Top 50 Asian Youth Drama
No Children/Youth in War. No High School setting. More urban Teen Drama Slice of Life.
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- DirectorKô NakahiraStarsYûjirô IshiharaMasahiko TsugawaMie KitaharaSpending their summer on an exotic beach, two brothers fall for the same beautiful girl, whose charm and looks may hide more than they they bargained for.
- DirectorSatyajit RayStarsKanu BannerjeeKaruna BannerjeeSubir BanerjeeImpoverished priest Harihar Ray, dreaming of a better life for himself and his family, leaves his rural Bengal village in search of work.
- DirectorMajid MajidiStarsHossein MahjoubMohsen RamezaniSalameh FeyziThe story of Mohammed, a blind Iranian boy and his father, Hashem, who is always oscillating between accepting his son as he is and abandoning him, as he represents a burden for him, after the loss of his wife.
- DirectorSion SonoStarsTakahiro NishijimaHikari MitsushimaSakura AndôA bizarre love triangle forms between a young Catholic upskirt photographer, a misandric girl and a manipulative cultist.
- DirectorHaifaa Al-MansourStarsWaad MohammedReem AbdullahAbdullrahman Al GohaniAn enterprising Saudi girl signs on for her school's Koran recitation competition as a way to raise the remaining funds she needs in order to buy the green bicycle that has captured her interest.
- DirectorWen JiangStarsYu XiaWei ChenShaobo DaiBeijing, 1970s. Now that the CR has driven most adults to the provinces, 14-year-old Monkey and his pals have free reign over the city. They hang around, get up to no good, and discover that unsolvable mystery referred to as "girls."
- DirectorNagisa ÔshimaStarsMiyuki KuwanoYûsuke KawazuYoshiko KugaA harsh young man seduces a freeloading young woman and eventually takes advantage of her knack for hitch-hiking to rob middle-class men.
- DirectorYasujirô OzuStarsKeiji SadaYoshiko KugaChishû RyûTwo boys begin a silence strike to press their parents into buying them a television set.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsBabek Ahmed PoorAhmed Ahmed PoorKhodabakhsh DefaeiEight-year-old Ahmed has mistakenly taken his friend Mohammad's notebook. He wants to return it, or else his friend will be expelled from school. The boy determinedly sets out to find Mohammad's home in the neighbouring village.
- DirectorNagisa ÔshimaStarsIchirô ArakiKazuko TajimaJûzô ItamiFour high school students preparing for their university entrance exam fantasize about a classmate, and meet up with their inebriated teacher, while singing bawdy drinking songs.
- DirectorYoshishige YoshidaStarsMasahiko TsugawaHizuru TakachihoYûsuke KawazuA bored young student falls for the young secretary of his rich friend's father. She senses some good in him and tries to make him discard his aimless lifestyle.
- DirectorApichatpong WeerasethakulStarsJenjira PongpasBanlop LomnoiJarinpattra RueangramA group of soldiers in a small town on the Mekong River in northern Thailand are struck with a bizarre sleeping illness.
- DirectorEdward YangStarsChang ChenLisa YangKuo-Chu ChangBased on a true story, primarily on a conflict between two youth gangs, a 14-year-old boy's girlfriend conflicts with the head of one gang for an unclear reason, until finally the conflict comes to a violent climax.
- DirectorJafar PanahiStarsAida MohammadkhaniMohsen KafiliFereshteh Sadre OrafaiySeveral people try to help a little girl to find the money her mom gave her to buy a goldfish with.
- DirectorSion SonoStarsShôta SometaniFumi NikaidôTetsu WatanabeAfter two teenagers from abusive households befriend each other, their lives take a dark adventure into existentialism, despair, and human frailty.
- DirectorKore-eda HirokazuStarsKôki MaedaOshiro MaedaRyôga HayashiTwelve-year-old Koichi, who has been separated from his brother Ryunosuke due to his parents' divorce, hears a rumor that the new bullet trains will precipitate a wish-granting miracle when they pass each other at top speed.
- DirectorGulshat OmarovaStarsOldzhas NusupbayevOlga LandinaEduard TabishevShiza is the nickname of a 15-year-old boy. Money, power, and women - he has none of these, yet, in his young life. But, he does have the illegal, underground circuit of bare-knuckle fist-fighting, where he is able to eke out a living by scouting for fighters. When a man is accidentally killed in the ring, though, his life is changed forever. He decides that he should return the dead man's money to his widow and child. But, after he meets the woman, Shiza understands that he has real feelings of love for her. Now, he knows for whom he must earn money, no matter what the cost...
- DirectorSion SonoStarsJoe OdagiriJai WestMotoki FukamiFaced by a society of criminals, these three youths avenge their rights.
- DirectorNagisa ÔshimaStarsFumio WatanabeAkiko KoyamaTetsuo AbeA young boy reluctantly aids his swindling father in a threatening scam.
- DirectorNobuhiro YamashitaStarsMirai MoriyamaKengo KôraAtsuko MaedaKitamichi is a 19-year-old labor worker. He develops feelings for Yasuko who works in a used used bookstore, but he has never had a girlfriend. He also befriends Kusakabe, but jealousy soon threatens their friendship.
- DirectorAmin DoraStarsGeorges KhabbazLara RainEmmanuel KhairallahGhadi is different from other kids; could he be an angel? His father Leba, along with his teammates, tricks the town into believing so.
- DirectorAlex LawStarsSimon YamSandra Kwan Yue NgAarif LeeThe ups and downs of a Hong Kong family and their shoe shop as seen through the eyes of their eccentric eight-year-old son.
- DirectorSusumu HaniStarsTakuji HatanoAya KunikidaSumei ShauTwo college buddies try to understand a young woman's suicide through her Super-8 films and clips from their summer trips together.
- DirectorYared ZelekeStarsRediat AmareKidist SiyumWelela AssefaWhen an Ethiopian boy moves in with distant relatives he takes his pet sheep with him but the upcoming holidays spell danger for his beloved friend.
- DirectorMohsen MakhmalbafStarsTahmineh NormatovaNadereh AbdelahyevaGoibibi ZiadolahyevaEvery day, 10-year-old Khorsid takes the bus to his work at an instrument maker's shop, and every day something unexpected happens.
- DirectorBahman GhobadiStarsSoran EbrahimAvaz LatifSaddam Hossein FeysalNear the Iraqi-Turkish border on the eve of an American invasion, refugee children like 13-year-old Kak (Ebrahim), gauge and await their fate.
- DirectorAndrey KravchukStarsNikolay SpiridonovMariya KuznetsovaNikolay ReutovSet in 2002, an abandoned 5-year-old boy living in a rundown orphanage in a small Russian village is adopted by an Italian family.
- DirectorReha ErdemStarsOzen OzkanAli Bey KayaliElit IscanThe pain of growing up, as seen by three Turkish youths: Ömer, the son of the local imam, who wishes the death of his father; his best friend, Yakup, who's enamored with the village schoolteacher; and Yildiz, who is forced to balance her studies with the needs of her demanding mother.
- DirectorShin TogashiStarsKokone HamadaAya UetoKayoko KishimotoA young girl named Oshin is sent to work for another family because of her family's financial situation.
- DirectorYi-kwan KangStarsSeo Yeong-juLee Jung-hyunKang Rae-yeonA juvenile offender Ji-gu reunites with his young mom who he thought was dead.
- DirectorKiriô UrayamaStarsSayuri YoshinagaMitsuo HamadaEijirô TônoSet in Kawaguchi, just north of Tokyo in the early 60s, the movie chronicles the lives of poor foundry workers and their families; and one girl's dreams of self-improvement through going on to higher education.
- DirectorKarzan KaderStarsZamand TahaSarwar FazilDiya MariwanThe story is about two brothers want to travel to america and the adventures that they face in the journey.
- DirectorDeniz Gamze ErgüvenStarsGünes SensoyDoga Zeynep DogusluTugba SungurogluWhen five orphan girls are seen innocently playing with boys on a beach, their scandalized conservative guardians confine them while forced marriages are arranged.
- DirectorHitoshi YazakiStarsChizuru IkewakiNoriko NakagoshiYûko NakamuraStrawberry Shortcakes (2006) is a Japanese film by director Hitoshi Yazaki. The film, based on the Japanese manga of the same name by Kiriko Nananan, concerns the life of four girls, as they deal with their own insecurities while living in the metropolis of Tokyo. This movie ranked 7th Best Film at the 2006 Yokohama Film Festival and got Best Supporting Actress and Best Cinematography prizes from the same festival.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsMasud ZandbeglehHassan DarabiMostafa TariA grade-school-age boy, neglected by his parents, lies, cheats, and steals to accumulate enough money to afford a bus ride to a large city and a ticket to see his favorite soccer team play.
- DirectorAnna MelikyanStarsTinatin DalakishviliSeverija JanusauskaitePavel TabakovYoung Masha desperately wants to become a star, she saves money for plastic surgery and in parallel, persistently goes to castings and looks after a lonely old man to earn money. Mature Rita is the lover of the deputy minister, who wants to become pregnant and marry him. Kostya is the son of a deputy minister, who is constantly in conflict with his father and Rita, but falls in love with Masha when he meets her. After quarreling, Rita is forced to leave her lover's house, and meets Masha by chance.
