Best movies like Sanctuary: The Movie
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Based on the popular Manga/Animated Film Series, Sanctuary: The Movie is the live action version of Sanctuary telling the story of two boys who survived the Khmer genocide in Cambodia and now try to create their own sanctuary in Japan. Asami is going into politics to become a national leader, seeking to create a new and better Japan, whereas Hojo wants to improve Japan by "infiltrating" and changing the other side of Japanese society, the Yakuza, becoming one of their bosses and most influencial members. Together, they are working their way up, each if them in his very own way, just to fulfill their dream: creating their very own sanctuary in a world that has gone mad.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 19
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like Sanctuary: The Movie (1996):
Similar in 90%
Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself!! The Heist (1995)
Plot Summary:
Two petty gangsters get ransomed by a group of Yakuza members, fortunately they are rescued by a kindly Kindergarten teacher.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 45
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: slapstick comedy, slapstick
Similar in 76%
Brothers in Arms (1989)
Plot Summary:
Simon, a Jewish police inspector, arrests Karim, a Muslim, in the bust of a drug smuggling cargo ship, only to realize that Karim is an undercover agent from the military intelligence, whose mission he was not aware of. The two men pursue the narc investigation, which will lead them to confront middle eastern terrorists together.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 608
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: detective
Similar in 86%
Golgo 13 (1973)
Plot Summary:
Live-action adaptation of the hit manga. Golgo 13, also known by the pseudonym Duke Togo, is a professional assassin. His age and birthplace are unknown and there is no consensus in the worldwide intelligence community as to his true identity. Most of his jobs are completed through the use of a customized, scoped M16 rifle. Golgo 13 is contracted to kill Boss Goa, the head of a worldwide crime syndicate responsible for drugs, weapons, and human trafficking.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 335
Genere: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Japan, Iran
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: tension, suspense
Similar in 79%
Zero Woman: Dangerous Game (1998)
Plot Summary:
In this installment of the Zero Woman series, Rei, the number-one assassin of the Tokyo Police Department's secret Zero Division, has been assigned to take out a notorious gangster responsible for dozens of murders. At the same time, she must protect the gangster's mistress from the hitmen who want to keep her from telling the police what she knows. At first, both women are upset about the arrangement, but they eventually come to appreciate each other.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 106
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: crime drama
Similar in 78%
Crack (2000)
Plot Summary:
Two buddies from the hood are forced to rob a mafia-backed crack house or go to prison.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 52
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Kill Devil (2004)
Plot Summary:
Kill Devil is a Japanese movie about a group of juvenile delinquents in the year 2025. The juveniles are host to a "murder gene", and are sent to an uninhabited island by the government so that they can be rehabilitated. The government studies the causes of the gene, and implants an experiment on the juveniles called a "Tag". The Tag gives the juveniles murder impulses and memory loss, and both boys and girls start to brutally kill each other.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 47
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself!! The Escape (1995)
Plot Summary:
Hapless gangsters are hired by the yakuza to tail his daughter. Once the identity of the boy she's dating has been unveiled, the boss offers a reward for his capture.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 43
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: slapstick comedy, slapstick
Similar in 83%
Naakaa (2017)
Plot Summary:
Goldie, a small time smuggler of Barhabise who is in need of a profiting consignment to recover from his current bankruptcy. He gets an emergency call from a local smuggler and businessman of the area to rescue a Tibetan girl and her transporter illegally from one of the sub-border point to Barhabise.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 29
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Nepal
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
When No One Would Listen (1992)
Plot Summary:
Jessica has been married to her controlling husband Gary for years. She began dating him at the age of fifteen and has two kids, Maggie and Pete. After some career trouble Gary moves the family out to a New York suburb. Anyway, at first Gary seems like a sweet and loving husband, but after getting mad at some hippie neighbors he begins slapping Jessica and having fits of rage. The abuse only gets worse when she gets a job at a bakery and makes two really caring friends: her co-worker and neighbor Lee, and her boss Walter. Walter becomes more than just her boss; he notices bruises on Jessica's neck and advises her to leave Gary, but she can't; she's too afraid. Soon she starts dating Walter, and when Gary punches Pete repeatedly she realizes she has to be the voice for her two kids; she takes them to stay with Walter. Things only get worse as Gary makes a decision that could send her life crashing down.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 176
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: sad
Similar in 88%
Docteur Chance (1997)
Plot Summary:
Angstel trades in forged paintings, under the guidance of his mother, Milady. Their network extends into other murky affairs, provoking the wrath of a rival gang. Angstel falls in love with Ancetta, a prostitute, and flees with her to the north of Chile. - IFFR.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 200
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: France, Chile
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
Danger Has Two Faces (1985)
Plot Summary:
Martial art film standout Liang Chia-jen brings the same animalistic intensity from his early heroic bloodshed films to his Danger Has Two Faces tough, ex-cop character now relegated to becoming a pet store owner. The stern Police Superintendent Liu played by Chu Chiang sets the stage for his later role in John Woo's The Killer while new comer Fei Hsiang must do Serpico-like things to find out which cop is paid for by the mob.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 50
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: heroic
Similar in 78%
Zero Woman: The Accused (1997)
Plot Summary:
Rei, the deadly but reluctant assassin for the Zero Division of the Tokyo Police Department, befriends a young man after she sees him cruising a gay bar looking for johns. After he gets beaten up by a group of street thugs, she takes him in to live with her. When a series of vicious murders takes place, she begins to suspect that the killer may actually be her friend taking revenge on everyone who has abused him. Will she uphold her duty to the police, or protect her only friend?.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 88
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags: crime drama
Similar in 79%
New Female Prisoner Scorpion: Special Cellblock X (1977)
Plot Summary:
A nurse is framed for her involvement in the hospital murder of a politician who was threatening to expose corrupt practices. She escapes from jail but is captured and sent back, resulting in the rest of the inmates being punished, added to which of a new, tougher, head of security arrives to take up her new job.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 124
Genere: Crime, Drama, Horror, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
Scorpion: Double Venom 2 (1998)
Plot Summary:
Nami Matsushima has escaped from the prison to which she was sentenced in Scorpion, but is now obsessed with tracking down the--don't laugh--one-armed man who murdered her younger sister fifteen years ago. Nami is certainly no great action heroine, and the plot at times makes little sense, climaxing with a coincidence more ridiculous than any Shakespeare ever used. For complicated reasons, Nami uses her medical knowledge to break into a women's prison as staff physician. There, as in the previous movie, the convicts wind up naked awfully frequently.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 39
Genere: Drama, Thriller, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Sanctuary (1995)
Plot Summary:
Two Japanese survivors of the Khmer Rouge massacres in Cambodia vow to find a sanctuary, even if they have to build it themselves. Returning to Japan, they take seemingly opposite paths: one becomes a politician, the other a gangster. As Asami and Houjou work through the linked worlds of politics and crime in modern Japan, they don't hesitate to do anything necessary to secure their own positions and stay true to their vow. Loyal to no one else, they find their friendship increasingly tested as they rise in their chosen fields.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 77
Genere: Animation, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 70 min
Plot tags: anime
Similar in 88%
Reon (2018)
Plot Summary:
Dumped, fired from her job, Reon’s day couldn't get any worse. Then a freak accident causes her to swap bodies with her old company’s womanizing CEO.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 55
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
New Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701 (1976)
Plot Summary:
Once again we focus on Nami Matsushima. This time she has a sister who goes missing and after getting too caught up in doing something about it, our innocent heroine is given a fifteen year sentence for a murder she didn't commit. She's sent to an all women prison where she's not exactly welcome. Her fellow inmates torture, humiliate and try to kill her; but the Scorpion prevails long enough to get some justice.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 175
Genere: Crime, Drama, Horror, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Scorpion: Double Venom (1998)
Plot Summary:
Nami Matsushima, a former doctor, is put in prison for murdering one of the men who raped and killed her sister. Now, faced with violent and lecherous prison gangs, an aggressively amorous warden, and with a friend on death row, Nami must steel herself for a ten year stay in one of Japan's toughest women's prisons.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 60
Genere: Drama, Thriller, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Born Bad (1997)
Plot Summary:
A group of teenagers rob a bank, causing a deadly standoff.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 307
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: surprise ending
Similar in 89%
Female Prisoner No. 701: Sasori (2011)
Plot Summary:
Nami Matsushima, prisoner #701 is sent to a Woman's Prison for attempted murder. Nami is brought into Number 2 community cell, where suicides and unnatural deaths occurred one after another. In the punishment cell, Nami begins to look back in her past. Nami had a lover named Sugimi, who was a successful company owner in the IT business world. After dealing with her horrible experiences, Nami seeks to escape from prison. Who will survive?.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 51
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: sexy, sexploitation film
Similar in 87%
Star Watching Dog (2011)
Plot Summary:
An abandoned car is discovered near a camping ground and inside it is the body of an identified middle-aged man and a dog who seems to have died months later. This is the story of the life of the loving and faithful dog and his owner told from the dog's point of view. City hall employee Kyousuke Okutsu is assigned to uncover the man's identity for a proper funeral. As he investigates the situation, he remembers his late family and his own dog's unfailing loyalty.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 247
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: depressing, sad, tear jerker, tearjerker
Similar in 81%
River's Edge (2018)
Plot Summary:
Haruna Wakagusa is a high school student who lives with her mother. Ichiro Yamada is gay and Haruna’s classmate. He is bullied at school, but Haruna sticks up for Ichiro. They become intimate and Ichiro tells Haruna his secret. He found a dead body along the riverside. A new body is soon found.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing, manga
Similar in 81%
Fudoh: The New Generation (1996)
Plot Summary:
In order to settle a business dispute, a mob leader murders one of his own teenage sons. The surviving son vows to avenge his brother's death, and organizes his own gang of teenage killers to destroy his father's organization.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: neo noir, controversial, crime drama, action thriller, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, surreal, black comedy
Similar in 75%
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 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 82%
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 82%
Himizu (2011)
Plot Summary:
Two teenagers and a group of people made homeless by a tsunami try and make their way in a devastated Japan.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: psychological, bleak, serious, stylized, controversial, manga, art house, existential, twisted, realistic
Similar in 76%
The Blood of Wolves (2018)
Plot Summary:
Set in 1988 in Hiroshima, Japan, prior to the enactment of the anti-organized crime law. A rumor exists that Detective Shogo Ogami has ties with the yakuza. He is partnered with Detective Shuichi Hioka and they investigate a missing person case involving a financial company employee. Conflicts between opposing yakuza groups become more serious.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense
Similar in 83%
Double Mints (2017)
Plot Summary:
Mitsuo Ichikawa receives a phone call from Mitsuo Ichikawa. Their names are pronounced the same, but spelled differently using kanji. They also graduated from the same high school. Back in their high school days, Mitsuo Ichikawa was like a subordinate to Mitsuo Ichikawa. Mitsuo Ichikawa is now a hoodlum and tells the other Mitsuo that he killed a woman. They become accomplices and build a new relationship.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 245
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 76%
Last of the Wolves (2021)
Plot Summary:
After Shogo Ogami’s death in Hiroshima, Detective Shuichi Hioka successfully implemented Shogo Ogami’s plan, which was to control the yakuza to prevent further gang wars and save innocent people from getting harmed. Shuichi Hioka manages the criminal organizations, but, due to one evil person who gets released from prison, the situation drastically changes.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 790
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing