Best movies like Ley Lines
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The story follows a trio of Japanese youths of Chinese descent who escape their semi-rural upbringing and relocate to Shinjuku, Tokyo, where they befriend a troubled Shanghai prostitute and fall foul of a local crime syndicate. Like many of Miike's works, the film examines the underbelly of respectable Japanese society and the problems of assimilation faced by non-ethnically Japanese people in Japan.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: crime drama, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, neo noir
Best tv shows and movies like Ley Lines (1999):
Similar in 78%
Swallowtail Butterfly (1996)
Plot Summary:
Swallowtail Butterfly takes place in an alternate Japan, in a ghetto where immigrants from all over the world have come to live and make their fortune. The city is called Yentown, and it is much like Tokyo. Sixteen-year-old Ageha (Ito), a young girl whose mother has just died, is passed on from person to person until a prostitute named Glico (Chara) finally takes pity on her. Under Glico's care, Ageha has many experiences with the other poverty-stricken immigrants in Yentown. Eventually, due to a sudden twist in fate, the immigrants are given a chance to realize their dreams. But in doing so, they destroy their solidarity, and have to face their problems separately.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 148 min
Plot tags: cult classic, independent film, tense, atmospheric, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, gloomy
Similar in 90%
Dead or Alive 2 (2000)
Plot Summary:
Two contract killers cross paths in the middle of the same job and realize they are childhood friends. Together they take a break from killing and visit the small island they once called home. After reflecting on their past lives they decided to team up and use their talents in killing for good... much to the upset of the crime syndicates.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Comedy, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, rough, realistic, mind bending, psychedelic, heroic, surreal, dark comedy, crime drama
Similar in 87%
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 86%
Flick (2000)
Plot Summary:
Jack Flinter is skating on thin ice. Known to his friends as "Flick", he is drifting through life, dealing a bit of hash, drinking and screwing around. His girlfriend Alice has had enough. His friend and business partner Des is strung out, his behavior increasingly unpredictable. Their latest scam has them in over their heads. He meets Isabelle, a German woman visiting the city and the resulting story takes place over a few days and nights when all Jack's chickens come home to roost. His life spinning out of control, he has to make a decision - sink or swim.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 77
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Ireland
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: disturbing, rough, serious, suspenseful, realistic
Similar in 75%
Shinjuku Triad Society (1995)
Plot Summary:
The film is based around the interactions of a triad group with a police officer as well as opposing yakuza organizations. When the younger brother to a renegade police officer becomes the lawyer to the triad group, an argument between the two leads to the downfall of the organization.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: crime drama, exciting, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, surprise ending, dark
Similar in 78%
Story of a Wild Elder Sister: Widespread Lynch Law (1973)
Plot Summary:
Ocho is accidentally captured by a drug trafficking cartel who use Chinese women to smuggle drugs into Japan by hiding it in their vaginas. She is tortured, and manages to escape, fighting both the male yakuzas and a gang of female thieves.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 920
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, disturbing, controversial, serious, realistic, suspenseful, suspense, cult film
Similar in 79%
Rainy Dog (1997)
Plot Summary:
A Japanese assassin stranded in Taiwan must take work from a local crime boss to make ends meet when suddenly a woman from his past delivers a son to him.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: bloody, crime drama, perverse, mind blowing, serious, realistic, suspenseful, neo noir
Similar in 81%
Agitator (2001)
Plot Summary:
When a young Yakuza torments the customers in a rival crime family's nightclub, it is not long before his dead body is found. Soon, inter-family retaliation follows, resulting in the death fo a prominent crime boss. Devastated by htis turn of events, the temperamental Kenzaki vows to avenge his boss's death and, as bloody violence ensues, the body count reaches excessive proportions.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: suspense, suspenseful, exciting, tense, captivating, crime drama, crying
Similar in 85%
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 88%
The Five (1995)
Plot Summary:
Five men plot to steal a large sum of money from the local yakuza, but everything does not go as planned and the men find themselves hunted down by contract killers.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Drama, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: neo noir, crime drama, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, stylized, tragic ending, gay cinema
Similar in 85%
The City of Lost Souls (2000)
Plot Summary:
Brazilian-Japanese gangster Mario rescues his Chinese girlfriend Kei as she's about to be deported from Japan. Desperate to escape, he hides in Tokyo's booming Japanese-Portuguese community and seeks passage from the country from a Russian mobster. To meet his price, they hold up a bigtime drug deal between the Chinese Mafia and the local Yakuza.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: disturbing, atmospheric, harsh, exciting, rough, suspenseful, realistic, stylized, crime drama, serious
Similar in 82%
Outrage (2010)
Plot Summary:
The story begins with Sekiuchi, boss of the Sannokai, a huge organized crime syndicate controlling the entire Kanto region, issuing a stern warning to his lieutenant Kato and right-hand man Ikemoto, head of the Ikemoto-gumi. Kato orders Ikemoto to bring the unassociated Murase-gumi gang in line, and he immediately passes the task on to his subordinate Otomo, who runs his own crew. The tricky jobs that no-one wants to do always end up in Otomo’s lap.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, cynical, rough, realistic, bloody, psychological, sincere, neo noir, disturbing
Similar in 80%
Yakuza: Like a Dragon (2007)
Plot Summary:
Former Yakuza underling Kiryu Kazuma, who has recently been released from prison after a lengthy incarceration, and is trying to piece his life together and distance himself from his Yakuza past. Unfortunately Kiryu's problems slowly escalate as he is pursued by a former associate, the baseball bat-wielding psycho Majima Goro who has a grudge to settle with Kiryu.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan, South Korea
