who lives through the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution.

7.9

MagicScore

#16

The Crossing II

2015

A story of three couples and their intertwining love stories set in 1940s Taiwan and Shanghai, centered around the 1949 sinking of Taiping.

5.4

MagicScore

#17

Farewell My Concubine

1993

In an epic tale of theater, gender, love and class, two Beijing opera actors navigate political turmoil as their friendship evolves over decades.

7.9

MagicScore

#18

Platform

2001

China’s rapid changes from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, as seen through the lives of four performers in a theater troupe.

6.9

MagicScore

#19

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

2002

During the Cultural Revolution, two young men are sent to a remote mining village where they fall in love with the local tailor's beautiful granddaughter and discover a suitcase full of forbidden Western novels.

6.8

MagicScore

#20

Phoenix

1998

Gambling fever -- along with a brutal bookie -- leads three crooked cops into a double-dealing scheme that lands them in hot water way over their heads.

5.3

MagicScore

Frequently asked

What are the best movies like To Live?

The top films similar to To Live by MovieMagicScore are The Right Stuff (7.4), Tommy (6.5), Sight (6.1). Each shares drama/romance/war themes and is ranked by real viewer ratings, not critics or studios.

Is To Live worth watching?

To Live holds a MovieMagicScore of 8.1/10 from 347 viewer ratings, putting it among the better-reviewed titles in its genre.

What kind of movie is To Live?

To Live (1994) is a drama, romance, war film directed by Zhang Yimou, starring Ge You, Gong Li, Niu Ben.

Where can I find more recommendations like To Live?

Browse the full ranked list above, or explore more drama recommendations on MovieMagicScore, where every list is ordered by genuine viewer ratings.

Keep exploring

Movies like The Right Stuff Movies like Tommy Movies like Sight Movies like The Last Emperor Movies like Shanghai Express Movies like The Bitter Tea of General Yen

About movies like To Live

This ranked list pairs To Live (1994), a drama and romance and war film from Zhang Yimou, with similar titles by genre, theme and cast overlap (fans of Ge You take note). Unlike critic-driven sites, every position here is ordered by MovieMagicScore — a rating built only from real viewers, with no studio marketing or paid placement. Scores update as more people rate, so the list stays current.

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