Best movies like Pigs and Battleships
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
In the city of Yokosuka, Kinta and his lover Haruko, both involved with yakuza, brave the post-occupation period with a goal to be together.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: avant garde
Best tv shows and movies like Pigs and Battleships (1961):
Similar in 85%
Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself!! The Heist (1995)
Plot Summary:
Two petty gangsters get ransomed by a group of Yakuza members, fortunately they are rescued by a kindly Kindergarten teacher.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 45
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: slapstick comedy, slapstick
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Similar in 83%
A Fugitive from the Past (1965)
Plot Summary:
Three robbers escape with loot from a heist before one of them shoots them; their corpses wash up near the aftermath of a maritime calamity, provoking a policeman's interest.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: Japan
Duration: 183 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
Run Papa Run (2008)
Plot Summary:
Run Papa Run is a 2008 Hong Kong comedy-drama film directed and co-written by Sylvia Chang, and based on a novel by Benny Li. It was produced by JCE Movies Limited, with Jackie Chan serving as an executive producer. Featuring an ensemble cast, the film stars Louis Koo as Lee Tin-Yun, a Triad boss who struggles to hide his criminal lifestyle when he is faced with raising his daughter.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 375
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Kaizokuban Bootleg Film (1999)
Plot Summary:
Two best friends—Tatsuo, a retiring Yakuza member, and Kiyoshi, a cop—travel to the funeral of a woman they both loved.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 129
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 74 min
Plot tags: black and white, postmodern
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Similar in 83%
Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself!! The Escape (1995)
Plot Summary:
Hapless gangsters are hired by the yakuza to tail his daughter. Once the identity of the boy she's dating has been unveiled, the boss offers a reward for his capture.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 43
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: slapstick comedy, slapstick
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Similar in 84%
Akitsu Springs (1962)
Plot Summary:
Yoshida’s first big-budget production and colour film is a haunting tale of unrequited love and postwar disillusion. The story of the fatal attraction between a spineless intellectual and a strong woman is conventional, but its enactment is radically new.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: avant garde
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Similar in 86%
Key of Life (2012)
Plot Summary:
Unemployed 35 year old Sakurai aspired to become an actor, but failed miserably. He decides to end his own life, but first he goes to purify himself at a public bathhouse. While there, he meets the very prosperous Kondo, who subsequently suffers a fall, erasing his memory. On a whim, Sakurai switches locker keys, steals the man's belongings, and decides to pass himself off as Kondo. What Sakurai does not know is that Kondo runs an illegal business, which brings him into contact with ornery Yakuza members. Meanwhile, Kondo has been convinced that he is actually the failed actor Sakurai and he faces the dismal reality of that life with increasing bewilderment. Fortunately, at the hospital he meets the lovely Kanae who, while yearning for marriage, goes out of her way to help "Sakurai" pull himself together. Eventually Kondo regains his memory, but before he can make a new life with Kanae, he has to solve the many problems caused by the theft of his identity.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, captivating, tense, funny, light, entertaining, romantic, dark comedy, touching
Similar in 77%
Irezumi (1966)
Plot Summary:
In this elegant proto-feminist shocker from Yasuzo Masumuro, a woman forced into prostitution wreaks her spidery revenge. A mysterious tattoo artist puts his masterpiece, a human-faced spider, on a kidnapped woman's back. She and her lover are then forced into a conspiracy-born nightmare, where they face the danger of becoming the very evil they seek to escape. With each new bloody incident, the spider's face seems to redden with ever-growing hunger….