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, captivating, suspense, heroic, crime drama, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 76%
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 88%
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 83%
Freeze Me (2000)
Plot Summary:
Chihiro is raped by three men and it is captured on video camera. She leaves her hometown and prepares to marry a colleague five years later, when one of the rapists arrives and says the others are on their way. He behaves like her long-lost lover and mistreats her again. Chihiro takes revenge, kills him and puts him in a freezer. The other rapists are awaiting a similar fate.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: disturbing, erotic, cult classic, grindhouse, psychological, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, cult film
Similar in 80%
Dead or Alive (1999)
Plot Summary:
Ryūichi and his small gang of Triad vie for control of the Japanese underworld in a crime-ridden Shinjuku quarter while Detective Jojima tries to bring it down. Jojima attempts to start a gang war between the Triad and yakuza. Ryūichi and Jojima meet.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: disturbing, serious, suspenseful, surreal, controversial, stylized, mind bending, psychedelic, heroic, hood
Similar in 80%
London to Brighton (2006)
Plot Summary:
It's 3:07am and two girls burst into a run down London toilet. Joanne is crying her eyes out and her clothing is ripped. Kelly's face is bruised and starting to swell. Duncan Allen lies in his bathroom bleeding to death. Duncan's son finds his father and wants answers. Derek – Kelly's pimp – needs to find Kelly or it will be him who pays.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, suspenseful, suspense, emotional, hood, bleak, serious, realistic, crying
Similar in 80%
Bullet Ballet (1998)
Plot Summary:
After his girlfriend commits suicide, a man (Shinya Tsukamoto) becomes embroiled in gang warfare attempting to obtain a gun in hopes to kill himself.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: black and white, neo noir, mind bending, psychedelic, surreal, controversial, art house, deep, cult classic, psychological
Similar in 90%
The Hillz (2004)
Plot Summary:
A promising college athlete takes a turn for the worse when he hooks up with old highschool friends during his summer break.
IMDB Rating: 2.0
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: serious, surreal, realistic, captivating, suspenseful, black comedy, dark comedy
Similar in 77%
Deadly Outlaw: Rekka (2002)
Plot Summary:
After Kunisada's Yakuza leader and father figure is brutally murdered, he and his best friend go on a two-man mission to avenge his death, killing other Yakuza leaders leading to a final confrontation by the old man's killers.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, suspenseful, stylized, crime drama, realistic, fast
Similar in 83%
Brother (2000)
Plot Summary:
A Japanese Yakuza gangster’s deadly existence in his homeland gets him exiled to Los Angeles, California, where he is taken in by his little brother and his brother’s gang. This is the first English film by Takeshi Kitano.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK, France, Japan
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: harsh, intense, rough, serious, exciting, atmospheric, art house, stylized, hood, psychological thriller
Similar in 81%
The Yakuza (1974)
Plot Summary:
Harry Kilmer returns to Japan after several years in order to rescue his friend George's kidnapped daughter - and ends up on the wrong side of the Yakuza, the notorious Japanese mafia.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan, USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: neo noir, tense, intense, harsh, serious, realistic, retro, spiritual, fast paced, crime drama
Similar in 80%
Monument Ave. (1998)
Plot Summary:
Bobby O'Grady a low level member of a Boston Irish gang run by Jackie O'Hara. Jackie demands absolute, total loyalty to him. When Jackie kills one of Bobby's buddies, Teddy, Bobby and others have to keep it an absolute secret, even from their and Teddy's relatives.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, suspenseful, tense, serious, independent film, neo noir, cult classic, rough, bleak, realistic
Similar in 77%
Empire (2002)
Plot Summary:
A big time drug dealer Victor Rosa is looking to get out of the game and sees his chance with a big deal with a new friend who happens to be a Wall St. stockbroker. Thinking this will be his chance to go out on top Victor soon finds out that he has been double crossed and his last option is to get revenge.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: intense, suspense, melancholic, stylized, rough, serious, suspenseful, hood, tense, realistic
Similar in 79%
Corrupt (1999)
Plot Summary:
After decades of terror, two deadly street gangs reach a delicate truce and young MJ (Silkk the Shocker) sees a way out of the hood once and for all. Only Corrupt (Ice-T) stands in MJ's way, resulting into a violent and brutal roller coaster ride of action!.
IMDB Rating: 2.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 69 min
Plot tags: hood, independent film, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 80%
Sugar Hill (1993)
Plot Summary:
In the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, the Mafia steps in when a drug dealer quits his partner brother to lead a straight life with his girlfriend.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: hood, serious, suspenseful, tense, realistic, crime drama, independent film, black cinema
Similar in 82%
Blue Hill Avenue (2001)
Plot Summary:
A child of a middle class home with solid moral values is lured into a world of crime and corruption.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: hood, rough, bleak, realistic, serious, crime drama, beautiful
Similar in 85%
Squeeze (1997)
Plot Summary:
Ty, Hector, and Bao are close friends in a tough section of Boston, where they're called "the PG-13 crew." They're 14, decent kids with few skills who've bailed out of school. A small gang of older tough guys, led by Marcus and Tommy, menace them, and when the PG-13s fight back and rob one of the gang, Marcus and Tommy vow to kill them. They seek protection from Derick, a drug dealer, who agrees to help if they'll sell drugs. Meanwhile, Ty is recruited to work at a community center by J.J., its quiet leader. Ty and his friends are in a squeeze: surrounded by violence, drugs, and no opportunities, is there any way out?.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 344
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: crime drama, independent film, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 81%
Mean Streets (1973)
Plot Summary:
A small-time hood must choose from among love, friendship and the chance to rise within the mob.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 117000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: neo noir, tense, atmospheric, realistic, bleak, independent film, serious, rough, suspenseful, dark