Best movies like 3 Seconds Before Explosion
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
1960s Japanese spy / heist / yakuza / action film with a typically complicated plot.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 119
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: grindhouse
Best tv shows and movies like 3 Seconds Before Explosion (1967):
Similar in 75%
Stray Cat Rock: Crazy Rider '71 (1971)
Plot Summary:
Toshiya Fujita brings the five film Stray Cat Rock series to a highly enjoyable end. Like his previous instalment, Wild Jumbo, Beat ’71 is an easy going youth drama that does not follow Yasuharu Hasebe’s wild gang film path. Instead Fujita deals with social issues. The film follows a hippie community lead by Yoshitaro (Yoshio Harada). They decide to leave their trailer in Shinjuku and travel to countryside by bicycle to save their friend Furiko (Meiko Kaji) who has been falsely accused for murder. The real killer – although it was mainly self defense – is Furiko’s boyfried Takaaki (Takeo Chii) who is being controlled by his politician father. Takaaki would rather live free as a hippie, but his father is forcing him to become a businessman.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 362
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: crime drama
Similar in 86%
Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss (1970)
Plot Summary:
The first part of the Nora-neko rokku ("Alley Cat Rock") series was originally Nikkatsu Studios' answer to the rivaling Toei Studios' Delinquent Boss series, but spawned four sequels thanks to its popularity. Onna banchô, the first movie in the series, takes place in Shinjuku, Tokyo where rivaling youth gangs are constantly trying to one-up each other in toughness. An all-girl gang led by Mei (Meiko Kaji) gets involved in dangerous circles when Mei's boyfriend Michio (Kôji Wada), wants to join a powerful yakuza organization called Seiyu but inadvertently loses the gangsters' money in a fixed boxing match. Of course, Mei's gang is not going to leave him to the gangsters, especially when helped by an enigmatic and independent female biker called Ako (Akiko Wada).
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 817
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: crime drama, cult film
Similar in 76%
Golgo 13 (1973)
Plot Summary:
Live-action adaptation of the hit manga. Golgo 13, also known by the pseudonym Duke Togo, is a professional assassin. His age and birthplace are unknown and there is no consensus in the worldwide intelligence community as to his true identity. Most of his jobs are completed through the use of a customized, scoped M16 rifle. Golgo 13 is contracted to kill Boss Goa, the head of a worldwide crime syndicate responsible for drugs, weapons, and human trafficking.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 335
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Japan, Iran
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: tension, suspense
Similar in 84%
The Runner (1992)
Plot Summary:
A group of journalists used to covering international war zones travel to a remote island on a no holds barred survival training course which swiftly gets out of hand under the tuition of two unhinged ex-military types. Running in the background, we hear news of impending nuclear war, which further affects the behaviour of the crazy 'tutors'.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 104
Genere: Action, Thriller
Country: UK, Canada
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 75%
Mean Tricks (1992)
Plot Summary:
Hornsby, a recently retired FBI agent goes to South America to find his old partner.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 63
Genere: Crime, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: independent film, poliziottesco
Similar in 80%
Cop Target (1990)
Plot Summary:
Farley Wood is hired to escort a rich widow of a DEA agent and her kid to the tropical island of San Cristobal. The widow needs protection from a gang of international terrorists and her escort soon suspects that the deceased husband was involved in dirty drug dealings. While on the island, the daughter is kidnapped by a group of seedy South American thugs and held for ransom. The cop escort gets official orders to leave the case to the FBI, but he decides to his own investigating and finds that the crime may have had political motivations.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 138
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Italy, USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: independent film, poliziottesco
Similar in 76%
Code Name: Diamond Head (1977)
Plot Summary:
A failed Quinn Martin pilot for a series starring a Hawaii-based government counter intelligence agency run by the indomitable Aunt Mary. In this, his only adventure, Diamond Head has to prevent the evil Tree from stealing a deadly nerve toxin gas and selling it to foreign powers. To help Diamond Head is the Dragon Lady and Zulu.
