Best movies like Play It Cool
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies similar to Play It Cool? Offer your knowledge to help others to movies and tv shows you've already watched that might appeal to them also. Support expanding the assembly of people recommending videos to one another. We encourage your participation!
Plot Summary:
This Japanese melodrama chronicles the exploits of a geisha's beautiful daughter. The daughter is the geisha's pride and she spares nothing to insure that she has a bright future. But the hard-working young woman's dreams of becoming a dressmaker are shattered.... She then becomes a nightclub hostess who plays cards with male patrons using her body as the prize.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 98
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like Play It Cool (1970):
Similar in 81%
Winter's Flower (1978)
Plot Summary:
Kanno (Ken Takakura) is a Yakuza. He had to kill Matsuoka who betrayed their boss. Kanno knew Matsuoka had a 3-year-old daughter named Youko. Before he gave himself to the police, he asked his trusted man to take care of her. While in prison, Kanno kept sending letters to Youko, disguising as an uncle in Brazil. 15 years later, Kanno is released. He is determined to live legitimately, however... the Yakuza has not forgotten his wicked deed! A powerful motion picture about honor and the violent ways of the Yakuza.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 158
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: epic, thrilling
Similar in 87%
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 81%
Flower and Snake 5: Rope Magic (1987)
Plot Summary:
Masayuki Asao's "Flower and Snake 4:Rope Magic" tells the story of the gambler,who is unable to pay his loan.His wife and daughter are kidnapped by Yakuza gang and subjected to many days of torture and sexual degradation.Typically twisted pinku eiga sickie that features lots of nudity,torture and rape.The plot is easy to follow,the acting is okay and the film is well-made and interesting.Overall,if you like Japanese pink cinema you can't go wrong with this one.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 140
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 74 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, sexploitation film
Similar in 81%
The Scarlet Camellia (1964)
Plot Summary:
In this Japanese drama, a young woman begins murdering all those responsible for her ailing father's condition. First she torches her parents' villa, and then slaughters all her lascivious mother's lovers. Because the girl is so outwardly sweet and innocent, the detective looking into the deaths does not suspect her. Unbeknownst to him, the girl plans on turning herself in, but not before she kills one more person--her real father. Later she changes her mind, but when his good wife learns of his philandering, she commits suicide.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 51
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 163 min
Plot tags: jidai geki, detective
Similar in 75%
Fighting Elegy (1966)
Plot Summary:
High schooler Kiroku Nanbu yearns for the prim, Catholic Michiko, but her only desire is to reform Kiroku’s sinful tendencies. Hormones raging, Kiroku channels his unsatisfied lust into the only outlet available: savage, crazed violence.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Comedy, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, witty, black and white, cult film
Similar in 80%
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
Similar in 81%
Karz: The Burden of Truth (2002)
Plot Summary:
Suraj is the adopted son of a wealthy hotel owner who is haunted by memories of his birth mother's rejection. He befriends Raja not knowing that he is in fact his younger brother and even gives up his love Sapna to Raja. Through Raja he is reunited with his birth mother and it is revealed that she was raped by a criminal who fathered Suraj. After many fights, flying bodies, car chases, and broken glass, Suraj eventually exacts revenge on his birth father and dies happily in his mother's arms.