- DirectorIsao YukisadaStarsYôsuke KubozukaKô ShibasakiTarô YamamotoSugihara, born in Japan but with North Korean parents, falls in love with a Japanese girl after changing from a North Korean school to a Japanese school. His boxer dad teaches him boxing - skills used a lot.
- DirectorAnucha BoonyawatanaStarsAtthaphan PhunsawatOabnithi WiwattanawarangDuangjai HiransriTHE BLUE HOUR is a sexy supernatural love story about a bullied loner, Tam, who finds solace in the arms of Phum, a boy he meets at a haunted swimming pool. Phum reveals that his family's land has been stolen and the new found lovers imagine a perfect life together on the disputed land. Haunted by a ghostly presence, Tam struggles to stay connected to reality. An official selection of the Berlin International Film Festival, THE BLUE HOUR is a dark atmospheric tale of love and distress.
- DirectorTso-chi ChangStarsHong-Chi LeeJen-Shuo ChengShang-Ho HuangThey live in an old house on the fringe of Taipei City: Rat and his elder gay brother Shanghe. Two brothers look for jobs to survive while search for themselves and long for a foothold in life. The younger works at market where he meets a mute woman who gets up to all sorts of craziness. The elder is attracted to a nightclub dancer and finds himself drawn into shifty business. With the rhythm of their wanderings, the film observes its protagonists: lives in limbo, without fixed coordinates, and evolves into panorama of a society that does not appear to welcome its next generation.
- DirectorYasuo FuruhataStarsShun OguriJun KunimuraKenshô OnoNarrated and viewed from perspective of a child in family, Shoonen H portrays daily trials and societal difficulties of a Christian family from just prior to commencement of World War II to its aftermath.
- DirectorSusumu HaniStarsHaruo AsanuKazuko FukudaKuniko IshiiA teenage goldsmith with a dark past tragically falls in love with a young nude model.
- DirectorHsiao-Hsien HouStarsChia-bao ChangNeng ChangChih-Chen ChenThe semi-autobiographical film on director Hou Hsiao-Hsien's childhood and adolescence, when he was growing up in Taiwan, living through the deaths of his father, mother and grandmother.
- DirectorShûji TerayamaStarsEimei SasakiMasahiro SaitoYukiko KobayashiAn angst-ridden teen dealing with his dysfunctional family hits the streets. The story is inter-cut with various psychedelic, energetic vignettes.
- DirectorJiang XiaoStarsYu XiaHaibin LiYijing ZhangTwo childhood friends escape reality through cinema against the backdrop of China's raging cultural revolution.
- DirectorKoreyoshi KuraharaStarsTamio KawajiYuko ChiyoEiji GôA juvenile delinquent gets out of the pen and causes reckless mayhem, mostly directed at the girlfriend of the journalist who helped send him up.
- DirectorYoshihiro NakamuraStarsGaku HamadaBengalAmi HachiyaAfter Satoru Watarai graduated from elementary school, he dropped out of school and decided to live within his apartment complex, never to venture outside. Satoru Watari then meets his old friends as they are coming back from their middle school classes. Satoru has now gotten a job at a cake shop within the apartment complex and eventually gets engaged to one of his friends. Satoru, still lives within the apartment complex only, but, as time passes, more of his friends leave.
- DirectorKeiichi KobayashiStarsRino HigaEma SakuraEmma SakuraNatsuko Yotsuya (Ema Sakura) is a teenager and she is also known as Bon.She lives in a town and has a friend, Miyu-chan, who lives with her boyfriend in Tokyo. Miyu-chan though is abused by her boyfriend. To bring back her friend back, Natsuko and her childhood friend Rintaro Tomoda (Mahiro Takasugi), also known as Lin, go to Tokyo together. With the help of a man, who they met through an internet forum for "boys' love" manga fans, they head to Miyu-chan's house.
- DirectorAhmet UluçayStarsFizuli CaferofGülayse ErkocHasbiye GünayIn his award-winning debut feature film, director Ahmet Ulucay portrays the innocence of childhood and the lure of the cinema for two teens in a small Turkish village. Working for a watermelon seller by day, Remet spends his evenings trying to rebuild a film projector with his friend Mehmet. Both have big dreams to be famous film directors one day.
- DirectorTakashi MiikeStarsShôsuke TaniharaMiho NomotoTamaki KenmochiIn order to settle a business dispute, a mob leader murders one of his own teenage sons. The surviving son vows to avenge his brother's death, and organizes his own gang of teenage killers to destroy his father's organization.