Highest-Rated Movies about 'Existential Loneliness'

Ikiru (1952), The End of Summer (1962), Happy Together (1997), Submarine (2010), The Eel (1997), Cyclo (1995), Things to Come (2016), White Material (2009) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Existential Loneliness movies.

#2. The End of Summer (1962)

Storyline: Approaching his senior years, widowed Manbei Kohayagawa is the owner of a small family run sake brewery in Kyoto. Hisao, his daughter Fumiko's husband, works for the company. Another daughter, Osaka based Akiko, who works at an art gallery, is widowed, her deceased husband who decided not to work in the family business, but maintain his own career as a college professor. Kohayagawa's third and last daughter, Noriko, a clerk in an office, has never been married, but is now of marrying age. Because the business is not doing well as it cannot compete with the larger sake companies, Kohayagawa wants to ensure that all his daughters are taken care of financially, which means finding husbands for both Akiko and Noriko, that task which is aided by Kohayagawa's younger brother-in-law, Yanosuke Kitagawa. Akiko and Noriko know about the arrangements with the potential husbands - although Akiko's first "date" is more of a surprise to her - and generally go along with the dates as are requested of them, but neither is sure if it is what she is looking for for herself. Akiko is quite content with her current lot in life, taking care of her growing son, Minoru. And Noriko has only confided in Akiko that she has a close friendship with a man named Tadashi Teramoto, a teacher who has just moved to Sapporo indefinitely for work. Kohayagawa's want for his daughters may also be because he has rediscovered companionship in his own life, with a former mistress, Sasaki Tsune, who he accidentally ran into after not seeing her for nineteen years. Sasaki has told him that her twenty-one year old daughter, spoiled Yuriko Tsune, is his biological daughter, something he believes, although Sasaki doesn't really know or care, as doesn't Yuriko, especially if they can get out of him what they want. Kohayagawa's family does not know of Sasaki currently in his life, but they do know of his marital indiscretion previously with her and do suspect that his "business meetings" which are ruses to meet with her are not what he says they are. Something that happens to Kohayagawa leads to Akiko and Noriko coming to some decisions about their own lives.—Huggo

Plot Keywords: existential loneliness, small business, widow, death, family relationships, honor, heart attack ...

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#3. Happy Together (1997)

Storyline: Yiu-Fai and Po-Wing arrive in Argentina from Hong Kong and take to the road for a holiday. Something is wrong and their relationship goes adrift. A disillusioned Yiu-Fai starts working at a tango bar to save up for his trip home. When a beaten and bruised Po-Wing reappears, Yiu-Fai is empathetic but is unable to enter a more intimate relationship. After all, Po-Wing is not ready to settle down. Yiu-Fai now works in a Chinese restaurant and meets the youthful Chang from Taiwan. Uhf zacnjb-Fai's life takes on a new spin, while Po-Wing's life shatters continually in contrast.—Perry Yu <perry@pobox.com>

Plot Keywords: loneliness, fellatio, buenos aires argentina, time lapse photography, internal monologue, gay couple, happiness ...

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#4. Submarine (2010)

Storyline: As children, Nick and his little brother take care of their baby brother while their mother drinks herself senseless. But the baby dies, and both brothers blame themselves. Many years later, Nick is out of prison after serving time for an assault. He drinks, lives in a shelter and tries to help an old friend. When their mother dies, Nick meets his brother at the funeral. The brother, who remains nameless, is a single father to a young boy, but also supports a drug habit that is spiraling out of control. When an opportunity presents itself, he becomes a drug dealer to secure his son's future. Eventually, the two brothers meet again.—Peter Brandt Nielsen

Plot Keywords: hugging, virgin, male virgin, redhead, haunted by the past, heroin, nameless character ...

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#5. The Eel (1997)

Storyline: White-collar worker Yamashita finds out that his wife has a lover visiting her when he's away, suddenly returns home and kills her. After eight years in prison, he returns to live in a small village, opens a barber shop (he was trained as a barber in prison) and talks almost to no-one except for the eel he "befriended" in prison. One day he finds the unconscious body of Keiko, who attempted suicide and reminds him of his wife. She starts to work at his shop, but he doesn't let her become close to him.—Anonymous

Plot Keywords: prison, based on novel, death of mother, suicide attempt, adultery, mental illness, hospital ...

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#7. Things to Come (2016)

Storyline: Nathalie teaches philosophy at a high school in Paris. She is passionate about her job and particularly enjoys passing on the pleasure of thinking. Married with two children, she divides her time between her family, former students and her very possessive mother. One day, Nathalie's husband announces he is leaving her for another woman. With freedom thrust upon her, Nathalie must reinvent her life.

Plot Keywords: infidelity, black cat, teacher student relationship, husband wife relationship, redheaded woman, reference to bob dylan, singing in a car ...

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#8. White Material (2009)

Storyline: Denis revisits Africa, this time exploring a place rife with civil and racial conflict. A white French family outlawed in its home and attempting to save its coffee plantation connects with a black hero also embroiled in the tumult. All try to survive as their world rapidly crumbles around them—Pusan International Film Festival

Plot Keywords: coffee, male nudity, male pubic hair, pubic hair, f rated, bicycle, uncle nephew relationship ...

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#9. Ad Astra (2019)

Storyline: Astronaut Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) travels to the outer edges of the solar system to find his missing father and unravel a mystery that threatens the survival of our planet. His journey will uncover secrets that challenge the nature of human existence and our place in the cosmos.

Plot Keywords: astronaut, outer space, father son relationship, moon, solar system, obsession, missing father ...

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#10. Eros (2004)

Storyline: Three separate stories of love, desire and/or obsession are presented. "The Hand" tells of the desire that builds in the several years long largely professional relationship (his profession) between Xiao Zhang, the apprentice to tailor Mr. Jin, and Ms. Hua, a prostitute, the two who meet when he is first sent to take her measurements for a new dress. Sexually inexperienced, that meeting awakens Zhang's sexual desires. The story takes place during a phase of Ms. Hua's life when she becomes ill, making her unable to work and thus live to the style to which she is accustomed. In "Equilibrium", Nick Penrose is having his first session with Dr. Pearl, a therapist, Nick's anxiety and thus want to see a therapist probably due to a combination of starting a new project with his colleague Hal in their job as advertising executives, and a recurring dream he is having about a woman who he doesn't know but knows in the dream, that woman who is not his wife, Cecelia. These issues may be at play but not quite in the way he expects as shown after this therapy session. And in "The Dangerous Thread of Things", Christopher and Cloe are probably coming to the end of their relationship. They still seem to love each other but don't seem to be able to be with each other in always arguing. Their relationship is affected by each individually encountering Linda, the girl who lives in the tower across the way from their house.—Huggo

Plot Keywords: psychiatrist, female nudity, siren, psychologist, 1950s, sewing machine, restaurant ...

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#11. High Life (2018)

Storyline: Takes place beyond the solar system in a future that seems like the present. About a group of criminals who accept a mission in space to become the subjects of a human reproduction experiment. They find themselves in the most unimaginable situation after a storm of cosmic rays hit the ship.

Plot Keywords: male full frontal nudity, rape, male frontal nudity, baby, gardening, black hole, masturbation ...

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