Best movies like Sleepy Eyes of Death: Sword of Fire
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Fifth film in the series. When Kyoshiro, in a moment of weakness, saves the life of a woman being attacked on the road, he quickly finds himself entangled in a conspiracy involving a corrupt chamberlain, a wily merchant, the survivors of a pirate gang, and a missing treasure trove.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 182
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, period drama
Best tv shows and movies like Sleepy Eyes of Death: Sword of Fire (1965):
Similar in 88%
Sleepy Eyes of Death 2: Sword of Adventure (1964)
Plot Summary:
Wandering samurai Nemuri Kyoshiro (Raizô Ichikawa) finds a bulls-eye on his back after befriending the shogunate's tightfisted financial adviser, Asahina, who's earned the wrath of the shogun's self-indulgent daughter for cutting off her allowance. The enraged princess promptly hatches a scheme to have Asahina bumped off -- along with his protector, Kyoshiro. Shiho Fujimura also stars in this installment of the enormously popular film series.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 285
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
Ninja 6: The Last Iga Spy (1965)
Plot Summary:
[Period covered: 1637-1651] This is one of the most complicated plots of any of the Shinobi no Mono films! This film tells the story of Saizo’s son, Kirigakure Saisuke, who after seeing his father die at the Battle Of Shimabara, grows up to be an expert ninja. Before he dies, “Mist” Saizo tells his children Saisuke, and Yuri that they are not really brother and sister. She, in fact, is the daughter of the late lord Sanada Yukimura, and must be saved from the shogun’s forces. In the chess match of spy versus spy, can Saisuke defeat the shogun’s chief strategist, Matsudaira Izunokami at his own game? Showing many exciting ninja tactics, it is not to be missed.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 129
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
Bronson Lee, Champion (1975)
Plot Summary:
This is the third and final film of the ZA KARATE trilogy. Tadashi Yamashita reprises his role as the Karate World Champion. Local Japanese karate schools are not happy that a Chinese master will take over the Japanese karate organization and will do everything they can to prevent it.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 51
Genere: Action, Comedy, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, slapstick comedy, slapstick
Similar in 84%
Adventures of Zatoichi (1964)
Plot Summary:
Blind swordsman/masseuse Zatoichi befriends a young woman looking for her father, a village leader who has disappeared. As he helps her investigate the disappearance, Zatoichi also becomes involved with another young woman who is trying to help her brother, who has murdered someone at about the same time and place as the missing man was last seen.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, cult classic, exciting, rough, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, stylized, cult film
Similar in 88%
Sword of the Beast (1965)
Plot Summary:
Legendary swordplay filmmaker Hideo Gosha’s Sword of the Beast chronicles the flight of the low-level swordsman Gennosuke, who kills one of his ministers as part of a reform plot. His former comrades then turn on him, and this betrayal so shakes his sense of honor that he decides to live in the wild, like an animal. There he joins up with a motley group who are illegally mining the shogun’s gold, and, with the aid of another swordsman, gets a chance not just at survival but to recover his name and honor.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, stylized
Similar in 86%
Revenge (1964)
Plot Summary:
This tragic drama shows a young man fettered by Bushido, the way of the Samurai, who tried to escape the chains of his position, but was being forced to die. When the Tokugawa Shogunate ruled the land, Tatsuno castle in Wakisaka Clan's home of Harima held an established custom, the inspection of the arms warehouse. The Government Inspector Okuno Magodayu found a slight bit of dirt on the point of a spear and mentioned it with disdain. Ezaki Shinpachi heard it and started an argument with him. Magodayu then sent a a letter of challenge to him because he felt insulted by a low-ranking underling without a title. As it turned out Magodayu was killed. Since then, Shinpachi and the Okuno family have had continuous revenge duels. The tension mounts as this story builds to an extremely violent climax, when blood must pay for blood if the clan is to survive!.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 472
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, realistic, suspenseful, jidai geki
Similar in 76%
Zatoichi's Conspiracy (1973)
Plot Summary:
Zatoichi, the famed blind swordsman, returns to his home village for the first time in many years. He is befriended by Omiyo, who had the same wet-nurse as Zatoichi. He also encounters a boyhood friend, Shinbei, who now is wealthy and appears not to remember Zatoichi. Shinbei seems to be interested in repaying the villagers' debts, but is in reality manipulating the ownership of a now-valuable rock quarry. Zatoichi learns of the subterfuge and confronts his old friend, who has a score of yakuza swordsmen backing his play.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: cult classic, exciting, rough, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, stylized, cult film
Similar in 81%
The Bushido Blade (1981)
Plot Summary:
A steel samurai blade that was to be given to the American ambassador by the Emperor of Japan is stolen. American sailors and Japanese samurai are sent to find it.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 436
Genere: Action, Drama, History
Country: UK, USA, Japan
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: action adventure, independent film, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 90%
Samurai Spy (1965)
Plot Summary:
Years of warfare end in a Japan unified under the Tokugawa shogunate, and samurai spy Sasuke Sarutobi, tired of conflict, longs for peace. When a high-ranking spy named Tatewaki Koriyama defects from the shogun to a rival clan, however, the world of swordsmen is thrown into turmoil. After Sasuke is unwittingly drawn into the conflict, he tracks Tatewaki, while a mysterious, white-hooded figure seems to hunt them both. By tale’s end, no one is who they seemed to be, and the truth is far more personal than anyone suspected. Director Masahiro Shinoda’s Samurai Spy, filled with clan intrigue, ninja spies, and multiple double crosses, marks a bold stylistic departure from swordplay film convention.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, realistic, suspenseful, stylized
Similar in 85%
Incident at Blood Island (1970)
Plot Summary:
In the Edo period, a nameless ronin accepts an assignment to go to a mountain pass and wait. Near the pass he stops at an inn where a collection of characters gather, including a gang set on stealing shogunate gold that's soon to come over the pass. When the Ronin's assignment becomes clear, to help the gang, he's ordered to kill the inn's residents, including a woman he's rescued from an abusive husband. He's reluctant to murder innocent people; then he learns that the gold shipment is a trap and he's part of a double cross. How he sorts through these divided loyalties tests of his samurai honor, and perhaps of his love for a woman.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 889
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, jidai geki
Similar in 77%
Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival (1970)
Plot Summary:
Zatoichi is mentored by the blind leader of a secret organization as he contends with both the Yakuza and a jealous husband.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Adventure, Action
Country: Japan
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: cult classic, exciting, atmospheric, serious, suspenseful, cult film
Similar in 78%
The Tale of Zatoichi (1962)
Plot Summary:
The adventures of a blind, gambling masseur and master swordsman. Zatoichi targets a yakuza-controlled village, because war with a neighbouring town's smaller gang is brewing.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: art house, grindhouse, cult classic, atmospheric, serious, captivating, realistic, vintage, period drama, cult film
Similar in 76%
The Return of Masseur Ichi (1962)
Plot Summary:
Returning to the village where a year before he had killed Hirate, a much-admired opponent, Zatoichi encounters another swordsman and former rival in love: his own brother. He must face in combat not only the pursuing retainers but his own flesh-and-blood.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 72 min
Plot tags: cult classic, exciting, rough, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, stylized, period drama, cult film
Similar in 83%
Zatoichi's Spurting Blood Road (1967)
Plot Summary:
Ichi is staying at an inn when a woman dies. Her dying wish is that Ichi take her son to his father, an artist living in a nearby town. After arriving in the town, Ichi finds out that the father has been forced by a local boss to create illegal pornography to pay off his gambling debts. Ichi makes it his mission to save tha man and reunite the family, even though it brings him into conflict with a samurai he sort of befriended on his way to the town.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Adventure, Action
Country: Japan
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: cult classic, exciting, rough, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, stylized, cult film
Similar in 79%
Fight, Zatoichi, Fight (1964)
Plot Summary:
Blind swordsman/masseuse Zatoichi befriends a young woman returning home with her baby. When gangsters mistake her for Zatoichi and kill her, Zatoichi determines to escort the baby to its father. He gains the reluctant help of a young pick pocket and together they travel to find the baby's father. But they do not reckon on the father's reaction to their arrival, nor on their own growing feelings for the child.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: rough, captivating, emotional, suspenseful, exciting, serious, realistic, cult classic, stylized, cult film
Similar in 84%
New Tale of Zatoichi (1963)
Plot Summary:
Wishing to find peace, Zatoichi travels to his old village but only finds trouble when he ends up in a love triangle and finds old scores have followed him home.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: cult classic, exciting, rough, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, stylized, period drama, cult film
Similar in 82%
Zatoichi the Fugitive (1963)
Plot Summary:
After arriving in the town of Shimonita, Ichi finds that a price has been put on his head by a local yakuza boss. He's drawn into a trap, but after hearing of the slaying of a former love, Ichi furiously fights his way through the entire clan to face the killer, a hired ronin.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Adventure, Action
Country: Japan
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: cult classic, exciting, rough, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, stylized, cult film
Similar in 81%
Ninja, a Band of Assassins (1962)
Plot Summary:
[Period covered: 1575-1681] Fist film in the Shinobi series starring Raizo Ichikawa. Warlord Oda Nobunaga seeks to unite a fractured Japan, a young man trained in the arts of ninjitsu is manipulated by a ninja master into attempting to assassinate the warlord before he completes his task.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 928
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, serious, suspenseful, jidai geki, period drama
Similar in 85%
Zatoichi's Vengeance (1966)
Plot Summary:
Zatoichi comes upon a dying man who asks him to give a bag of money to "Taichi". Zatoichi has no idea who this is but when he comes upon a small town harassed by gangsters, he finds that "Taichi" was the man's young son. Along his travels he also met a blind monk who makes Zatoichi question his murderous lifestyle. In trying to help the town, Zatoichi kills some gangsters and becomes a hero to the boy. He must make a choice of whether to use non-violence and set a good example, or violence and set the boy on the wrong path in life.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, cult classic, exciting, rough, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, stylized, cult film