IMDB Rating: 4.0
IMDB Votes: 465
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: India
Duration: 173 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
Son of Baby Ama (1990)
Plot Summary:
A boy grows up not knowing his real identity. One day a mysterious lady, claiming to be his real mother, divulges the truth about his roots. He is caught between leaving his past and living his new life.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 38
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
Keiho (1999)
Plot Summary:
The psychiatric evaluation of a young actor arrested for a brutal double murder concludes he may be unfit for trial. Further investigation, however, reveals the crime was a well-planned statement against the section of Japan's criminal code granting diminished responsibility to the mentally impaired.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 210
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
The Father (1971)
Plot Summary:
"Baba" is a bitter melodrama set in Istambul. A father is not able to earn enough money to feed his family. He is waiting to emigrate to Germany. When his landlord's son kills a man while drunk, the father is prepared to answer for the deed himself, provided that the landlord supports his wife and children. As there is little difference for the father between ten years in prison or ten years in a foreign country, he regards this to be the best solution.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 856
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Season For Assassins (1975)
Plot Summary:
As a gang of youths terrorizes a city, the weary chief of police finds himself caught between the citizens who cry for blood and a catholic priest who believes the boys will respond to kindness.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 135
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: poliziottesco
Similar in 78%
Black Angel 2 (1999)
Plot Summary:
Mayo, the Black Angel, is ordered to assassinate a powerful syndicate leader. The hit goes awry, however, as the crime boss' bodyguard steps in the way. It's none other than Yamambe, who once rescued Mayo from a rape and has lived in her heart since then.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 397
Genere: Action, Drama, Crime, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: crime drama
Similar in 79%
The Petrified Forest (1973)
Plot Summary:
Follows a young med student's relationships with two women: a dangerous affair with a childhood friend and his mother's struggle to rebuild their estranged relationship.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 251
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Assassination (1964)
Plot Summary:
Assassination begins with the events of 1853 when "four black ships" anchored at Edo Bay, sparking civil unrest and the major political manoeuvring that saw the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate. At a time when assassination had become a disturbing political tool, Shinoda's film follows Hachiro Kiyokawa (Tetsuro Tamba), an ambitious, masterless samurai whose allegiances drift dangerously between the Shogunate and the Emperor.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 956
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
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 79%
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%
With Beauty and Sorrow (1965)
Plot Summary:
When the man who seduced the famous painter Otoko as a teenager--and then wrote a bestselling novel about it--reappears in her life, her pupil--and lesbian lover--hatches a plot to destroy the man and his family.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 318
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
The Manhandlers (1974)
Plot Summary:
A gorgeous girl named Katie inherits her deceased uncle's business and decides that she too can be a businesswoman and hire two hot girlfriends. Katie doesn't like the brothel part so she gets rid of that and is soon giving legit massages. The mob doesn't like this and Katie is quickly being muscled by mob goons to turn up the heat or pay. Katie soon discovers more about the massage-parlor than she had wished.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 107
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
Avatharam (2014)
Plot Summary:
Madhavan Mahadevan, who comes into the city from a village to see off his sister-in-law and her daughter after the death of his elder brother, an upright Customs Officer (KB Ganesh Kumar). While running around to claim the insurance money, he comes to know that his brother was actually murdered by the underworld don Irumbanakkal John (Joy Mathew).
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 294
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: India
Duration: 141 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
The Executioner Part II (1984)
Plot Summary:
An L.A. cop and a reporter team up to find a masked serial killer.
IMDB Rating: 3.6
IMDB Votes: 463
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, cult classic, independent film, cult film
Similar in 75%
Sex and Fury (1973)
Plot Summary:
Sex & Fury chronicles Ocho's exploits as she searches for her father's killers, each identified by unique tattoos on their backs (a deer, a boar, and a butterfly). Along the way, she also crosses paths with Shonusuke, a radical set on murdering prominent politician Kurokawa and Christina, an American spy posing as a gambler.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, erotic, sensual, bloody, disturbing, controversial, crime drama, cult classic, action thriller, exciting
Similar in 89%
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 85%
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 85%
AKP: Job 27 (2013)
Plot Summary:
A Yakuza hitman travels to North America for his 27th job, only to find lingering memories of lost love through a chance encounter with a beautiful prostitute.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 41
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: Canada, Japan
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, captivating, suspense, suspenseful, silent, crime drama, silent 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 75%
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 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 85%
The Bodyguard (1973)
Plot Summary:
Karate master and anti-drug vigilante Chiba returns to his home in Japan, where he holds a press conference announcing his intention to wipe out the nation's drug industry. He also offers his services as a bodyguard to anyone who is willing to come forward and provide information about the drug lords' activities. He is soon approached by a mysterious woman claiming to have important information and asking for Chiba's protection. She seems to be legitimate, but is she really what she appears to be?.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 545
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, fast, neo noir
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 84%
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