Best movies like The Serialist

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like The Serialist Starring Shinji Takeda, Takaya Kamikawa, Nana Katase, Aya Hirayama, and more. If you liked The Serialist then you may also like: Kings Row, Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, Capote, The Staircase Murders and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.

Ippei Akabane (Takaya Kamikawa) is an unpopular novelist. He barely makes ends meet writing serials novels under different pen names. Daigo Kurei (Shinji Takeda) is on death row. He killed four women twelve years ago. During his murdering spree, he sent pictures of his decapitated victims with flower decoration to the police. The murders and photos caused widespread panic in Japan. One day, Ippei is contacted by Daigo from prison. He asks Ippei if he wants to interview him and write his memoirs. Soon, more women are killed in the same grisly manner as the serial murders from twelve years ago. Now, Ippei becomes the prime suspect of the police and Ippei must quickly find the real murderer. Based on the novel "The Serialist" by David Gordon (published by Simon & Schuster; Original edition on March 9, 2010).

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Kings Row

Five young adults in a small American town face the revelations of secrets that threaten to ruin their hopes and dreams.

Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer

British documentarian Nick Broomfield creates a follow-up piece to his 1992 documentary of the serial killer Aileen Wuornos, a highway prostitute who was convicted of killing six men in Florida between 1989 and 1990. Interviewing an increasingly mentally unstable Wuornos, Broomfield captures the distorted mind of a murderer whom the state of Florida deems of sound mind -- and therefore fit to execute. Throughout the film, Broomfield includes footage of his testimony at Wuornos' trial.

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

A newspaper publisher, wanting to prove a point about the insufficiency of circumstantial evidence, talks his possible son-in-law Tom into a hoax in an attempt to expose ineptitude of the city's hard-line district attorney. The plan is to have Tom plant clues leading to his arrest for killing a female nightclub dancer. Once Tom is found guilty, he is to reveal the setup and humiliate the DA.

Capote

A biopic of writer Truman Capote and his assignment for The New Yorker to write the non-fiction book "In Cold Blood".

The Staircase Murders

After he calls 911 to report his wife's accident, successful novelist and aspiring politician Michael Peterson (Williams) becomes the prime suspect in her alleged murder.

Cure

A wave of gruesome murders is sweeping Tokyo. The only connection is a bloody X carved into the neck of each of the victims. In each case, the murderer is found near the victim and remembers nothing of the crime. Detective Takabe and psychologist Sakuma are called in to figure out the connection, but their investigation goes nowhere...

Departures

Daigo, a cellist, is laid off from his orchestra and moves with his wife back to his small hometown where the living is cheaper. Thinking he’s applying for a job at a travel agency he finds he’s being interviewed for work with departures of a more permanent nature – as an undertaker’s assistant.

The Brutal Insanity of Love

A policewoman (Megumi Yokoyama) investigates the apparent suicide of a college coed. The prime suspects include the girl's professor, who may have been having an affair with her, and the professor's wife, who frequents lesbian bars. Gruesome axe murders and mutilations ensue, leading Yokoyama to a shocking discovery.

I Start Counting

An English schoolgirl suspects the foster brother she worships is the serial killer at large.

The Lodger

Follows a seasoned detective on the trail of a ruthless killer intent on slaughtering prostitutes along West Hollywood's Sunset Strip. It appears that the murderer's grisly methods are identical to that of London's infamous 19th century psychopath Jack the Ripper – a relentless serial killer who was never caught by police. To make matters worse, the detective soon notices the parallels between the crimes committed by the West Hollywood stalker and those of a serial murderer incarcerated years ago. Could the wrong man be behind bars?

Lorelei: The Witch of the Pacific Ocean

A drama set during World War II where a submarine carrying a secret weapon attempts to stop a planned third atomic bombing of Japan. Based on Harutoshi Fukui's novel Shuusen no Lorelei.

Manhandled

Merle Kramer works as a stenographer for a psychiatrist. She is casually dating Karl Benson, a private eye and former cop. Merle mentions in passing that one of her boss's patients is an author with recurring dreams of murdering his wife, and she includes the fact that the wife owns valuable jewels. When the wife is found murdered in a manner identical to that of her husband's dream, the husband is naturally the prime suspect. But as the investigation of the police and insurance investigator Joe Cooper proceeds, it turns out that several people in the case, including Merle, are not what they seem.

Paco and the Magical Book

There once was a hospital where patients and even doctors & nurses were all weird. Above all, Onuki, a patient who built up his company all by himself from scratch, is a super cranky old man. One day, he meets up a girl called Paco, who cannot retain memory beyond one day due to a car accident. She is reading the same picture book everyday. Onuki starts bonding with Paco after some incident, and begins to doubt his way of living. He starts wanting to do something for Paco with his remaining life, and comes up with a brilliant idea. This pleases Paco, but their fate is?

Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1980

After 6 years of brutal murders, the West Yorkshire Police fear that they may have already interviewed The Ripper and let him back into the world to continue his reign of terror upon the citizens of Yorkshire. Assistant Chief Constable of the Manchester Police, Peter Hunter, is called in to oversee the West Yorkshire Police's Ripper investigation and see what they could have missed.

Mindcage

Detectives Jake Doyle and Mary Kelly seek the help of an incarcerated serial killer named The Artist when a copycat killer strikes. While Mary searches for clues in The Artist's brilliant but twisted psyche, she and Jake are lured into a diabolical game of cat and mouse, racing against time to stay one step ahead of The Artist and his copycat.

Another Heaven

A pair of hard-boiled Tokyo cops are investigating a gruesome murder: after killing the victim, the murderer cut his skull open and cooked his brain in a stew. As they try to track down the killer, they discover that, quite literally, everybody is a suspect. Will they bring the terror to an end, or will they become part of it themselves?

Tokyo Park

Koji, a university student and budding photographer, is asked by a man to secretly take pictures of his wife Yurika. As a result, his relationships with a girl who visits his part-time workplace called Tominaga and his step-sister Misaki begin to change subtly.

Murder 101

Charles Lattimore, an author of a book about a famous murder trial, arranges to meet with one of his students one night. When the student is found murdered and Lattimore has no alibi, he suspects he is being framed by the subject of his book.

Beyond the Call

Russell Gates (David Strahairn) is a Vietnam vet on death row for killing a policeman. His childhood sweetheart, Pam O'Brien (Sissy Spacek), is stunned to learn this and does not believe he could commit such a crime. She writes to him much to the dismay of her husband Keith and becomes obsessed with the case, exploring every avenue that may still be open to the doomed man. The trips to the prison take a toll on both her marriage and her family.

Complicity

Local journalist, Cameron Colley writes articles that are idealistic, from the viewpoint of the underdog. A twisted serial killer seems to have some motives. His brutal murders are also committed on behalf of the underdog. The stories begin to merge and Cameron find himself inextricably and inextricably implicated by the brutal killer. The arms dealer that Cameron plans to expose is found literally 'disarmed' before he can put pen to paper. The brewery chief, loathed by Cameron, who sold up at the expense of his workers, finds himself permanently unemployable. The police are convened of Cameron's guilt and so are half his friends and colleagues. Cameron is forced to employ all his investigative skills to find the real killer and his motive.

The Anthrax Attacks: In the Shadow of 9/11

Days after 9/11, letters containing fatal anthrax spores spark panic and tragedy in the US. This documentary follows the subsequent FBI investigation.

Doberman Cop

The burned remains of a young woman discovered in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The police comes to the conclusion that its the work of a pyromaniacal serial murderer. The murder victim is identified as Mayumi Tamaki, a native of Ishigaki, Okinawa. As the investigation unfolded, her former boyfriend, a former rider of a motorcycle named Chōei Mikawa emerged as a suspect. But Kano did not agree Mikawa is the suspect. Kano started conducting the investigation himself to search the real criminal person.