IMDB Rating: 2.6
IMDB Votes: 605
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 78 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, tv series pilot
Similar in 81%
Killer Force (1976)
Plot Summary:
Head of company security, Harry Webb, fears that a diamond theft is about to take place at their major mining complex deep in the desert. He quickly manages to become very unpopular, particularly with Claire Chambers, a celebrated cover girl, daughter of the mine administrator. She is visiting the man she loves, Mike Bradley, who is responsible for security at the mine. Nelson, the mine administrator, gives Bradley a curious mission - to steal a diamond. He wants to implicate Bradley in order to bring him into contact with a certain Lewis who is preparing to rob the mine with the aid of a group of mercanaries and a local accessory known as Father Christmas. Webb, not being informed of the deceit, relentlessly pursues Bradley, who is contacted by Lewis. With the mercanaries in the process of penetrating the mine. Bradley reveals himself to be Father Christmas, the organiser of the entire operation.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 719
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: South Africa, Switzerland, USA, UK, Ireland, Netherlands
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, psychotronic, action thriller, independent film
Similar in 78%
Criminal Woman: Killing Melody (1973)
Plot Summary:
Reiko Ike stars as the daughter of a man who has been pushed into drug dealing by the local Yakuza mob. Having outlived his usefulness to the gang he is murdered and Reiko is gang raped, leading her to attempt a knife attack on the Yakuza boss (Ryoji Hayama) at a swank nightclub. Failing to kill him she ends up in prison, where she befriends a crew of other malcontents (including Yumiko Katayama and Chiyoko Kazama) and meets the Yakuza boss's girlfriend (Miki Sugimoto). Upon release Reiko reassembles her mob and launches a Machiavellian scheme to engineer a gang war between Hayama's Oba Industries and the formerly dominant Hamayasu Clan. The rival gangs begin killing each other off and Reiko works her way closer to her ultimate vengeance.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 541
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, cult film
Similar in 80%
Bloody Territories (1969)
Plot Summary:
A once-powerful yakuza clan disbands as a result of a police crackdown, but one small group refuses to bow to police pressure, and launches a campaign to take over Tokyo's drug, prostitution, and gambling rackets. Someone wants to stop them. Is it the police? Rival gang members? Or is it an entirely new group of hired killers who will stop at nothing to gain complete control of Tokyo's "bloody territories"?.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 94
Genere: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
Massacre Gun (1967)
Plot Summary:
Kuroda (Jô Shishido) is a mob hitman who turns on his employers after being forced to execute his lover. Joining forces with his similarly wronged brothers, hot-headed Eiji (Tatsuya Fuji) and aspiring boxer Saburô (Jirô Okazaki), the trio escalate their mob retaliation to all-out turf war where no one will stop until one faction emerges victorious.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 533
Genere: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards (1963)
Plot Summary:
Tajima is a private detective in charge of his own company, Detective Bureau 2-3. When warring criminal gangs go overboard by robbing U.S. military munitions, Tajima steps in to stop what the cops can't.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 891
Genere: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, exciting, humorous, captivating, realistic, stylized, not serious, fast, neo noir, detective
Similar in 86%
Cruel Gun Story (1964)
Plot Summary:
Businessmen arrange the early release from prison of Togawa, serving time for taking revenge on the truck driver whose carelessness confined Togawa's sister, Rei, to a wheelchair. They want Togawa to hijack an armored truck loaded with 120 million yen; their leverage is to promise him money for surgery for Rei. Togawa consents and plans the heist with three others. The plan is solid, but it doesn't go smoothly. Togawa must improvise, there are traitors somewhere, and double-crosses mount. Can Togawa escape with enough money to help his sister and ensure a passage out of Japan?.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: neo noir
Similar in 81%
Gangland Odyssey (1990)
Plot Summary:
A retired cop is summoned by his ex-boss to save his kidnapped son from the hands of a deadly Japanese triad. Action violence and a little romance makes GANGLAND ODYSSEY a promising treat!.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 50
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: heroic
Similar in 86%
Bloody Brotherhood (1989)
Plot Summary:
