Best movies like Cops vs. Thugs
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies similar to Cops vs. Thugs? Leverage your familiarity to help others toward tv shows and movies you've seen before that they might like also. Help broaden the community of people suggesting videos to each other. We welcome your engagement!
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
Best tv shows and movies like Cops vs. Thugs (1975):
Similar in 79%
Chuck Norris vs. the Karate Cop (1974)
Plot Summary:
A Chinese-American cop, skilled in martial arts, battles the most powerful criminal gang in San Francisco that is responsible for the death of his partner.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 697
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong, USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: independent film, detective, poliziottesco
Similar in 85%
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 80%
Score (1995)
Plot Summary:
A small time Yakuza thug is thrown into a bloody battle after a bank robbery he was forced into goes wrong when all the men begin to turn on each other a hitch-hiking serial killing couple decide to steal their loot.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 235
Genere: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: crime drama
Similar in 79%
The Roundup: No Way Out (2023)
Plot Summary:
Detective Ma Seok-do changes his affiliation from the Geumcheon Police Station to the Metropolitan Investigation Team, in order to eradicate Japanese gangsters who enter Korea to commit heinous crimes.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: South Korea
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: detective
Similar in 87%
The Yakuza Wives (1986)
Plot Summary:
While her husband is in prison doing time, Tamaki, the wife of a yakuza capo, runs her spouse’s gang with an iron hand. Meanwhile, Makoto, her younger sister, marries a member of a rival band after being raped by him. The two sisters, united by blood ties but married to enemy yakuzas, will ultimately have to decide whose side they’re on.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 215
Genere: Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
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 84%
Violent Panic: The Big Crash (1976)
Plot Summary:
Like its title, this crazy Toei film from 1976 falls neatly into two parts. The first details the exploits of two bank robbers who specialize in "smash and grab" style heists. Evidently, Japanese banks of the period left huge piles of cash laying around on filing cabinets and end tables. The thieves dream of escaping Japan and going to Brazil. Charismatic lead Tsunehiko Watase gets involved with Miki Sugimoto, a strange girl with a severe mental problem. After a bank robbery goes wrong and his partner is killed, Watase is assaulted by his dead partner's thuggish brother who wants the loot.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 149
Genere: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco
Similar in 88%
Bad City (2022)
Plot Summary:
Kensuke Sonomura directs the legendary Hitoshi Ozawa in this ultimate V-Cinema actioner. Kaiko City is plagued with poverty and crime. When a corrupt businessman decides to run for mayor and starts eliminating opponents from the rival mafia, a former police captain serving time for murder is secretly released and put in charge of a special task force to arrest him.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 409
Genere: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
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 80%
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 80%
Wolves, Pigs & Men (1964)
Plot Summary:
Sabu and his pals hold a pauper's funeral for Sabu's mother. His brother Jiro arrives home, fresh out of jail, and Sabu pointedly states that Jiro is not invited. Jiro meanwhile is planning a big job - steal 40 million in cash and drugs, and he invites Sabu and gang to act as decoys, for 50,000 each. The sting is a success, but the double-crossing starts almost immediately. Sabu discovers how little of the take they were promised and hides the stash. Jiro and his slimy partner pressure the kids to fess up. Meanwhile, their respectable elder brother Ichiro is being leaned on by the town's big boss, whose money it was.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 163
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
Pale Flower (1964)
Plot Summary:
Muraki, a hardboiled Yakuza gangster, has just been released from prison after serving a sentence for murder. Revisiting his old gambling haunts, he meets Saeko, a striking young upper-class woman who is out seeking thrills, and whose presence adds spice to the staid masculine underworld rituals. Muraki becomes her mentor while simultaneously coping with the shifts of power that have affected the gangs while he was interred. When he notices a rogue, drug-addicted young punk hanging around the gambling dens, he realizes that Saeko's insatiable lust for intense pleasures may be leading her to self-destruction.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: neo noir, noir, cynical, black and white, existential, crime drama, tense, atmospheric, offbeat, serious
Similar in 76%
Hard As Nails (2001)
Plot Summary:
After being punished for disobedience and arranging an arms deal with Russian mobsters, young member Takura violently takes over control of his Japanese mafia family. Takura takes advantage of his new position and is proceeding his deal with the Russians, his recklessness attracts the attention of an undercover cop.
IMDB Rating: 4.0
IMDB Votes: 146
Genere: Action, Comedy, Crime
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: crime drama, neo noir, independent film, detective
Similar in 88%
Detective Doberman (1977)
Plot Summary:
The burned remains of a young woman discovered in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The police comes to the conclusion that its the work of a pyromaniacal serial murderer. The murder victim is identified as Mayumi Tamaki, a native of Ishigaki, Okinawa. As the investigation unfolded, her former boyfriend, a former rider of a motorcycle named Chōei Mikawa emerged as a suspect. But Kano did not agree Mikawa is the suspect. Kano started conducting the investigation himself to search the real criminal person.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 595
Genere: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: crime drama, exciting, offbeat, humorous, realistic, semi serious, neo noir, detective, black comedy, dark comedy
Similar in 77%
The Yakuza Papers, Vol. 3: Proxy War (1973)
Plot Summary:
The film is set in 1960, fifteen years after the end of the end of World War II. Shozo Hirono (Bunta Sugawara), the protagonist of the first film in the series, has managed to separate from the Yamamori family, create his own small family, and extend his circle of acquaintances. These new friendships include a powerful underboss of the Muraoka family, Noboru Uchimoto.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
Graveyard of Honor (1975)
Plot Summary:
A look at the life of renegade yakuza, Rikio Ishikawa, particularly the years from 1946 to 1950 when his violent antics get him in trouble with his own clan, Kawada, and then with the clan of his protector, Kozaburo Imai. In these years, he can rely on Chieko, a young Tokyo courtesan who gives him shelter. He's banished to Osaka, where he picks up a drug habit. Through it all, he keeps his friends and enemies off balance with unpredictable behavior - and he seems indestructible.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: crime drama, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, stylized, gloomy
Similar in 85%
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 86%
The Yakuza Papers, Vol. 2: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima (1973)
Plot Summary:
Repeatedly beat to a pulp by gamblers, cops, and gangsters, lone wolf Shoji Yamanaka (Kinya Kitaoji) finally finds a home as a Muraoka family hit man and falls in love with boss Muraoka's niece. Meanwhile, the ambitions of mad dog Katsutoshi Otomo (Sonny Chiba) draws our series' hero, Shozo Hirono (Bunta Sugawara) into a new round of bloodshed, culminating with the tragic demise of the young Yamanaka.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, History
Country: Japan
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: cult film
Similar in 78%
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:
Similar in 79%
Tokyo Drifter (1966)
Plot Summary:
After yakuza boss Kurata dissolves his own criminal empire, a rival kingpin offers a position to Kurata's top operative, Tetsuya "Phoenix Tetsu" Hondo. When the fiercely loyal Tetsu declines, Otsuka taps unstoppable Tatsuzo the "Viper", a ruthless gun-for-hire, to assassinate him. As the Viper trails his target through the countryside, the agile Phoenix Tetsu grows concerned that one of his former associates has betrayed him.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: surreal, neo noir, absurd, avant garde, art house, hood, neo western, aesthetic, colorful, atmospheric
Similar in 83%
HELL DOGS (2022)
Plot Summary:
Adapted from the manga Hell Dogs by Fukamachi Akio.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: hood
Similar in 78%
Gamblers in Okinawa (1971)
Plot Summary:
A yakuza gang gets driven out of Yokohama by a big gang from Tokyo. They relocate to Okinawa to violently start over.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, crime drama
Similar in 88%
Street Mobster (1972)
Plot Summary:
The Japanese yakuza films certainly have a well-earned reputation of being violent and chaotic. Some are more frenetic than others and Street Mobster is unbelievable high on savagery and energy. It dawned the re-birth of the genre, telling the story of low-level punks who will do anything without compromise and little sense of honor.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: crime drama, bloody, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, stylized
Similar in 79%
Family (2001)
Plot Summary:
When the mobster Iwaida Nishikawi is executed by the hit man Takeshi, his family chases the killer. Takeshi's brothers Takashi and Hideshi Miwa try to find Takeshi, who is hidden with the nurse Rie Ishibashi, to protect him and Hideshi discovers that Takeshi was secretly sent by their Yakuza boss to eliminate Iwaida. Meanwhile, the mobster Kenmoshi abducts Takashi's wife Mariko and rapes her, trying to force Takashi to deliver his brother to him.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 296
Genere: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, serious, suspenseful, bloody, crime drama, realistic
Similar in 80%
New York Cop (1993)
Plot Summary:
Allegedly based on a true story, this film follows the life of Toshi, a Japanese man living in America and working with the New York City police. After being recommended for undercover work, Toshi decides to go after a gang lead by Hawk. Hawk and Toshi soon become friends, although Hawk's second-in-command, Tito, is suspicious of the newcomer. Will Toshi be able to bring the gang down, or will his cover be blown before he can finish the assignment?.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 249
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan, USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: crime drama, independent film, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 80%
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 84%
Violent Cop (1989)
Plot Summary:
Detective Azuma is a Dirty-Harry style rogue cop who often uses violence and unethical methods to get results.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: neo noir, bloody, detective, bleak, crime drama, ironic, witty, controversial, hood, suspense thriller
Similar in 81%
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 89%
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