Best movies like Wandering Ginza Butterfly
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Gang leader Nami (cult film legend Meiko Kaji) kills a member of a yakuza group and goes away to prison. Upon her release three years later, she’s a shamed woman confined to living in the shadowy world of sex clubs and street gangs. She returns to the city to live with her uncle, a billiard-hall owner, and after befriending pimp and ne’er-do-well Ryuji (Tsunehiko Watase), she gets a job working at a hostess club in the chic Ginza neighborhood, where the expensive shops and neon lights conceal a dark world of crime and sexual slavery. But when a rival gang attempts to muscle in on the club, Nami becomes enmeshed in a violent struggle that forces her to wield a skilled pool cue to defend her uncle’s business, and eventually a short sword to wreak bloody vengeance upon her enemies.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 316
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: cult film
Best tv shows and movies like Wandering Ginza Butterfly (1972):
Similar in 83%
Stray Cat Rock: Machine Animal (1970)
Plot Summary:
Two Japanese men help a Vietnam war deserter escape from Japan for Sweden. They plan to fund the escape by selling LSD pills. After word of the drug deal gets spread around they find themselves fending off rival gangs.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 410
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: crime drama, psychedelic
Similar in 76%
Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss (1970)
Plot Summary:
The first part of the Nora-neko rokku ("Alley Cat Rock") series was originally Nikkatsu Studios' answer to the rivaling Toei Studios' Delinquent Boss series, but spawned four sequels thanks to its popularity. Onna banchô, the first movie in the series, takes place in Shinjuku, Tokyo where rivaling youth gangs are constantly trying to one-up each other in toughness. An all-girl gang led by Mei (Meiko Kaji) gets involved in dangerous circles when Mei's boyfriend Michio (Kôji Wada), wants to join a powerful yakuza organization called Seiyu but inadvertently loses the gangsters' money in a fixed boxing match. Of course, Mei's gang is not going to leave him to the gangsters, especially when helped by an enigmatic and independent female biker called Ako (Akiko Wada).
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 817
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: crime drama, cult film
Similar in 85%
Girl Boss Blues: Queen Bee's Counterattack (1971)
Plot Summary:
In the 1970s, the Japanese youth emancipation also found it's way into the yakuza (crime) societies. A Girl Boss may have a choice between bikes, and between boyfriends. But she has to defend her choices the hard way, as her triumph and power over the girls' gang is questioned by her female rivals, and the all powerful Yakuza Boss. She inspires loyalty to her girls, and to men to the extent of many of them literally giving their lives for her - in a world of knife and gun fighting, bike and car chasing, and violent death.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 180
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, cult film
Similar in 85%
Four Riders (1972)
Plot Summary:
This prime example of director/co-writer Chang Cheh's mastery takes place in Seoul right after the Korean War, as a kung-fu master, combat instructor, explosives expert, and missile specialist must take on a venal drug smuggling gang. Representing the Book of Revelation's four riders of war, famine, disease, and death as heroes against murder, corruption, jealousy, and greed, it's a brutal battle where the one true winner is the audience.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 218
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
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
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Geisha Assassin (2008)
Plot Summary:
One rainy night in the Edo period, Kotono (a geisha) confronts samurais who killed her father. The samurais attack her one after another, but she fights hard against samurais with her sword. Kotono tries to chase the samurais who scramble to escape. Yet now three ninjas stand up against her. Kotono drops her sword by their wave of assaults. Can she beat them?.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 634
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 78 min
Plot tags: exciting, captivating, suspense, suspenseful, psychotronic
Similar in 78%
Shinobi 4: A Way Out (2003)
Plot Summary:
The country of Iga is deep in the throws of war. With smaller villages falling one by one, the largest families are in position to vie for their share of the power. Sankai of Minamiyama has his sinister eyes fixed – not only on total control of the area, but on Kagerou as well. After fleeing the village of Shiroyama, Kagerou and Aoi have been relentlessly hunted. And now, with the civil war in full flux, and Aoi in enemy hands, it is time for one last attempt to escape the clutches of the deadly Shinobi hierarchy – or die trying. They are all alone. They can trust no one. They must find a way out.
