Dynamic Watchlist Hub: Apr 16, 2026

10 Best Movies Like Shanghai

If you loved Shanghai, we've curated the perfect watchlist for you based on shared genres, themes, and directorial style.

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Expert Review & Ratings

See our full critical analysis and audience score for Shanghai.

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#1
An Unfinished Piece for Player Piano

An Unfinished Piece for Player Piano

1977★ 7.0

Why watch this? A perfect follow-up to Shanghai for fans of Drama. It captures a similar emotionally gripping atmosphere.

On a summer day in late 19th century Russia, a group of bourgeois friends and acquaintances gather at a dilapidated country estate....

#2
My Friend Ivan Lapshin

My Friend Ivan Lapshin

1985★ 6.7

Why watch this? A perfect follow-up to Shanghai for fans of Drama. It captures a similar emotionally gripping atmosphere.

Russian provincial town in the middle of the 1930s Stalin's Great Purge. Ivan Lapshin, the head of the local police, does what he has to do. And he does it well....

#3
Bastard Out of Carolina

Bastard Out of Carolina

1996★ 7.2

Why watch this? A perfect follow-up to Shanghai for fans of Drama. It captures a similar emotionally gripping atmosphere.

A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer a...

#4
Babylon

Babylon

1980★ 6.9

Why watch this? A perfect follow-up to Shanghai for fans of Drama. It captures a similar emotionally gripping atmosphere.

Drama telling the story of Blue, a young man of Jamaican descent living in Brixton in 1980, as he hangs out with his friends, fronts a dub sound system, loses his job, struggles wi...

#5
My Joy

My Joy

2010★ 6.3

Why watch this? A perfect follow-up to Shanghai for fans of Drama. It captures a similar emotionally gripping atmosphere.

Georgy is driving a load of freight into Russia when, after an unpleasant encounter with the police at a border crossing, he finds himself giving a lift to a strange old man with d...

#6
A Driver for Vera

A Driver for Vera

2004★ 6.0

Why watch this? A perfect follow-up to Shanghai for fans of Drama. It captures a similar emotionally gripping atmosphere.

The film is set during 1962 in Sevastopol, Crimea, then a secret Navy Base in the Soviet Union. General Serov hires Viktor, a cadet from the Kremlin Guard to work as his private ch...

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