Best movies like Pale Flower
Last updated March 2024
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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
Best tv shows and movies like Pale Flower (1964):
Similar in 77%
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 83%
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 87%
If You Were Young: Rage (1970)
Plot Summary:
If You Were Young: Rage highlights the other side of post-war Japanese prosperity, focusing on the throngs of young people who missed out on the boom. We follow a group of young men that can't seem to get ahead, despite their willingness to try. Then one hits upon a plane - to work together to save for a dump truck and thus become independent contractors and be their own bosses at last. Ultimately life presents obstacles: jail for one, violence at the hands of the police for another and a girlfriend and subsequent children for the third. An early Kinji Fukasaku gem that imports the freewheeling style of the French New Wave and the hip detachment of American noir.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 240
Genere: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, disturbing, suspenseful, rough, bleak, crying, freeze frame
Similar in 81%
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 80%
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 79%
Playboy (2000)
Plot Summary:
A new magistrate in the town of Horisoto—widely reputed to be the most lawless township in Japan, uses guile and his opponents' own misperceptions and prejudices to defeat his enemies and uproot corruption.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 562
Genere: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, captivating, realistic, biting, jidai geki, suspense
Similar in 87%
Black Angel Vol. 1 (1998)
Plot Summary:
Tokyo is a dark technopolis, a city of faceless chrome and cold marble. It is ruled by Nogi, a yakuza boss specializing in drugs and murder. He gained absolute power by executing the former boss and marrying his daughter, Chiaki. Only the mysterious Ikko, Chiaki's half-sister threatens him. Inspired by a legendary hit-woman, Ikko calls herself the Black Angel and plans to wash away her father's murderer with a deluge of blood.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 912
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: neo noir, crime drama, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, stylized
Similar in 75%
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 79%
Yakuza-Busting Girls: Duel in Hell (2010)
Plot Summary:
Asami returns exhausted after three years of intense training to become a yakuza hunter. She decides to visit her old master, Inokuma, who runs a bar. However, she finds his place in ruins and nothing is as it was when she left. As it turns out, the local yakuza had turned it into a gambling house and laid claim to the entire area with the help of a cold-blooded killer named Akira. Akira is relentless, and utilizes cruel tactics when anyone dares get in her way.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 118
Genere: Action
Country: Japan
Duration: 73 min
Plot tags: exciting, stylized, tense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, splatter
Similar in 90%
The Return of the Sister Street Fighter (1975)
Plot Summary:
She returns for more street fighting.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 436
Genere: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, fast
Similar in 80%
The Divine Move (2014)
Plot Summary:
Professional baduk (go) player Tae-seok loses a high-stakes game to infamous underground gambler Sal-soo, and ends up framed for the murder of his own brother and locked up in prison. He vows revenge and trains ferociously. After serving his seven-year sentence, he gets in touch with his brother's former associate "Tricks," hermit and blind master player "The Lord," and skillful junkyard owner Mok-su; together, they begin formulating a plan to get back at Sal-soo and his men. Tae-seok slowly penetrates Sal-soo's inner circle and his gambling joint, and eliminates Sal-soo's men one by one. But Sal-soo discovers Tae-seok's true identity and engages him in one final game that will seal the fates of the two men involved.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Crime
Country: South Korea
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, serious, suspenseful, suspense, realistic
Similar in 87%
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 88%
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 87%
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 83%
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 81%
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 84%
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 79%
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 76%
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 78%
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 82%
The Big I Am (2010)
Plot Summary:
A cruel twist of fate catapults small time crook Mickey Skinner into the big league, as head of a brutal London gang poised on the brink of a lucrative human-trafficking deal.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Crime
Country: UK
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, serious, suspenseful, realistic, neo noir
Similar in 82%
Branded to Kill (1967)
Plot Summary:
After botching his latest assignment, a third-ranked Japanese hit man becomes the target of another assassin.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: surreal, grindhouse, experimental, neo noir, cult classic, aesthetic, exciting, mind bending, psychedelic, bloody
Similar in 75%
Deliver Us from Evil (2020)
Plot Summary:
In-nam (HWANG Jung-min) is a Korean hitman living in Japan who completes what he has decided will be his final job. But soon after, he learns that the daughter of a woman from his past (CHOI Hee-seo), who now lives in Thailand, has been kidnapped. He heads to Southeast Asia to find the child, after a brief stop in Incheon, where he is helped by the bar worker Yoo-yi (PARK Jung-min). However, he has not reached Thailand alone, as on his trail is the vicious gangster Ray (LEE Jung-jae), whose brother was recently assassinated by In-nam.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: South Korea
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: suspense, tense, intense, rough, hood, perverse
Similar in 79%
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 77%
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 75%
The Outsider (2018)
Plot Summary:
A former American G.I. joins a yakuza family after his release from prison in post-World War II Osaka.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 28000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: suspense, realistic, tense, serious, suspenseful, intense, scenic, crime thriller
Similar in 77%
Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time (2012)
Plot Summary:
A corrupted customs officer, Choi Ik-hyeon, faces losing his job. Then, his life turns around as he meets ganster Choi Hyeong-bae who has connection with the Yakuza. They quickly form a partnetship; Hyeong-bae helps Ik-hyeon set up a business with the money from drug trafficking while Ik-hyeon lobbies for his partner Hyeong-bae. As the government declares war on crime, however, their partnership begins to crack.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, rough, realistic, crime drama, captivating, suspense, noir, neo noir
Similar in 83%
Sinatra Club (2010)
Plot Summary:
Brutal and celebrated Mafia gangster John Gotti (Danny Nucci) schemes, shoves and murders his way to the top of that world in this gritty biography told from the perspective of Salvatore Polisi (Jason Gedrick), who owns the Sinatra Club, where Gotti's crew hangs out. Determined to make his name, the young Gotti plans a daring armored-car robbery that he expects to get him noticed by the bosses of each of New York's five major crime families.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 877
Genere: Action, Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, serious, suspenseful, realistic
Similar in 77%
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