IMDB Rating:
IMDB Votes:
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
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 87%
Zatoichi the Outlaw (1967)
Plot Summary:
When a local gambling house kidnaps some peasants because they failed to pay their debts, a rival gambling house pays their debts and sets them free.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: exciting, captivating, tense, suspense, cult classic, semi serious, cult film
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Zatoichi at Large (1972)
Plot Summary:
Blind masseur and master swordsman Zatoichi finds a robbed and fatally wounded pregnant woman, whose baby he delivers before she dies. He takes the baby in search of its father and finds the child's aunt, who is about to be forced into prostitution for want of a payment the dead mother was bringing. Zatoichi determines to save the woman from her cruel fate.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Action, Adventure
Country: Japan
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: cult classic, atmospheric, saga, semi serious, cult film
Similar in 90%
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 77%
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 77%
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
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The Sword of Doom (1966)
Plot Summary:
Through his unconscionable actions against others, a sociopathic samurai builds a trail of vendettas that follow him closely.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: black and white, cerebral, visual, tense, bleak, stylized, jidai geki, rough, epic, serious
Similar in 85%
Hanzo the Razor: The Snare (1973)
Plot Summary:
Against the backdrop of the Edo treasury devaluing currency and driving many into poverty, Hanzo Itami enforces the law without regard to status. He shows inadequate respect to the treasurer, who wants him dead.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: splatter, rough, offbeat, serious, captivating, realistic, stylized, sexual, jidai geki, grindhouse
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Story of a Wild Elder Sister: Widespread Lynch Law (1973)
Plot Summary:
Ocho is accidentally captured by a drug trafficking cartel who use Chinese women to smuggle drugs into Japan by hiding it in their vaginas. She is tortured, and manages to escape, fighting both the male yakuzas and a gang of female thieves.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 920
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, disturbing, controversial, serious, realistic, suspenseful, suspense, cult film
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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 87%
The Yakuza Papers, Vol. 3: Proxy War (1973)
Plot Summary:
The film is set in 1960, fifteen years after the end of the end of World War II. Shozo Hirono (Bunta Sugawara), the protagonist of the first film in the series, has managed to separate from the Yamamori family, create his own small family, and extend his circle of acquaintances. These new friendships include a powerful underboss of the Muraoka family, Noboru Uchimoto.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags:
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 78%
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 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 76%
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 84%
The Dry Blade (2012)
Plot Summary:
In 1873, Emperor Meiji abolished the rights of the samurai in favor of a modern, westernized military. With intentions to launch a bloody crusade against the government, warrior Endo Tadaoki (Henry Lee) gathers his remaining men to prepare for one last honorable battle against the emperor and regain the supremacy of the samurai. As fellow warrior Kido Masahide (Vint Carmona) refuses to join the war, he and his wife are brutally murdered at the hands of Endo's blade before being robbed of their family swords. When Kido's only son (Michael Nosé) is also pressured to join Endo's forces, he instead chooses a fatal confrontation with his parents' assailant. Suffering from a rare medical condition that renders his skin allergic to water, Ken embarks on his quest to find a sword and avenge his family's death.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 20
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: captivating
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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 75%
Zatoichi in Desperation (1972)
Plot Summary:
Zatoichi tries to save a maiden in distress in this sequel to the popular series about a blind samurai swordsman who moonlights as a masseur. Always fighting for the underdog, noble Zatoichi sets out to keep a girl from becoming a prostitute. But he makes enemies despite his good intentions and must fight off thugs, warriors and the girl's boyfriend.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, cult classic, scary, atmospheric, saga, semi serious, cult film
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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
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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 86%
Lady Snowblood (1973)
Plot Summary:
Yuki's family is nearly wiped out before she is born due to the machinations of a band of criminals. These criminals kidnap and brutalize her mother but leave her alive. Later her mother ends up in prison with only revenge to keep her alive. She creates an instrument for this revenge by purposefully getting pregnant. Yuki never knows the love of a family but only killing and revenge.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, suspenseful, bloody, exciting, melancholic, rough, visual, cult classic, stylized, slasher
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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 84%
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