100 Best Foreign Movies on Tubi Right Now

100 Best Foreign Movies on Tubi Right Now

December 19, 2024

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When you get free streaming, all in exchange for just a few ads, it can be a little hard to believe that Tubi would have a great selection. Yet, for some reason, their library, one of the largest among all streaming sites, is packed with rare, hidden gems that you can’t find anywhere else. And on top of these, these films aren’t just limited to American-made films, the selection includes great titles from all over the world. So if you’re willing to get over the subtitles and watch something out of your comfort zone, all for free, here’s the best foreign films on Tubi:

71. We Are the Best! (2013)

7.3

Country

Denmark, Sweden

Director

Lukas Moodysson

Actors

Ann-Sofie Rase, David Dencik, Emrik Ekholm, Felix Sandman

Moods

Feel-Good, Sweet, Uplifting

We Are the Best! is one movie that may be overlooked largely by viewers, though it perfectly captures counterculture, and relates to the misfit young and old. The movie is an adaptation of Moodysson’s wife Coco’s graphic novel “Never Goodnight”. Set in Stockholm, Sweden in 1982, Klara (Mira Grosin) and her best friend Bobo (Mira Barkhammar) are junior high teenage girls who believe in their heart that punk rock is alive and well. With both of their home lives not so pleasant, the girls spend their time at the local youth center while taking up the time slot in the band room to get revenge on the local metal band. That’s when they find themselves starting a punk band without even knowing how to play an instrument. We Are the Best! is a fun and deeply sincere exploration of adventure, friendship, love, and betrayal in adolescence.

72. The Cave of the Yellow Dog (2005)

7.3

Country

d, Germany, Mongolia

Director

Byambasuren Davaa, Female director

Actors

Babbayar Batchuluun, Batchuluun Urjindorj, Buyandulam Daramdadi, Nansal Batchuluun

Moods

Lighthearted, Lovely, Slow

Vivid, sweeping landscapes surround the simple beauty of a Mongolian family navigating the pressures of globalization while still practicing their traditional nomadic lifestyle. Ostensibly it’s about the charming, captivating relationship that forms between a young girl, Nansal, and a dog that she finds. However, the magic of this slow, enthralling film is that it captures the brilliance of familial relationships and power of culture and stories through this simple backdrop. And it is a simple film; everything you can learn from this film comes through its gentle storytelling that invites you to recognize the beauty and profundity that exists in everyday lives.

73. Ash Is Purest White (2019)

7.3

Country

China, China France Japan, France

Director

Jia Zhangke, Zhangke Jia

Actors

Casper Liang, Diao Yi-nan, Diao Yi'nan, Ding Jiali

Moods

Original, Smart

Jia Zhangke (who NPR critic John Powers once called “perhaps the most important filmmaker working in the world today”), directed this movie based on the story of a gangster he knew while growing up.

And he is far from being the only noticeable talent here. Actress Tao Zhao shines as a character called Qiao, a dancer who infiltrates the crime scene in Northern China by way of her boyfriend (the gangster). When a boss leader is assassinated, Qiao finds herself in jail after she refuses to incriminate her boyfriend. 

This is a gangster movie but it’s also about how Qiao processes her time in jail and what she does once she gets out. It serves more as a character study and a picture of modern-day China.

74. An Impossible Love (2018)

7.3

Country

Belgium, France

Director

Catherine Corsini, Female director

Actors

Ambre Hasaj, Arthur Igual, Catherine Morlot, Coralie Russier

Moods

Challenging, Character-driven, Dark

The bond between parent and child is fundamental to the child’s life, but not necessarily the other way around. Even when the parents chose to have them into their lives, the child will always live within the parent’s context, not the other way around. Based on a book by Christine Angot, An Impossible Love is centered on that relationship, with the daughter reckoning with her parents’ love story through narration, reckoning with the betrayals both of them have done onto her. It’s a risky story for writer-director Catherine Corsini, one she made picturesque and nostalgic with period-accurate production design, but behind the beautiful scenery lies the emotionally touching exploration of this difficult dynamic, made much more heartbreaking with Virginie Efira and Jehnny Beth’s excellent performances.

75. He Loves Me… He Loves Me Not (2002)

7.3

Country

France

Director

Female director, Laetitia Colombani

Actors

Audrey Tautou, Clément Sibony, Élodie Navarre, Eric Savin

Moods

Character-driven, Dark, Dramatic

With plenty of old men having extramarital affairs, taking advantage of younger women and leaving them forlorn in love, it can feel deceptively easy to take sides in the first forty minutes of He Loves Me… He Loves Me Not. Who wouldn’t side with Angélique, especially with the innocent, childlike face of Audrey Tautou? And yet, when the twist occurs, the film fills the gaps in totally unexpected ways, gradually escalating to a terrible and sad conclusion about this seemingly romantic girl. It’s hard to further talk about He Loves Me… He Loves Me Not without getting into spoiler territory, so if this is the first time you’ve heard of the movie, go and watch it without any context.

76. The President (2014)

7.3

Country

France, Georgia, Germany

Director

Mohsen Makhmalbaf

Actors

Dachi Orvelashvili, Ia Sukhitashvili, Lasha Ramishvili, Misha Gomiashvili

Moods

Challenging, Dark, Depressing

When the country rises in rebellion against your dictatorial rule, we imagine that could be quite difficult. After a series of failures and atrocities committed to keep power, no one in the world would empathize with the dictator in question. Doing exactly this, however, made for a striking movie in The President. Never naming an actual country, but based generally on real world revolutions, the film plucks a dictator and his grandson into the poverty that his regime has inflicted upon its people. It’s quite cathartic to see the two reap the karmic consequences of what the dictator has done, but it’s also thought-provoking, as the film straightforwardly demonstrates the way revolution eventually takes cyclical form, especially for the movements that allowed the very atrocities they sought to end. It’s not a film with an easy-to-match metaphor, though, given the production country and the director Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s home country, one could guess certain influences, but The President nonetheless is a striking portrait of a city violently changing hands.

77. Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai (2011)

7.3

Country

Japan, United Kingdom

Director

Takashi Miike

Actors

Ayumu Saito, Baijaku Nakamura, Eita Nagayama, Hikari Mitsushima

Moods

Character-driven, Depressing, Gripping

Given that it is a modern day, colored film remake of a classic, Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai was always going to be compared to the 1962 film, especially since it’s considered one of the greatest Japanese films of all time. Admittedly, there’s not a lot added aside from the 3D filming, and for fans of director Takashi Miike, the remake is much more restrained than his other films. However, Nobuyasu Kita’s cinematography is striking, Ryuichi Sakamoto’s score is impeccable, and the performances still deliver on the film’s contemplation of honor, sacrifice, and the self-interest of the elite. Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai doesn’t compare to the classic, but it’s nonetheless a decent introduction for the generations that missed the original story.

78. Little Forest (2018)

7.3

Country

South Korea

Director

Female director, Yim Soon-rye

Actors

Jeon Guk-hyang, Jin Ki-joo, Jung Jun-won, Kim Tae-ri

Moods

Easy, Feel-Good, Heart-warming

At first, Little Forest seemed to just be a gentle film extolling the beauty of the countryside. Many a story has been based on that idea, and sure enough, the film does have aesthetic, gorgeous shots of the orchard, the lake, and the garden Hye-won ran back to, albeit with much more delicious food making scenes. But, as we get to learn more about her, the script subtly unfolds to reveal a personal family drama at the center. Moving back home, therefore, isn’t just to take a vacation– it becomes a meditative break for Hye-won to recreate, and thus, understand the choices her mother made, and it becomes a potent reminder of not just the pain, but also the good things that she left behind. Little Forest has plenty of the familiar countryside virtues of self-sufficiency, mindfulness, and community, but it approaches these themes in a more compelling way.

79. The Body (El cuerpo) (2012)

7.2

Country

Spain

Director

Oriol Paulo

Actors

Ahmed Adel, Aida Oset, Aina Planas, Aura Garrido

Moods

Intense, Raw, Suspenseful

Without a shadow of a doubt, one of the most gripping thrillers in recent years. It starts in a morgue where a corpse of a deceased femme fatale goes missing. Her husband is the first person to be suspected as evidence starts pointing to him for killing his wife and hiding the body. He is called by the police to the crime scene to help with the investigation that is led by a shady detective. The film then takes you on a journey filled with reflections on marriage, deceit and the character’s urge to safeguard whats their own and the territories they are willing to cross to keep it. Drawing you into the atmosphere from the very start, it refuses to let you go out of it. All while maintaining a simple premise.

 

80. In This Corner of the World (2016)

7.2

Country

Japan

Director

Sunao Katabuchi

Actors

Asuka Ohgame, Barbara Goodson, Christine Marie Cabanos, Daishi Kajita

Moods

Depressing, Dramatic, Feel-Good

Prior to being defined by that fateful bombing in 1945, Hiroshima was like any other city outside of Tokyo; small but full, quiet but busy, and in the midst of a slow-but-sure journey to modernization. We experience the rich and intimate details of this life through the kind-hearted Suzu, who herself is stuck between the throes of old and new. She is an ambitious artist but also a dedicated wife; a war-wearied survivor and a hopeful cheerleader.

Set before, during, and after the Second World War, the film starts off charmingly mundane at first, but it quickly gives way to inevitable grief in the second half. One stark tragedy follows another as it becomes increasingly clear how much we lose our humanity in war.

In This Corner of the World is the rare film outside of the Hayao Miyazaki canon that captures the latter’s heart for detail while still being graciously its own.

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