Demonstone

Two U.S. Marine investigators looking into a series of grisly murders in Manila discover that the crimes are tied to an amulet with a 400-year-old curse on it that has unleashed supernatural forces.

Ellery Queen: Don't Look Behind You

Detective Ellery Queen has to solve a series of murders where the victims were killed in numerically descending ages, the male victims were strangled with blue cords and the female victims with pink ones.

Where I Belong

Izumi (Kento Hayashi) was abandoned by his parents. He now commits burglary, targeting women and the elderly. He is chased by the cops. While on the run, in the mountains of Miyazaki Prefecture, he helps an injured elderly woman, Suma (Etsuko Ichihara). Izumi then stays at Suma's home. At first, Izumi keeps an eye for money that he can steal. The people though in the village think Izumi is Suma's grandson and take care of him. A change takes place in Izumi.

Owls' Castle

As the great military commander Nobunaga Oda was consolidating his power across Japan, one of his actions was to wipe out a clan of assassins, killing every man, woman and child he found in the village. Years later, one of the survivors has hired a young but skilled assassin to avenge the deaths of his friends and family. His mission: to sneak into the most heavily guarded castle in Japan, and kill the supreme ruler of the country.

Sasori

A ruthless pack of thugs force mild-mannered, caught-in-the-middle-of-something-bigger Nami to murder her fiance's sister, decidedly ruining her pending marriage and landing the poor girl in the most brutal women's prison ever seen. Inside the hellblocks, she decides to stop being a victim at all costs, and ends up becoming stronger and even more vicious than the craziest inmates in the pen. She eventually escapes in a most unusual way, gets valuable fight training from a mysterious mountain man and returns to the streets in order to make the thugs who ruined her life pay.

I Want to Be a Shellfish

1944, in the depths of World War II. Toyomatsu Shimizu is a completely typical barber from a remote sea-side town who lives frugally but happily with his wife Fusae and their five-year-old son. Eventually, though, the army beckons and he is drafted. One day an officer on the battle-field orders him to kill a captive U.S. soldier. Although Toyomatsu lacks the spirit to kill the man, and only wounds him in the arm, the victorious U.S. soldiers will not accept this, and Toyomatsu is arrested and tried as a war-criminal. And he receives the cruelest sentence possible...

The Hour of 13

1890, London, and a serial killer known as The Terror is murdering policemen. When gentleman thief Nicholas Revel unwittingly becomes the chief suspect, he must use his guile and wits to prove he’s not the killer; whilst also not getting caught for a jewel robbery he has just committed.

Prime Target

A homicide detective assigned to investigate the serial killings of New York policewomen begins to suspect that the serial killer might be a fellow police officer.

Sure Death 4

Having been demoted for failing to prevent the murder of one of his superiors, Mondo is startled by a group of masked thugs who are soon attacked in turn by an unseen force. He begins to suspect the work of assassins, but whose side are they on?

Specialist 2

A mysterious code written with letters and numbers is found on a street in Kyoto. Yoshito Takuma (Tsuyoshi Kusanagi) and Chinami Anekoji (Kaho Minami) begin to investigate. They discover that something happened at the place where the code was found on stickers and they also discover a dead body. A man known as "Writer" is suspected of being the culprit. To find the man known as "Writer," Yoshito Takuma infiltrates into Shiga central prison. --asianwiki

Hero Interview

Kasumi Sawaki (Honami Suzuki) works for a top-ranked newspaper publishing company as a capable economic reporter. Speaking six languages fluently, she vigorously performs research and interviews. Her fiance, Ishii (Shingo Tsurumi) is an elite in the same company. Although her work and love seem to go very well, she is suddenly relegated to the minor Sports Department which is full of strange colleagues.

Groper Train: Wedding Capriccio

The world’s greatest detective, Ippei Kuroda, is back and this time hired by a politician to find his estranged daughter. When the daughter is found dead, the mystery deepens. Meanwhile, Kuroda’s assistant tries to stop her arranged marriage to a country hick by shacking-up with a composer who writes symphonies on his calculator — when he’s not groping women on the Tokyo trains!

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