If you loved I Just Didn't Do It, try Lady Maiko
A bridge between a film you've already seen and one most people haven't. Lady Maiko has roughly 3.5× fewer votes than I Just Didn't Do It — it's a deeper cut, not a mainstream recommendation. Here's what they share, and what the second one does that the first one doesn't.
What they share
Both films are directed by Masayuki Suō, and they both carry the foreign gem mood tag, and they sit in Drama territory. If that's the register that drew you to I Just Didn't Do It, the second film will land in a comparable space — through a different lens.
What Lady Maiko is
Proving that even tradition needs a good punchline now and then, this one sends a wide-eyed hopeful into the polished world of Kyoto’s geisha houses. Haruko’s thick accent nearly ends her dream before it starts, until a linguistics professor sees poetic potential in her provincial speech. The film’s real trick is making elocution lessons feel like rebellion.

