Best movies like The Shape of Night

Harry Kilmer returns to Japan after several years in order to rescue his friend George's kidnapped daughter - and ends up on the wrong side of the Yakuza, the notorious Japanese mafia.

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.

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.

Three young boys pool their money and pay V, a kindhearted prostitute, to strip for them. Afterward, she drives them home to the suburbs -- but then her car breaks down. It's just as well, though, because a mobster named Waltzer is after her, and V realizes the suburbs are the perfect place to hide. But things get a lot more complicated when V falls in love with Tom, a single father who is unaware of her real profession.

Filipino-American high school student Ben (Dante Basco) works in a comic book shop to earn money to pay his way into Cal Arts. His father, a postman, is determined that his son--who has won a pre-med scholarship to UCLA--will become a doctor. The eighteenth birthday party of Ben's sister, Rose, sets off a comedic and touching series of events and family struggles that will in turn determine young Ben's future. This fresh independent production from Gene Cajayon presents a lighthearted and warm coming-of-age tale filtered through the eyes of an American subculture rarely seen on film.

Shiratori Tatsuhiko works as a scout for Burst, a talent agency in Kabukichō, Shinjuku's red light district. In a business where money means everything Tatsuhiko finds himself in a constant struggle between rival talent scouts and the yakuza.

Born in a small town in Japan, a young girl named Ai is sent to a cult commune by her religious maniac mother and lives there for seven long years. After the cult is exposed by the police, Ai starts a new stage of life, going to a normal school for the first time, but she can’t find her place to fit in there. Ai drops out from the school and society, spending her life living with a rock-bottom delinquent family full of gangsters and call girls. In a strange twist of fate she finds herself back in a new and normal life, living with a middle-class family, but her troubled life continues to follow her into more deep and seedy paths.

A failed novelist's inability to pay the bills strains relations with his wife and leads him to work at an escort service where he becomes entwined with a wealthy woman whose husband is a successful writer.

Young single mother Emiko (Saori Seto) uses factory worker Shinnosuke (Amane Okayama) for money. They met through an online dating website and Shinnosuke is completely in love with her. Meanwhile, Emiko's ex-husband is demanding money from her.

A corrupt businessman blackmails the lovelorn reprobate Atsushi into watching over his suitcase full of embezzled cash while he serves a jail sentence. Rather than wait for the man to retrieve his money, however, Atsushi decides to spend it all in one libidinous rush—fully expecting to be tracked down and killed.

A young girl from a small parochial country village is raped and ravaged at the hands of local roughnecks, escapes to a new life in the big city of Tokyo, and finds a pretty similar fate awaiting her there.

Tachibana is a drunk whose gambling compulsion ends up putting him in a bad way with the local Yakuza. Unable to pay his debt, he hocks the deed to his wife Izumi's restaurant (which she inherited from her now deceased father) in order to stay out of trouble with the thugs.

An ardent culture-vulture youth, previously charged for the murder of a woman when he was young, plans to hold hostage a local bank.

A former boxer gets involved with a club hostess trying to escape the clutches of her gangster employer.

After a night of drinking and gambling, Tyrell (R. Marcos Taylor) is awakened by an angry call from his girlfriend Meena (Anita Clay) and finds himself in bed with a strange woman, Cecelia (Alissa Schneider), a local mob boss' daughter. Once the local mob boss finds out, he hires relentless hitman Shota (Wilson). To make matters worse, the reward on Tyrell's head has dozen of others looking for him. Worst of all, Meena, the love of his life, is put in harm's way. Tyrell must make a stand by taking on the mob, taking on Shota, and finding the money to pay their landlord Mr. McGetty--all before the day ends.