Similar in 79%
Zatoichi and the Doomed Man (1965)
Plot Summary:
Blind swordsman Zatoichi, jailed briefly, is implored by another prisoner to aid him in proving his innocence of a crime for which he is sentenced to death. Zatoichi is reluctant to get involved, because he knows how often such involvement has led to trouble in the past. But events conspire to thrust him repeatedly into involvement, and gradually he comes to believe in the man's innocence and determines to free him.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: cult classic, exciting, rough, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, stylized, cult film
Similar in 81%
Zatoichi's Flashing Sword (1964)
Plot Summary:
Blind masseur Zatoichi is nursed back to health by a young woman after he is shot by a gang member. Zatoichi, who had come to the village to repay a debt, now feels further indebted. He commits himself to use his amazing sword skills to help the young woman's father, whose river-crossing service is under attack by the same gang responsible for Zatoichi's wounds.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: cult classic, exciting, rough, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, stylized, cult film
Similar in 82%
The Blind Swordsman Samaritan (1968)
Plot Summary:
Zatoichi is forced to kill a young man who owes a debt to a yakuza boss. Moments later, his sister Osode arrives with the money she earned (prostituting herself) to pay his debts. The bosses true motives are revealed and he attempts to steal Osode even though the debt is paid. Zatoichi realizes his grievous error and protects the girl from the gang. Osode and Zatoichi are caught in a dilemma as she must rely on her brother's killer for protection and Zatoichi wrestles with the injustice he has caused.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Action, Adventure
Country: Japan
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: cult classic, exciting, rough, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, stylized
Similar in 83%
Zatoichi and the Fugitives (1968)
Plot Summary:
Zatoichi runs afoul of some evil fugitives, working for a corrupt law official.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Action, Adventure
Country: Japan
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: cult classic, exciting, rough, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, stylized, cult film
Similar in 86%
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons (1973)
Plot Summary:
In the fifth film of the Lone Wolf and Cub series, Ogami Itto is challenged by five warriors, each has one fifth of Ogami's assassin fee and one fifth of the information he needs to complete his assassination.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: visual, exciting, atmospheric, rough, epic, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, stylized
Similar in 88%
Zatoichi: The Last (2010)
Plot Summary:
A blind master swordsman attempts to lead a quiet life with his wife but he is provoked back into battle.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 393
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: Japan, France
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, exciting, captivating, tense, rough, bleak, suspenseful, stylized, gloomy
Similar in 78%
Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman (1989)
Plot Summary:
This 26th film installment of the Zatoichi series sees Shintaro Katsu return to this classic role after a 10 year hiatus. The blind masseur Ichi gets caught between rival Yakuza clans.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: cult classic, exciting, tense, atmospheric, rough, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, stylized
Similar in 76%
Zatoichi and the Chess Expert (1965)
Plot Summary:
Zatoichi makes friends with a dangerous chess player, while fending off angry yakuza and bloodthirsty relatives out for revenge, and trying to save a sick child. Meanwhile, his luck with dice is turning.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: cult classic, exciting, rough, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, stylized, cult film
Similar in 85%
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades (1972)
Plot Summary:
In the third film of the Lone Wolf and Cub series, Ogami Itto volunteers to be tortured by Yakuza to save a prostitute and is hired by their leader to kill an evil chamberlain.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: bloody, talky, stylized, manga, exciting, rough, clever, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 85%
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx (1972)
Plot Summary:
In the second film of the Lone Wolf and Cub series, Ogami Itto battles a group of female ninja in the employ of the Yagyu clan and must assassinate a traitor who plans to sell his clan's secrets to the Shogunate.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: bloody, grindhouse, atmospheric, stylized, splatter, manga, perverse, exciting, rough, serious
Similar in 87%
Kamui (2009)
Plot Summary:
KAMUI is a Ninja on the run from the world of Ninja bound by rules in search of true freedom. However, he is burdened with the fate, where it is not allowed to take the secret of their powers outside of the tribe -- if you are born as Ninja, you must die as Ninja. This brings him to constantly fight for his life against other Ninjas who trie to kill him and hide the secrets within. He does not trust, and he does not love. Showing weakness leads to immediate death. An incident brings him to an old fisherman's village, where he finally starts to feel trust and affection towards other people. However, his pursuers where just minutes away from setting up a huge trap on Kamui.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, epic, stylized, anime, serious, realistic, fast, action adventure