Best movies like Living by Karate

Li Mansei is a martial-arts champion turned undercover agent. When he is captured by a drug lord, his sister Li Koryu turns to his former martial-arts school, including the powerful Sonny Kawasaka, for help in the inevitable battle royale.

Maki is the leader of a female gang who fights for justice, but she ends up being framed and sent to a sadistic woman's prison. Will Maki be able to escape and take revenge?

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.

Like a girl runaway, Tsuyu moves to Osaka to work as a bar hostess. She meets the owner of a model school, Yoko, and seriously thinks about becoming a fashion model. Yoko tells her that she can move in to Yoko’s house to take lessons, while making a living at the same time.

In 1943, critical developments in the Pacific War have placed Japan at a disadvantage, although the fiery breaths of war hadn't yet reached Okinawa Normal School for women. Nothing seemed the least bit out of the ordinary, as Kazuko and her friends enjoyed a day of sports. A year later the war takes a devastating turn, as US forces plan an amphibious attack known as "Operation Iceberg" on the Ryukyu island.

With a Kansai syndicate setting their sights on Tokyo, a former yakuza boss gets dragged back into a world of violence.

A wandering tough biker girl aids a female delinquent gang in their battles against an all-male Seiyu group over a fixed boxing match.

Terry Sugury is hired to recover one of two tapes containing a formula for making heroin for a price of 200 dollars a pound. But he gets double crossed. So he wants the tape back.

A fearless man confronts a yakuza organization pushing the envelope of extravagant & all sorts of violence.

Everything goes wrong when Jiro tries to break up his mother's relationship with a business man. The young rebel Jiro has to deal with an environment of crime and prostitution, and the impact of its choices on personal relationships: one with his mother, one with her business man lover and one with the girl in love with him.

The eighth sequel of the series by the successful “Fukasaku and Bunta” collaboration revolves around the men of a lesser organization that are constantly bullied by the upper organization and “bleed in vain” in gang wars.

An undercover cop insinuates himself into a yakuza family. Managing to avert an assassination attack on the boss he is assigned to kill a rival boss.

Fresh out of jail, a smart-mouth wise guy Goro takes the name “Big Brother Katsumata.” Not fitting in well with established gangs, he forms a rag-tag gang called “the Shinjuku Brothers.” The members of their gang are thugs who only wish they were traditional yakuza. When they turn up at the funeral for a gangster, they are not welcomed, but a senior boss intervenes to keep things calm. The boss of bosses invites them to join a respected local council of warlords. Katsumata is suspicious of why such powerful men would extend an invitation to lowlife like himself.

Goro Fujikawa (Tetsuya Watari) was indebted to Mitsugimoto. Sawada, a low rank yakuza with a gambling problem owed Mitsugimoto three million yen. This equation can only lead to one answer. Mitsugimoto needs to pay and Goro's coming to collect.

A college student takes over the family business in the field of organised crime.

Goro has always been a lone wolf. When he arrives at an industrial city in Keihin, there is certain restlessness in the air. The Iriezaki family and the Kanto Touyu-kai were in the midst of a territorial dispute. Goro was quick to notice, but had no intent to take sides. At a department store nearby, he sees an elevator lady being harassed by a couple of hoodlums. Goro decides to intervene. Unbeknownst to him, the hoodlums are Touyu-kai members – and the girl has strong ties with the opposing family.

Coming out of jail and hoping for a quiet life, Yokohama yakuza has to take the lead of his gang after the death of his boss. His small group is is taken in a crossfire between a big yakuza group from Osaka at war with the Tokyo alliance for the control of the city. He tries to keep to the old yakuza code but he is no match for the new thugs who live and fight without honor.

In 1947, in Kobe, Japan, a local street gang fights for their survival when its turf is overrun by United States occupation forces and international gangs.

Just released on parole, one young man hurtles towards a face-off with the gangsters controlling Shinjuku and its lucrative prostitutes.

On summer vacation, university student Shintaro gets involved with a magic troupe as they travel from festival to festival.

An unofficial sequel to Million Dollar Match (1961) which also starred Koji Wada as a young energetic boxer. This story deals more with betting action surrounding a boxing match, concentrating mostly on the high-powered Yakuza gambling dens.

A boxing melodrama. Two friends become boxers and begin training for the championship. These two boys eventually face each other in the ring.

Hidejuro is sent to prison after killing the boss of a rival family. After being released, he discovers that his family has scattered and he is taken in by a company of quarry workers, whose boss has a strict code of non-violence. When the rival family tries to take over the company and kills their boss, Hidejuro must choose between his promise of non-violence and his yakuza code of revenge...

Nikkatsu finally responds to Suzuki's growing discontentment by giving him a bigger budget and a better script. This episodic collection of "real coast guard action stories" was the perfect vehicle for Koji Wada. Whatever negative press he had received for Tokyo Knights was quickly forgotten. He became the new "teen star." And Suzuki: "the director to watch."

This rarely seen gem from master Suzuki casts teenage heartthrob Koji Wada as a young misfit who suddenly finds himself the unwitting pawn in an escalating family feud that ultimately leads to tragedy. Lean, mean, and stylish as always, this tale of youth-gone-wild is both vibrant and touching. Suzuki contrasts tranquil glimpses of traditional regional life with the emergence of the new rock 'n' roll youth culture and the greed and seething cynicism of encroaching Westernism. Also released under the title "Go To Hell, Hoodlums!", this is a melodrama as colorful, shocking, and exhilarating as one would come to expect from Japan's master filmmaker.

Not too long ago, Soichiro was considered one of the most powerful men in business. But his business had failed, his granddaughter had committed suicide. There was nothing in his life anymore that he could look forward to. Sochiro was ready to put an to it end to all. As he drives down the Usui Pass, headed toward his summer house in Karuizawa, a girl in red heels, wearing nothing else but a coat jumps in front of the car.

Hamakichi, who used to be a detective is now a toy merchant. His former boss has a grudge against the Yakuza family, which leads to the murder of a policeman in Edo. This places Hamakichi between the rock and a hard place.

Masakichi Murase has just been released from prison and appears in a fishing port town. Two Yakuza families have been feuding in this city for a long time. On the side of the Okai clan, Masakichi enters into a confrontation with the evil Kawade family, who wants to get the territory of their opponents and the possession of a railway loading dock… The third part of the series of films "Kanto" starring Hideki Takahashi.

When the boss of a yakuza clan in 1920s Osaka is assassinated, Oryu, his mistress, vows revenge. Her search for the killer takes her out of the city. The old boss' son proves a poor leader, only interested in Omitsu, his high-class girlfriend. Yajima, the second-in-command, is taking advantage of the situation to accumulate power for himself...

A bunch of young hipsters kidnaps a loving couple and keeps them trapped in a barren landscape. To the sounds of free jazz they are performing various experiments with the couple. In the distance is a yakuza gang keeping track of the youths. Who are really experimenting with whom?

Set in the year 2019 in Japan. In order to crack down on free expression, a new law is passed, which allows for the government to create an armed force to find and destroy objectionable printed material. Meanwhile, to oppose this oppressive crackdown, the Library Force is created. The Library force, including instructor Atsushi Dojo and Iku Kasahara, work to protect the libraries. A fierce battle then ensues between these two groups.

The story of Shinsuke, a young man who lives through a stormy life as a poverty-stricken coal miner. Ranging from Shinsuke's infanthood to his mid-teens. Coal workers and the mines dominate nearly every aspect of his life. Shinsuke's father a group leader at the mine, dies while bravely using dynamite to rescue a group of trapped Korean miners. Several older men attempt to help he and his mother cope, including a friendly Harley-riding yakuza boss. This movie has it all, drama, romance, sex, yakuza and violence! It is based on a story by Hiroyuki Itsuki that was originally serialized in the magazine Shukan Gendai in 1969-70.

Kenichi and Satoru join up with three other electric music lovers to form their own band, "The Young and Fresh."

The Spiders, a Japanese pop group, in their first starring role, walk from Yokohama to Tokyo, to prove their love for a girl who told them "the person who can overcome any obstacle will be my lover"! Neither traffic, buildings, nor the police can stop them, in this madcap rock musical adventure!

A father curries favor with his bosses to further his career, but his wife has lost faith in him. She returns to her family home while they rent out their house during the summer to pay off their mortgage, and there she meets a lonely old man...