SimilarScreen
The Idiot

The Idiot

19517.02h 46m

Overview

A gentle, war-shattered ex-soldier, Kinji Kameda, arrives in wintry Hokkaidō and is pulled into a volatile tangle of love and pity between the disgraced Taeko Nasu, the proud Ayako, and his possessive friend Akama. Kameda’s saintly compassion exposes everyone’s wounds, steering the quartet toward jealousy, violence, and inexorable tragedy. Adapted from Dostoevsky’s novel.

Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Written by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Akira Kurosawa, Eijiro Hisaita
Produced by Takashi Koide
0

Top Cast

Setsuko Hara

Setsuko Hara

Taeko Nasu

Masayuki Mori

Masayuki Mori

Kinji Kameda

Toshirō Mifune

Toshirō Mifune

Denkichi Akama

Yoshiko Kuga

Yoshiko Kuga

Ayako

Takashi Shimura

Takashi Shimura

Ono, Ayako's father

Chieko Higashiyama

Chieko Higashiyama

Satoko, Ayako's mother

Eijirō Yanagi

Eijirō Yanagi

Tohata

Minoru Chiaki

Minoru Chiaki

Mutsuo Kayama, the secretary

Noriko Sengoku

Noriko Sengoku

Takako

Kokuten Kōdō

Kokuten Kōdō

Junpei

Themes & Keywords

jealousylove trianglesnowblizzarddostoevskypost war japanepilepticrussian literature

About The Idiot

The Idiot is a drama, romance film released in 1951 exploring themes of jealousy, love triangle, snow, blizzard, dostoevsky, post war japan. Directed by Akira Kurosawa, it stars Setsuko Hara, Masayuki Mori, Toshirō Mifune. A gentle, war-shattered ex-soldier, Kinji Kameda, arrives in wintry Hokkaidō and is pulled into a volatile tangle of love and pity between the disgraced Taeko Nasu, the proud Ayako, and his possessive friend Akama. Kameda’s saintly compassion exposes everyone’s wounds, steering the quartet toward jealousy, violence, and inexorable tragedy. Adapted from Dostoevsky’s novel.

Movies Similar to The Idiot

Discover titles like The Idiot — ranked by similarity and community votes

We found 15 movies similar to The Idiot

If you enjoyed The Idiot, you'll love these handpicked recommendations. Each title below shares similar themes, tone, and storytelling style. Our algorithm analyzes genres, keywords, director filmography, and cast connections to find the closest matches. Whether you're looking for the same emotional depth, narrative structure, or visual style, these picks are curated to deliver the best viewing experience for fans of The Idiot.

The Lower Depths
30% Match

Residents of a rundown boardinghouse in 19th-century Japan, including a mysterious old man and an aging actor, get drawn into a love triangle that turns violent. When amoral thief Sutekichi breaks off his affair with landlady Osugi to romance her younger sister, Okayo, Osugi extracts her revenge by revealing her infidelity to her jealous husband.

Contempt
28% Match

Contempt(1963)

Movie7.0/10

A philistine in the art film business, Jeremy Prokosch is a producer unhappy with the work of his director. Prokosch has hired Fritz Lang to direct an adaptation of "The Odyssey," but when it seems that the legendary filmmaker is making a picture destined to bomb at the box office, he brings in a screenwriter to energize the script. The professional intersects with the personal when a rift develops between the writer and his wife.

No Longer Heroine
27% Match

Hatori Matsuzaki is a female high school student. She has a crush on her childhood friend Rita Terasaka and believes he will eventually choose her as her heroine, but Rita Terasaka begins dating Miho Adachi. Meanwhile, the most popular male student, Kosuke Hiromitsu takes an interest in Hatori Matsuzaki.

Floating Clouds
26% Match

A married Japanese forester during WWII is sent to Indochina to manage forests. He meets a young Japanese typist and promises to leave his wife. He doesn't and after the war, she turns up and the affair resumes.

The Piano
26% Match

The Piano(1993)

Movie7.4/10

When an arranged marriage brings Ada and her spirited daughter to the wilderness of nineteenth-century New Zealand, she finds herself locked in a battle of wills with both her controlling husband and a rugged frontiersman to whom she develops a forbidden attraction.

Stray Dog
25% Match

Stray Dog(1949)

Movie7.6/10

A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side.

Anna Karenina
25% Match

In Imperial Russia, Anna, wife of the officer Karenin, goes to Moscow to visit her brother. On the way, she meets charming cavalry officer Vronsky, to whom she's immediately attracted. But in St. Petersburg’s high society, a relationship like this could destroy a woman’s reputation.

Belle de Jour
24% Match

Beautiful young housewife Séverine Serizy cannot reconcile her masochistic fantasies with her everyday life alongside dutiful husband Pierre. When her lovestruck friend Henri mentions a secretive high-class brothel run by Madame Anais, Séverine begins to work there during the day under the name Belle de Jour. But when one of her clients grows possessive, she must try to go back to her normal life.

Lolita
24% Match

Lolita(1997)

Movie7.1/10

Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged British novelist who is both appalled by and attracted to the vulgarity of American culture. When he comes to stay at the boarding house run by Charlotte Haze, he soon becomes obsessed with Lolita, the woman's teenaged daughter.

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
23% Match

An unexpected love triangle, a seduction trap, and a random encounter are the three episodes, told in three movements to depict three female characters and trace the trajectories between their choices and regrets.

3-Iron
23% Match

3-Iron(2004)

Movie7.8/10

A drifter lives in people's houses while they are away and repays them by doing chores for them. His life changes when he meets a beautiful woman who wants to escape her unhappy marriage.