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, masterpiece
Similar in 84%
Heat Wave (1991)
Plot Summary:
Rin Jyoshima lost her father to death-by-gambling; years later, she's grown up in the Kosugi household and has fallen victim to gambling herself.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 290
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags:
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Similar in 79%
First Love (2019)
Plot Summary:
A young boxer and a call girl get caught up in a drug-smuggling scheme over the course of one night in Tokyo.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Action, Comedy, Crime, Romance
Country: Japan, UK
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: psychological, uplifting, captivating, disturbing, psychedelic, black comedy, hood, action thriller
Similar in 79%
Muggers (2000)
Plot Summary:
When two medical students find themselves dangerously indebted to a sadistic loan shark, they become embroiled in an illicit black-market organ transplant scam in order to save their lives. 'Muggers' is a twisted, hilarious, pitch-black comedy about friendship, poor choices and the drag of student debt.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 293
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Romance
Country: Australia
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, absurd, independent film, realistic, black comedy, dark comedy
Similar in 81%
Japanese Summer: Double Suicide (1967)
Plot Summary:
A sex-obsessed young woman, a suicidal young man she meets on the street, a gun-crazy wannabe gangster—these are just three of the irrational, oddball anarchists trapped in an underground hideaway in Oshima’s devilish, absurdist portrait of what he deemed the “death drive” in Japanese youth culture.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 855
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: political, psychological, tense, atmospheric, offbeat, serious, realistic, surreal, stylized, allegory
Similar in 83%
Death by Hanging (1968)
Plot Summary:
A Korean man is sentenced to death by hanging, but he survives the execution. For the following two hours, his executioners try to work out how to handle the situation in this black farce.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, mind bending, psychedelic, experimental, surreal, black comedy, weird, cult film
Similar in 89%
Postman Blues (1997)
Plot Summary:
Sawaki is a postman who's not quite thrilled about his boring way of life. But his life is about to change when he delivers mail to his old schoolmate Noguchi, who's now a member of the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia, and just finished cutting his little finger off.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: heroic, black comedy, dark comedy, action thriller, exciting, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 90%
The Insect Woman (1963)
Plot Summary:
A woman, Tome, is born to a lower class family in Japan in 1918. The title refers to an insect, repeating its mistakes, as in an infinite circle. Imamura, with this metaphor, introduces the life of Tome, who keeps trying to change her poor life.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: freeze frame, semi documentary, clever, serious, realistic, witty, cynical, biting, avant garde, suspense
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Similar in 83%
Blues Harp (1998)
Plot Summary:
Ambitious yakuza Kenji befriends harmonica-playing bartender Chuji, who moonlights as a part-time drug-dealer for the opposing gang. Their friendship is threatened by Kenji's plans for advancement, as well as by his bodyguards growing jealousy of Chuji.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Music, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, bleak, serious, realistic
Similar in 75%
The Last Days of Frankie the Fly (1996)
Plot Summary:
Dreaming of ascending the underworld ladder and gaining revenge on his sadistic boss, Sal, a Mafia flunky, Frankie, tries to take a step in the right direction by "saving" an exploited, drug-addicted porn actress, Margaret.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: independent film, rough, serious, realistic, sexual, sexy
Similar in 80%
As Tears Go By (1988)
Plot Summary:
Two parallel stories of Wah caught in the mist of a love affair with his beloved cousin, Ngor and his relationship with his triad brother, Fly, who seems to never fall out of trouble.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: neo noir, mind bending, psychedelic, surreal, crime drama, rough, serious, captivating, realistic, black comedy
Similar in 79%
The Wolves (1971)
Plot Summary:
After going to prison for killing the boss of the Kanno gang, Seji Iwahashi (Tatsuya Nakadai) gets released early -- only to find that his former gang has merged with the Kannos. But with bitter resentments lingering on both sides, how long will it be before the bloodshed begins anew? Set in 1926 Japan, this serpentine crime thriller from director Hideo Gosha also stars Toshio Kurosawa and Isao Natsuyagi as Iwahashi's closest ally.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 612
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: crime drama, atmospheric, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, stylized
Similar in 82%
The Yakuza Papers, Vol. 5: Final Episode (1974)
Plot Summary:
Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Final Episode is part five and the final installation of a series of yakuza films directed by Kinji Fukasaku. In the wake of a big police crackdown, Akira Kobayashi's icily sun- glassed Takeda attempts to transform the Hiroshima yakuza families into a legitimate political organization: The Tensei Coalition. When the young Matsumura ascends to the chairmanship of the coalition, the older, hardened yakuza led by Jo Shishido (BRANDED TO KILL) seize one last opportunity to stir up chaos and bloodshed. Culminating with the arrests, deaths, or retirement of the first postwar yakuza generation, this milestone series draws to an ambivalent close.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
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Similar in 76%
Sonatine (1993)
Plot Summary:
Kitano plays Murakawa, a Tokyo yakuza tiring of gangster life. Along with a few of his henchmen, he is sent by his boss to Okinawa to help end a gang war, supposedly to mediate between two warring clans. He finds that the dispute between the clans is insignificant and whilst wondering why he was sent to Okinawa at all, Murakawa's headquarters are bombed and he and his gang are ambushed in a bar.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Action, Comedy, Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: bloody, neo noir, art house, stylized, sincere, dark, controversial, hood, crime drama, rough
Similar in 89%
The Woman Sharper (1963)
Plot Summary:
Handsome young Katsuta tries to follow the yakuza code, but even his boss doesn't believe in it. Diamond Fuyu is less ethical, and allows the idiotic Tetsu to trick a schoolgirl he fancies, Hanako, into a type of bonded prostitution. Because of gang conflict, the Izu family (to whom Katsuta belongs) has their last gambling den taken over, and he seeks revenge. This brings him back into contact with a former lover who is also a card trickster - she is also Diamond Fuyu's sister, and is now married to Okaru-Hachi, who has mastered a clever card cheating trick called Okaru, which involves the deft use of mirrors.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 426
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: offbeat, serious, realistic, suspenseful, stylized
Similar in 84%
The Pornographers (1966)
Plot Summary:
Subu makes pornographic films. He sees nothing wrong with it. They are an aid to a repressed society, and he uses the money to support his landlady, Haru, and her family. From time to time, Haru shares her bed with Subu, though she believes her dead husband, reincarnated as a carp, disapproves. Director Shohei Imamura has always delighted in the kinky exploits of lowlifes, and in this 1966 classic, he finds subversive humor in the bizarre dynamics of Haru, her Oedipal son, and her daughter, the true object of her pornographer-boyfriend’s obsession. Imamura’s comic treatment of such taboos as voyeurism and incest sparked controversy when the film was released, but The Pornographers has outlasted its critics, and now seems frankly ahead of its time.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: surreal, dark comedy, erotic, mind bending, psychedelic, cult classic, erotic drama, clever, offbeat, humorous
Similar in 80%
Kikujiro (1999)
Plot Summary:
Brash, loudmouthed and opportunistic, Kikujiro is the unlikely companion for Masao who is determined to see the mother he has never met. The two begin a series of adventures which soon turns out to be a whimsical journey of laughter and tears with a wide array of surprises and unique characters along the way.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 22000
Genere: Drama, Comedy
Country: Japan
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: road movie, sad, uplifting, touching, surreal, stylized, emotional, social, contemplative, art house
Similar in 75%
Beyond Outrage (2012)
Plot Summary:
As the police launch a full-scale crackdown on organized crime, it ignites a national yakuza struggle between the Sanno of the East and Hanabishi of the West. What started as an internal strife in Outrage has now become a nationwide war in Outrage Beyond.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, serious, realistic, psychological, noir, neo noir, bloody, hood, crime thriller
Similar in 83%
Twisted Justice (2016)
Plot Summary:
Taking his inspiration from the biggest scandal in Japan’s police history, Kazuya Shiraishi has created a massive and sinister crime epic about the grand forces of corruption that brings to mind the best of Kinji Fukasaku’s yakuza movies (Cops vs. Thugs among others). Starting in 1970s Hokkaido like a nervous Japanese Starsky & Hutch–chan, the film charts the moral descent of Detective Moroboshi (Go Ayano) over three decades. Green in years but already hard‐grained and ready to play rough, the young cop quickly gets a bit too cozy with the other side of the law when his senior colleague Murai (Pierre Taki) teaches him the ropes and ruts of the police business. Soon, he swaggers and rants through the streets of Sapporo a lean, mean, sex‐crazy bully, indistinguishable from a yakuza. Burning with the same blaze as the hard‐boiled classics of yore, Twisted Justice scorches away the sleekness and macho self‐congratulation of the genre. .
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 430
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, disturbing, detective
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Similar in 76%
The Blood of Wolves (2018)
Plot Summary:
Set in 1988 in Hiroshima, Japan, prior to the enactment of the anti-organized crime law. A rumor exists that Detective Shogo Ogami has ties with the yakuza. He is partnered with Detective Shuichi Hioka and they investigate a missing person case involving a financial company employee. Conflicts between opposing yakuza groups become more serious.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense
Similar in 90%
Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1973)
Plot Summary:
In the teeming black markets of postwar Japan, Shozo Hirono and his buddies find themselves in a new war between factious and ambitious yakuza.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, exciting, rough, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, stylized
Similar in 76%
Outrage Coda (2017)
Plot Summary:
Ôtomo gets involved with new Yakuza battles after he comes back the Yakuza society.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing, neo noir, hood
Similar in 85%
Last of the Wolves (2021)
Plot Summary:
After Shogo Ogami’s death in Hiroshima, Detective Shuichi Hioka successfully implemented Shogo Ogami’s plan, which was to control the yakuza to prevent further gang wars and save innocent people from getting harmed. Shuichi Hioka manages the criminal organizations, but, due to one evil person who gets released from prison, the situation drastically changes.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 790
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing
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