37 Movies Like Raise the Red Lantern (1991) You Need to Watch Next
In 1920s China, 19-year-old Songlian becomes a concubine of a powerful lord and is forced to compete with his three wives for the privileges gained.
Updated June 2026
View Raise the Red Lantern details →Zhang Yimou's 1991 masterpiece follows a young woman who becomes the fourth concubine of a wealthy 1920s Chinese lord, forced into a silent, ritualised war for his favour. Exquisitely composed and quietly furious, it turns a gilded household into a prison of patriarchy. If its visual splendour and slow-burning tragedy gripped you, seek out richly shot period dramas about women trapped by power and tradition.
If you loved Raise the Red Lantern (1991) by Zhang Yimou, here are 37 movies that share its content DNA. iRankMovies measures real similarity using cosine similarity across eight weighted dimensions — genre (50%), tone (12%), pace (10%), structure (8%), era (7%), theme (6%), audience (4%) and narrative perspective (3%) — not just the rating. The closest matches according to our analysis are The King's Speech, The Elephant Man, 12 Years a Slave. Every title is ranked by how closely it matches and backed by the iRank Score, a composite of IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDb across 12,000+ analysed titles.
37 Movies Similar to Raise the Red Lantern
The King's Speech
2010 · Tom Hooper
The King's Speech tells the story of the man who became King George VI, the father of Queen Elizabeth II. After his brother abdicates, George ('Bertie') reluctantly assumes the throne. Plagued by a dr
In common: Drama
The Elephant Man
1980 · David Lynch
A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man being mistreated by his "owner" as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of great intelligence and sensitivity
In common: Drama
12 Years a Slave
2013 · Steve McQueen
In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery. Facing cruelty as well as unexpected kindnesses Solomon struggles not on
In common: Drama
The Aviator
2004 · Martin Scorsese
A biopic depicting the life of filmmaker and aviation pioneer Howard Hughes from 1927 to 1947, during which time he became a successful film producer and an aviation magnate, while simultaneously grow
In common: Drama
Marie Antoinette
2006 · Sofia Coppola
A retelling of the story of France’s iconic but ill-fated queen, Marie Antoinette - from her betrothal and marriage to Louis XVI at fifteen to her reign as queen at nineteen and ultimately the fall of
In common: Drama
The Brutalist
2024 · Brady Corbet
When an innovative modern architect flees post-war Europe, he is given the opportunity to rebuild his legacy. Set during the dawn of the modern United States (in Pennsylvania), his wife joins him, and
In common: Drama
Downton Abbey
2019 · Michael Engler
The beloved Crawleys and their intrepid staff prepare for the most important moment of their lives. A royal visit from the King and Queen of England will unleash scandal, romance and intrigue that wil
In common: Drama
The Grand Budapest Hotel
2014 · Wes Anderson
The Grand Budapest Hotel tells of a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars and his friendship with a young employee who becomes his trusted protégé. The story involves the the
In common: Drama
Remember the Titans
2000 · Boaz Yakin
After leading his football team to 15 winning seasons, coach Bill Yoast is demoted and replaced by Herman Boone – tough, opinionated and as different from the beloved Yoast as he could be. The two men
In common: Drama
Ben-Hur
1959 · William Wyler
In ancient Judea, a Jewish aristocrat opposing Roman occupation of his homeland reunites with his childhood friend, now a Roman commander — setting in motion a saga of betrayal, adventure, tragedy, re
In common: Drama
The Thin Red Line
1998 · Terrence Malick
The story of a group of men, an Army Rifle company called C-for-Charlie, who change, suffer, and ultimately make essential discoveries about themselves during the fierce World War II battle of Guadalc
In common: Drama
Memoirs of a Geisha
2005 · Rob Marshall
In the years before World War II, a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house.
In common: Drama
The Other Boleyn Girl
2008 · Justin Chadwick
A sumptuous and sensual tale of intrigue, romance and betrayal set against the backdrop of a defining moment in European history: two beautiful sisters, Anne and Mary Boleyn, driven by their family's
In common: Drama
1917
2019 · Sam Mendes
At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers.
In common: Drama
All Quiet on the Western Front
2022 · Edward Berger
Paul Baumer and his friends Albert and Muller, egged on by romantic dreams of heroism, voluntarily enlist in the German army. Full of excitement and patriotic fervour, the boys enthusiastically march
In common: Drama
Ran
1985 · Akira Kurosawa
Shakespeare's King Lear is reimagined as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan where an aging warlord divides his kingdom between his three sons.