Bloody Brotherhood didn't make much of a splash at the HK box office (just reaching that "magic" two-week theatrical run where most HK movies reach the break-even point) and it's gone largely ignored by fans, even though it stars Andy Lau, arguably the biggest star in HK right now. To some point, this is justified. Bloody Brotherhood doesn't really offer up anything new or do it in any sort of spectacular fashion. In fact, many parts of the film are merely adequate, or even sub-par. However, after watching a spate of recent half-ass over-CGIed movies, Bloody Brotherhood brought back memories of a time when even the most average HK crime/action flick was better than anything Hollywood could (or would) churn out.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 78
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: heroic, poliziottesco
Similar in 87%
Asian Cop: High Voltage (1994)
Plot Summary:
Donnie Yen is back with a vengeance in this electric action thriller. The star of Fist of Fury, Hero and Highlander goes up against Hong Kong's deadliest gangsters in a no holds barred duel to the death. Donnie Yen has proven to be one of martial arts most reliable and dedicated martial arts stars. Through the years he's been the lead in his own films, as well as co-starring with the modern legends such as Jet Li and Jackie Chan.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 180
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong, Philippines
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
The Last Conflict (1988)
Plot Summary:
Interpol officer Dickson Kwan is sent to Hong Kong to investigate in a fake passport forgery case and collaborates with officer Pau Sei and Lau Ting Kin. Due to different approaches on investigating, Dickson and Sei often get into conflicts. Later during an arrest operation, Dickson saves Sei's life and they forget about their bygones. Sei has a daughter Eva, who opposes his father to be a cop. Dickson falls in love with Eva and pursues her, however she does not like Dickson's dangerous profession and although she has feelings for him, she still rejects him.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 79
Genere: Action, Crime
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Lock 'n' Load (1990)
Plot Summary:
A Vietnam vet has nightmares about murder and zombies, and then discovers that he and other vets have been programmed to commit crimes and then kill themselves afterwards so they can't be traced. He investigates to try to find out who is responsible.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 59
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: surprise ending, splatter, independent film
Similar in 84%
A Colt Is My Passport (1967)
Plot Summary:
One of Japanese cinema’s supreme emulations of American noir, Takashi Nomura’s A Colt Is My Passport is a down-and-dirty but gorgeously photographed yakuza film starring Joe Shishido as a hard-boiled hit man caught between rival gangs.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: neo noir, grindhouse, exciting, tense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, cult film
Similar in 85%
Youth of the Beast (1963)
Plot Summary:
To infiltrate a criminal organization responsible for the death of one of his colleagues, the Detective Tajima adopts the behavior of of a brutal thug and plays opposing yakuza bosses against each other.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Crime, Mystery
Country: Japan
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: neo noir, grindhouse, bloody, crime drama, atmospheric, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, stylized
Similar in 90%
Kill Panther Kill (1968)
Plot Summary:
In the opening moments of Kill, Panther, Kill! we see the daring escape, during a prison transfer, of master criminal Arthur Tracy. Tracy has been in stir for four years after thieving a fortune in jewels worth three million dollars. Now his loyal henchmen, Anthony and Smokey, lie in wait beside a desolate hillside road that’s apparently intended to be overlooking Malibu — but is actually some anonymous European location — as the LAPD van baring Arthur approaches. After dispensing with Arthur’s guards in a hail of machinegun fire, the three pile into a getaway car, at which point Anthony says he knows of an ideal place for them to hold up. “They’re holding a rodeo this week in Calgary”, he says. “Nobody will look for us there.” And truer words were never spoken. The only thing that I’d be looking for at a rodeo in Calgary would be a thorough ass-kicking.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 127
Genere: Action, Crime
Country: Italy, West Germany, Canada
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, poliziottesco, eurospy
Similar in 87%
Ballistic Kiss (1998)
Plot Summary:
Cat is a killer-for-hire intends on finding his nemesis wesley for revenge. When cat finally meets his long-awaited opponent a chain of events led to cat holding a policewoman hostage. They gradually begina a precarious relationship that may or may not affect cats ultimate mission to take wesleys life.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 367