Joe, Okita, and Serizawa hear of the armed robbery of a truck carrying one billion eighty million yen's worth of Mint paper. Knowing that the thugs will now need a counterfeiter to make the bogus bills, they each decide to cash in on it by selling them the idea that they need Sakamoto, the best counterfeiter in Japan. A seesaw game unfolds between the three men as each tries to outdo the other two in handing over Sakamoto for one million yen to Hijikata, the big boss, who intends to make counterfeit money with the stolen paper. A little belatedly, they realize it needs their combined forces to outwit Hijikata and they raid his place together. Outnumbered, however, they are thrown into a basement room and the gas is turned on. Certain death stares them in the face, but the three men are not ones to take things lying down....

Kamiki (Sonny Chiba) is a career criminal who is given the chance to break out of prison for the 33rd time. Afterwards Kaimiki teams up with a bunch of thugs that engineer prison escapes for money.

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.

Ryu, a low life thug, along with his mother, steals a shipment of drugs. Now with his machine gun and a gang of hoodlums, he must face the yakuza and the mafia.

Arikawa runs a transport company. But this is only a front for his gambling house. Yuriko is a regular on the scene, and she is fascinated by the dice and the one who throws them. A year before, Yuriko's father died in mysterious circumstances; she decides to go in search of the truth.

Around Ginza there is a night-city of bars and cabarets, hostesses, customers. Assisting to keep order here is Kagari (Akira Kobayashi) who specializes in the women, their problems and troubles. He has saved many a girl from blandishments of pimps, makes customers pay up and women play straight. So he is called 'the woman's police-man' and he takes his job seriously. One day, Chiyoko (Yukiyo Toake), a former hostess, comes to him. Her husband has been murdered and she wants help. The man had been a college classmate and Kagari decides to do what he can. In his investigation he overturns a whole nest of intrigue. Men he had thought irreproachable turn out to be corrupt; solid citizens are seen as the worst kind of scoundrels. Until now, Kagari has specialized in women and their problems. But, realizing the real state of affairs, he rolls up his sleeves for a good cleaning- up-at the same time discovering the murderer of his friend.

A beautiful hostess of a small restaurant moonlights as a well-trained assassin tasked with taking the life of a wealthy businessman...

The local yakuza gangs dominating the port of Yokohama do not take well the invasion of their territory by a daring biker gang, led by a girl in black leather outfit and cowboy hat - reminiscent of the earlier war victors. Old and new grudges lead the two girl gangs to clash in several fights. However, when one of the leaders dies, the girls end up by uniting against the male gangsters that had been using them as puppets - and it all ends in a great finale mixed battle by the seashore.

Seiji (played by Battle Royale’s Tatsuya Fujiwara) struggles to look after his younger brother Michio, who suffers from Xeroderma Pigmentosum – a rare disease that is fatal if exposed to sunlight. Matters are even more complicated due to Michio’s state of mind, which is equivalent to that of a six year old child. In order to support his younger brother, Seiji is forced to join the local Yakuza and work through the ranks to become a respected member. One night, Seiji saves a woman named Keiko (Aya Okamoto) from a drunken pervert. By sheer coincidence, she is also Michio’s nurse and falls in love with Seiji thanks to his courageous act. Whilst Seiji continues to see his new girlfriend, the activities of the Yakuza begin to affect their lives…

Marie is a chubby girl who's steadily paying off her debts by working at a brothel introduced to her by a black-market lending company. One day, she meets a guy on the street by the name of Kazu. Taking an instant liking to him, she invites Kazu to come live with her. It soon becomes apparent that he doesn't seem to have a job and the allowance money he receives from her goes straight on playing around. In spite of this, he is always on hand to lend Marie an ear when she talks about her insecurities. Though Kazu is somewhat of a freeloader, she enjoys living with him but things take an unexpected turn when one of her regular clients suddenly proposes to her. Marie confides in Kazu by telling him what happened. After she wakes up next day, she discovers that he has disappeared. Several days later, she finds Kazu and accompanies him to his house. Waiting for them is Kazu's wife, Mitsuko, a beautifully slim lady and the mirror opposite of Marie.

Barbara, a dancer, is coming home to Nagoya after a long absence. She lives above a bar in an area whose inhabitants are mainly from Okinawa. Upon her return, Barbara faces problems beyond her control. Her brother and two friends take one of their teachers hostage to extort money to go on a school trip. Miyazato, the man who loves Barbara is there, but not Aiko, her best friend. Miyazato, a yakuza and manager in a nuclear power plant has forced Aiko into prostitution for the workers of the plant. Barbara plans to help her escape from this hell. Aiko has been sent to Mihama. Without even thinking for a moment, Barbara decided to go see her friend.

Teruki Miyamoto, a company employee, is at a love hotel with Rika Ohtsubo and Aina Mizuki. Miyamoto and Rika are having a double affair, and Rika invited Aina, a housewife friend of hers, because he wanted to try a threesome. Azumi Azuma is cleaning the bathroom of the love hotel when Rika returns to the room. When Rika comes to pick up her forgotten items, she is surprised to find that the employee is Azumi, whom she knows. Azumi says she has been working here since last year. Azumi said that the phone Rika forgot was left at the bed. When Rika was embarrassed that Azumi knew she had used the love hotel, Azumi simply said, "Confidentiality, you know". After finishing work that day, Azumi went shopping and then went home. She prepared dinner and had a quiet meal with her father-in-law Kazuo, who had retired early. Because of his age, Kazuo is taking more and more medication, and Azumi tries to cook meals that take care of her father-in-law's health.

Anzai, Mutoh, Hamada, Hagiwara, and Miru are in a car headed to a love hotel used by the Sugiyama Clan for money laundering. This one night only gang succeed in robbing them blind and though they were supposed to go their separate ways after splitting the money, the five end up being hunt down by a detective hired by the clan and clan members themselves. An ending nobody ever even dreamed of.

Billie JD Porter goes in search of the human face of the prostitution business, talking to the young men who pay for sex and to the young women who sell their bodies.

Akira Yamazaki and Akira Kaido are new employees at Industrial Central Bank. They are both outstanding at their jobs and fierce rivals, but they come from totally different backgrounds. When Akira Yamazaki was a child, his father's factory went bankrupt and his family ran away in the middle of the night. Because of that experience, Akira Yamazaki wants to work as a banker to save people. On the other hand, Akira Kaido was born into a family that runs a large company. He works with a calm demeanor. Due to a case, Akira Yamazaki receives a demotion. Akira Kaido continues to be successful at work, but his family's company is on the verge of bankruptcy due to their family-oriented management style. The employees there and their families are all in a crisis situation. With this desperate situation unfolding, the reversal of fate of these two men begin.

In the late 1950's prostitution was banned in Japan and if a woman was found exercising this profession they were sent to a reformatory. This is a story of one of these brave women Kuniko who is released from the reformatory and tries to build a new life.

A Roman Porno set around high school girls. After the opening requisite showdown between female leader onichan and one of the toughs from the local gang we witness one of the more brutal punishments youll see in anything pink. The sukeban mafia, the name the girl gang has chosen, not proper yakuza, invite Onichan and Miki to join them. First stop, working their prostitution ring, Miki is captivated by the power of the gang and ready to please, but Onichan isn’t impressed. Of course the sukeban mafia will not tolerate nothing less than complete devotion and the trouble begins ….

A 16-year-old girl works in a factory to pay her late father’s debt. When she makes up her mind to become a hostess, a boy approaches her with kind and gentle manners...(Also occasionally known in English as “Play”)

Yuko has a rendezvous with her old boyfriend who has just returned to Tokyo. Blackmailers with evidence of this transgression force Yuko to work as a call girl to pay them. Yuko becomes the client of a foreigner who is in the employ of her husband, a prominent businessman.

In order to support her son, single-mother works at a bar that operates an undisclosed adult entertainment business. One day, Ishioka Kazuya comes into the store as a customer, but Ishioka never sleeps with her, and instead just looks at the scenery outside the window.