In common: Drama
Pride & Prejudice
2005 · Joe Wright
A story of love and life among the landed English gentry during the Georgian era. Mr. Bennet is a gentleman living in Hertfordshire with his overbearing wife and five daughters, but if he dies their h
In common: Drama
Little Women
2019 · Greta Gerwig
Four sisters come of age in America in the aftermath of the Civil War.
In common: Drama
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
2019 · Céline Sciamma
On an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman.
In common: Drama
Sense and Sensibility
1995 · Ang Lee
The Dashwood sisters, sensible Elinor and passionate Marianne, learn that their prospects of marriage seem doomed by their family's sudden loss of fortune. After Henry Dashwood dies unexpectedly, his
In common: Drama
Killers of the Flower Moon
2023 · Martin Scorsese
When oil is discovered in 1920s Oklahoma under Osage Nation land, the Osage people are murdered one by one—until the FBI steps in to unravel the mystery.
In common: Drama
RRR
2022 · S. S. Rajamouli
A fictional history of two legendary revolutionaries' journey away from home before they began fighting for their country in the 1920s.
In common: Drama
Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man
2026 · Tom Harper
After his estranged son gets embroiled in a Nazi plot, self-exiled gangster Tommy Shelby must return to Birmingham to save his family — and his nation.
In common: Drama
Dunkirk
2017 · Christopher Nolan
The story of the miraculous evacuation of Allied soldiers from Belgium, Britain, Canada and France, who were cut off and surrounded by the German army from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk between M
In common: Drama
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
2008 · David Fincher
Born under unusual circumstances, Benjamin Button springs into being as an elderly man in a New Orleans nursing home and ages in reverse. Twelve years after his birth, he meets Daisy, a child who flit
In common: Drama
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
2003 · Peter Weir
After an abrupt and violent encounter with a French warship inflicts severe damage upon his ship, a captain of the British Royal Navy begins a chase over two oceans to capture or destroy the enemy, th
In common: Drama
Gladiator
2000 · Ridley Scott
After the death of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, his devious son takes power and demotes Maximus, one of Rome's most capable generals who Marcus preferred. Eventually, Maximus is forced to become a gladiat
In common: Drama
The Man in the Iron Mask
1998 · Randall Wallace
Years have passed since the Three Musketeers, Aramis, Athos and Porthos, have fought together with their friend, D'Artagnan. But with the tyrannical King Louis using his power to wreak havoc in the ki
In common: Drama
The Master
2012 · Paul Thomas Anderson
Freddie, a volatile, heavy-drinking veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, finds some semblance of a family when he stumbles onto the ship of Lancaster Dodd, the charismatic leader o
In common: Drama
"Wuthering Heights"
2026 · Emerald Fennell
Tragedy strikes when Heathcliff falls in love with Catherine Earnshaw, a woman from a wealthy family in 18th-century England.
In common: Drama
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
2019 · Quentin Tarantino
Los Angeles, 1969. TV star Rick Dalton, a struggling actor specializing in westerns, and stuntman Cliff Booth, his best friend, try to survive in a constantly changing movie industry. Dalton is the ne
In common: Drama
The Last Samurai
2003 · Edward Zwick
Nathan Algren is an American hired to instruct the Japanese army in the ways of modern warfare, which finds him learning to respect the samurai and the honorable principles that rule them. Pressed to
In common: Drama
The Bikeriders
2024 · Jeff Nichols
After a chance encounter, headstrong Kathy is drawn to Benny, member of Midwestern motorcycle club the Vandals. As the club transforms into a dangerous underworld of violence, Benny must choose betwee
In common: Drama
The Cider House Rules
1999 · Lasse Hallström
Homer is an orphan who was never adopted, becoming the favorite of orphanage director Dr. Larch. Dr. Larch imparts his full medical knowledge on Homer, who becomes a skilled, albeit unlicensed, physic
In common: Drama
The Danish Girl
2015 · Tom Hooper
When Gerda Wegener asks her husband Einar to fill in as a portrait model, Einar discovers the person she's meant to be and begins living her life as Lili Elbe. Having realized her true self and with G
In common: Drama
Michael
2026 · Antoine Fuqua
The story of Michael Jackson, one of the most influential artists the world has ever known, and his life beyond the music. His journey from the discovery of his extraordinary talent as the lead of the
In common: Drama
Schindler's List
1993 · Steven Spielberg
The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.
In common: Drama