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: heroic
Similar in 83%
Yakuza Torture History - Lynching (1969)
Plot Summary:
The film is divided into three parts - the first two taking place in feudal Japan, the last segment being more "modern" and set in the late 1960's. All three deal with those that have broken the Yakuza code, and their subsequent torture and dispatch.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 390
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: anthology, grindhouse, banned
Similar in 89%
The Streetfighter (1974)
Plot Summary:
Terry is a tough mercenary and a master of martial arts. When an important business magnate dies, leaving billions to his daughter, the Mafia and Yakuza try to hire Terry to kidnap the daughter. When they refuse to meet his exorbitant price, then try to kill him to conceal their secret plans, he promptly offers his services to protect her. Much ultra-violent martial-arts fighting action, as expected, ensues. This also includes a subplot of a family's blood-feud with Terry over a disputed debt.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, bloody, cult classic, stylized, controversial, crime drama, perverse, exciting, rough, serious
Similar in 82%
The Yakuza Papers, Vol. 4: Police Tactics (1974)
Plot Summary:
As Japan gears up for the 1964 Olympic games, the cops start to crack down under pressure from the public and the press, adding a new dimension in the war for power among the yakuza families of Hiroshima. Akira Kobayashi's Takeda tries to keep a lid on things, but hotheaded underlings create chaos, with one boss whacked in neutral territory, and the craven boss, Uchimoto, informing on an assassination attempt by his own minions. While the police round up hundreds of yakuza foot soldiers, Bunta Sugawara's Shozo Hirono plots to finally take out longtime nemesis, boss Yamamori.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: queer cinema
Similar in 83%
Cops vs. Thugs (1975)
Plot Summary:
In at least 6 movies by director Kinji Fukasaku, Bunta Sugawara played a yakuza thug. This time, he carries a badge but his character hasn't lost his distaste for double-dealing bosses and authority figures who are out to cover their own butts. Detective Kuno is balanced between the law and pragmatism. Cops didn't enforce the law to the point of pushing gangsters over the edge. In return, the gangsters mostly stayed out of the public eye. Some of them even became friends with cops, sharing a mutual desire to keep-down trade unions and leftists. When that balance is upset, Kuno has to decide where his loyalties lie. In this gray world, cops aren't always good and gangsters are thoroughly bad.. although there's no reward for good men who drink from the cup of corruption. "Cops Versus Thugs" has that trademark Fukasaku camera-work.. constantly moving, zooming, and putting you right in the middle of the action, changing loyalties and political maneuvering between cops and criminals.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 909
Genere: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: crime drama, detective
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 90%
Graveyard of Honor (2002)
Plot Summary:
A barkeeper saves a Yakuza boss' life and thus makes his way up in the organization. However, his fear of nothing soon causes problems.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, bleak, realistic, bloody, hood, crime drama, weird
Similar in 80%
Armed Response (1986)
Plot Summary:
One of Tanaka's underlings has stolen a rare statuette that he had planned to use as a peace offering between the local Yakusa and Chinese Tong. He hires two private investigators to exchange ransom money to recover the statuette, but the trade goes down bad and Clay Roth is killed. This angers Roth's brothers and father, all combat veterans, and they go after the people responsible.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 759
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: crime drama, cult classic, independent film, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, fast
Similar in 80%
The Boss (1973)
Plot Summary:
A bomb attack in a cinema in Palermo kills all the fellows of Attardi's clan a part from Cocchi. He immediately understands that the author of the bomb attack is Daniello from Don Corrasco's clan. Cocchi is determined to revenge. His actions, including the Corrasco's daughter kidnap, in a Palermo in which also the police is corrupted, will soon destroy the old equilibrium giving the way to an escalation of violence that won't save anyone. If Cocchi will survive to the mafia war he will be the new boss for sure.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, poliziottesco, noir, perverse, cult classic, action thriller, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful