Best movies like Pleasures of the Flesh
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A corrupt businessman blackmails the lovelorn reprobate Atsushi into watching over his suitcase full of embezzled cash while he serves a jail sentence. Rather than wait for the man to retrieve his money, however, Atsushi decides to spend it all in one libidinous rush—fully expecting to be tracked down and killed.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: serious, tense, captivating, suspenseful, bleak, realistic, sexual, black comedy, dark comedy, sexy
Best tv shows and movies like Pleasures of the Flesh (1965):
Similar in 84%
Japanese Summer: Double Suicide (1967)
Plot Summary:
A sex-obsessed young woman, a suicidal young man she meets on the street, a gun-crazy wannabe gangster—these are just three of the irrational, oddball anarchists trapped in an underground hideaway in Oshima’s devilish, absurdist portrait of what he deemed the “death drive” in Japanese youth culture.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 855
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: political, psychological, tense, atmospheric, offbeat, serious, realistic, surreal, stylized, allegory
Similar in 86%
Violence at Noon (1966)
Plot Summary:
Hakuchu no Torima" is the portrayal of a violent rapist as seen through the recollections of his wife and one of his victims. As the film starts, Eisuke (Kei Sato) encounters Shino (Saeda Kawaguchi), who works as a maid in a house. She is a former coworker from a failed collective farm, whose life he once saved -- only to rape her. Soon, Eisuke's criminal pattern of rapes and murders emerges as he goes on assaulting women (Shino being the witness of one of them, as Eisuke tries to violate her employer). When cooperating with the police on making a description of the rapist, Shino withholds her crucial knowledge of his identity. She prefers writing letters to Eisuke's dutiful wife, Matsuko, a schoolteacher (Akiko Koyama -- Mrs Oshima), in order to expose his true nature and perhaps induce her into turning Eisuke over to the police.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: psychological, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing, detective, weird
Similar in 82%
Boulevard (1994)
Plot Summary:
A street prostitute takes in an abused young woman on the run from her misogynist boyfriend, leading to both facing off against the prostitute's dreaded pimp and a relentless police detective out to arrest all of them.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 648
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: erotic, independent film, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, detective
Similar in 85%
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 75%
Gate of Flesh (1964)
Plot Summary:
After World War II, some Tokyo prostitutes band together with a strict code: no pimps, attack any street walker who comes into our territory, defend the abandoned building we call home, and punish whomever gives away sex (who falls in love). Maya, a young woman whose family has died, joins the group. Into the mix comes Shin, a thief who's killed a G.I. The women allow him to hide while recovering from wounds, but then he won't leave. Maya is drawn to him, discovering as she falls in love that she can feel again; she's now more fully human, but at the same time, she's endangered herself and her livelihood. Can she and Shin make it out of Tokyo to establish life as a couple?.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: erotic, sexy, grindhouse, erotic drama, tense, rough, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 79%
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 75%
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 90%
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 82%
Ants in the Mouth (2005)
Plot Summary:
After languishing in a Barcelona prison for nearly a decade, a busted bank robber attempts to find the girl who made off with the cash in this suspenseful tale of revenge and betrayal starring Adriana Gil and Eduard Fernández. Ex-con Martin Losada is out of prison and on the hunt. When he and his band of anti-Franco bank robbers were busted after a botched heist ten years ago, the only member of their team never caught by police was his long-gone ex-girlfriend Julia. Now, on the eve of the 1958 revolution, the recently released ex-con sets his sights on Havana in a determined bid to find Julia, and stake his claim on his rightful share of the take.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 271
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain, Cuba
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, suspense, neo noir, noir
Similar in 83%
Trapped (2009)
Plot Summary:
The suicide was easy, getting away with everything else could be murder.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 106
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, serious, suspenseful, realistic
Similar in 78%
Flipping (1996)
Plot Summary:
no overview found.
IMDB Rating: 4.1
IMDB Votes: 179
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: crime drama, independent film, tense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 86%
Crazy Joe (1974)
Plot Summary:
The rise and fall of a Mafia gangster, based on the life of murdered New York gangster "Crazy" Joey Gallo.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 612
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Italy, USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: grim, rough, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, poliziottesco, cult film
Similar in 88%
The Bull (2019)
Plot Summary:
The 1990s. Empty shelves in the shops, an economic abyss and criminal dramas that unfold literally at every corner. The young leader of a criminal gang Anton Bykov, with the nickname “Bull”, must make money in whatever way to provide for his family. After a local shootout, Anton ends up in the police station, from where he is released at the intervention of Moscow’s crime lords. In exchange, the latter asks Anton for a small, but dangerous service.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 896
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Russia
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: realistic, tense, bleak, serious, harsh, suspenseful, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 85%
Witness Protection (1999)
Plot Summary:
Would you be willing to walk away from everyone and everything you've ever known in exchange for your safety? This is the question facing career criminal Bobby "Bats" Batton (Tom Sizemore); on the outs with the mob and facing prosecution for a number of serious crimes, Batton is offered a deal by the FBI in which he will be given immunity in exchange for testifying against his former partners. However, Batton will have to join the Federal Witness Protection Program, which means that he, his wife, and his children will never again see their friends and family.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: crime drama, tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 81%
Pretty When You Cry (2001)
Plot Summary:
A wife is caught in a web of sex and violence.
IMDB Rating: 4.1
IMDB Votes: 456
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: erotic, serious, realistic, suspenseful, sexy, independent film, gloomy, sexual
Similar in 87%
Vengeance is Mine (1979)
Plot Summary:
A thief, a murderer, and a charming lady-killer, Iwao Enokizu (Ken Ogata) is on the run from the police. Director Shohei Imamura turns this fact-based story—about the seventy-eight-day killing spree of a remorseless man from a devoutly Catholic family—into a cold, perverse, and at times diabolically funny examination of the primitive coexisting with the modern. More than just a true-crime tale, Vengeance Is Mine bares humanity’s snarling id.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: disturbing, tense, realistic, serious, suspenseful, neo noir, psychological thriller, philosophical, slasher, controversial
Similar in 75%
Bloodlines (2005)
Plot Summary:
After Elaine Hopkin is found dead, apparent an OD suicide, her firstborn Mark wouldn't even inform his dad James Hopkin, who was locked up for murder. Kid sister Justine, a cocky uniformed cop, goes visit him, only to learn he was just released. After the autopsy concludes asphyxiation, she comprises friendly DC Jake Bannerman's official investigation by rash actions against procedure.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 117
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, rough
Similar in 79%
Chandni Bar (2001)
Plot Summary:
Chandni Bar, a film directed by Madhur Bhandarkar depicts the gritty life of the Mumbai underworld, including prostitution, dance bars and gun crime.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: India
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, tense, suspenseful, exciting, captivating, social, cult classic, sexual, independent film
Similar in 83%
Three Walls (2003)
Plot Summary:
Three men are on death row. Jaggu (Jackie Shroff), a lawyer and a poet, is serving a sentence for murdering his wife because she was cheating on him with another man. Nagya (Nagesh Kukunoor), a man angry with the whole world, is arrested for murdering his wife too, but he claims that it was an accident where she falls off the sidewalk while they were talking. Ishaan (Naseeruddin Shah), a happy-go-lucky man, is also arrested for murder that he commits while in the act of robbery. The prison's custodian is Mohan (Gulshan Grover), who attempts several methods to reform the prison's inmates. A documentary filmmaker, Chandrika (Juhi Chawla) comes to the jail to set a film about these three men. In the process, she finds redemption to her troubled marriage.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: India
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: serious, tense, touching, bleak, contemplative, rough, realistic, suspenseful, offbeat, twist ending
Similar in 76%
Tycoon (2002)
Plot Summary:
During the Gorbachev years, Platon Makovski and his four buddies are university students who jump on the private capitalism movement. Fast-forward 20 years, Platon finds himself the richest man in Russia, having sacrificed his friends to get to the top. But with this cynical rise, comes a brutal fall.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Russia, France, Germany
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: serious, cynical, realistic, suspenseful, political thriller, suspense, biting, clever
Similar in 76%
Red Letters (2000)
Plot Summary:
A college professor reluctantly hides an escaped female convict who tries to get him to help prove her innocent of a murder.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 642
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: rough, realistic, suspenseful, tense, serious, independent film, psychological, detective
Similar in 79%
Breaking Point (1976)
Plot Summary:
The Mafia tries to take revenge against a man who testified against them in court.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 340
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 76%
My Kingdom (2001)
Plot Summary:
A powerful dynasty, headed by a charismatic, manipulative father, falls when he decides to hand over his criminal empire to his three corrupt and power-hungry daughters. Kath runs a brothel down by the docks, Tracy owns a soccer team and Jo, a former junkie -- and prostitute -- rejects her inheritance, pitting sisters Kath and Tracy against each other.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 667
Genere: Drama, Crime
Country: Italy, UK
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, serious, suspenseful, realistic
Similar in 79%
Mafioso: The Father The Son (2001)
Plot Summary:
When the head of a mafia clan is perceived to be weakening, his family suffers a series of attacks. It is up to his son, Frankie, to figure out who’s behind the plot before they are all wiped out.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 270
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, suspense
Similar in 90%
Brighton Rock (2010)
Plot Summary:
Charts the headlong fall of Pinkie, a razor-wielding disadvantaged teenager with a religious death wish.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK, France
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, serious, rough, bleak, realistic, suspenseful, noir, neo noir, hood
Similar in 82%
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 79%
Deadfall (1993)
Plot Summary:
After he accidentally kills his father, Mike, during a sting, Joe tries to carry out Mike's dying wish by recovering valuables that Mike's twin brother Lou stole from him years earlier. But Uncle Lou is also a confidence artist, and Joe is soon drawn into his increasingly dangerous schemes.
IMDB Rating: 4.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: stylized, suspenseful, serious, realistic, neo noir, independent film
Similar in 75%
Even Money (2006)
Plot Summary:
Gambling addiction bring the stories of three otherwise unconnected people together as it destroys each of their lives.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA, Germany
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, disturbing, suspenseful, suspense, gloomy
Similar in 87%
Hell's Kitchen (1998)
Plot Summary:
When a robbery goes awry, the bandits all end up in a puddle of blood and only one lives and goes to jail for five years. Upon his release, the girlfriend wants her new boyfriend to kill him. Only trouble is the boyfriend knows that the fault was not the ex-con's and can't bring himself to do the task. Meanwhile, the ex-con tries to turn his life around by becoming a boxer and training under a former heavyweight contender.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, suspenseful, tense, suspense, disturbing, independent film, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 84%
Halla Bol (2008)
Plot Summary:
Ashfaque (Ajay Devgan) is a small town boy aspiring to be a film star in the Hindi film industry. He joins a street theatre group run by a reformed dacoit Sidhu (Pankaj Kapur) who uses street theatre as a medium to bring about an awakening in the masses. Ashfaque struggles to give a creative vent to the actor in him in order to realize his dreams.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: India
Duration: 142 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, captivating, tense, suspense