Best movies like The Sleeping Beast Within

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.

A story of yakuza lynching during the Edo, Taisho, and Showa periods.

The ghost of John Belushi looks back on his troubled life and career.

A former drug lord returns from prison determined to wipe out all his competition and distribute the profits of his operations to New York's poor and lower classes in this stylish and ultra violent modern twist on Robin Hood.

An earthquake releases a strain of mutant cockroaches with the ability to start fires, which proceed to cause destructive chaos in a small town. The studies carried out by scientist James Parmiter, however, reveal an intent with much more far-reaching consequences.

Tough narcotics detective 'Popeye' Doyle is in hot pursuit of a suave French drug dealer who may be the key to a huge heroin-smuggling operation.

A detective breaks all rules of ethical conduct while investigating a colleague’s involvement in drug pushing and Yakuza activities.

The story of the rise and fall of the first American-born drug lord in Mexico, this tale of power, money, greed and betrayal amongst rival members of the drug cartels finds American gangster Erik Vasquez scheming to become the top dog in the Mexican underworld, only to find himself making enemies out of both the powerful cartels and his own allies.

Ryan, a good-natured slacker, is tempted into a money laundering scheme while working for a lottery magazine. A capitalistic comedy that asks the question - when is "enough" enough?

Shinji and Masaru spend most of their school days harassing fellow classmates and playing pranks. They drop out and Shinji becomes a small-time boxer, while Masaru joins up with a local yakuza gang. However, the world is a tough place.

The feud between two rival delivery companies, Kibamasa and Okiyama, heats up as the head of Kibamasa falls ill.

Two young brothers become the leaders of a gang of kids in their neighborhood. Ozu's charming film is a social satire that draws from the antics of childhood as well as the tragedy of maturity.

"Piñero" tells the story of the explosive life of a Latino icon, the gay poet-playwright-actor Miguel Piñero, whose urban poetry is recognized as a pre-cursor to rap and hip-hop. After doing time in hard-core Sing-Sing for petty thefts and drug dealing, Piñero's prison experiences developed into the 1974 Tony-nominated play Short Eyes. The resulting notoriety and fame was too much for the Latino bad-boy genius who retreated to the darker corners of New York City.

Izumi Hoshi is senior in high school, but she led a small yakuza group in her past. After killing her uncle's murderer with a machine gun, her yakuza group disbanded. Izumi now lives an ordinary life as a high school student and works as a manager at a cafe. A dangerous situation soon awaits for Izumi.

When a young man agrees to housesit for his boss, he thinks it'll be the perfect opportunity to get close to the woman he desperately has a crush on – his boss's daughter. But he doesn't plan on the long line of other houseguests that try to keep him from his mission. And he also has to deal with the daughter's older brother, who's on the run from local drug dealers.

A beautiful young dentist working in a tough British prison starts to become attracted to a violent inmate after the break-up of her marriage, and embarks upon an illicit affair with him, with terrible consequences for all.

The story of how Sicilian Mafia boss Tommaso Buscetta (1928-2000), the Godfather of Two Worlds, revealed, starting in 1984, the deepest secrets of the organization, thus helping to convict the hundreds of mafiosi who were tried in the trial held in Palermo between 1986 and 1987.

After serving 10 years in prison due to a drug-induced assassination of a rival gang boss Tachibana (Ryo Ishibashi) enters a world that's nothing like it was when he went in. Once a respected and feared Yakuza mastermind, he now must try and adapt within the confines of the new generations vision of honor. As he still garners a somewhat decent amount of respect he just tries to get by. Hooking up with a prostitute he's been in passing by with he begins to feel some sense of comfort. Upon stumbling across her being beaten down by her pimp, Tachibana can't just sit by and do nothing. So he commences in putting down an old school Yakuza ass whipping, thus beginning a showdown with the "now" boss, Sato.

Best – His Mother’s Son (BBC Two) was a gloomy drama about Ann Best, mother of George, who was strictly teetotal until her mid-40s, when she had her first sip of sherry to celebrate her son’s footballing success. Ten years later, she was dead from alcoholism-related heart disease. The recreation of late-Sixties Belfast was accurate and, thank goodness, intelligently subdued: no comedy Ulster accents and no point-scoring subplot about the Troubles.

In one long Friday evening, Takeshi Miyata, a straight-arrow businessman, will encounter a number of people (some only fleetingly) who have intertwining fates.

Real estate agent Maceda (Chris Sarandon) once testified against drug trafficker Orosco (Miguel Najera). Now Orosco is out of prison, and Maceda has a problem. He flees, hiding out at a near-vacant California Central Valley inn where innkeeper Kat (Mariel Hemingway) is happy to have him sign the register. His presence, however, arouses the suspicions of lone cop Gilchrist (Dennis Hopper). Meanwhile, Fed agent Gere (Peter Coyote) hopes to track Maceda before Orosco's thugs pick up the scent.

A sharpshooter kills two prisoners in a police van at night. The guard on the van is suspended for six months; he's Tamon, an upright, modest man. He begins his own investigation into the murders. Who were the victims, who are their relatives and girlfriends, who else was on the van that night? As he doggedly investigates, others die, coincidences occur, and several leads take him to the Hamaju Agency, which may be supplying call girls. Its owner is in jail, his daughter, the enigmatic Yuko, keeps turning up where Tamon goes. Tamon believes he can awaken good in people, but has he met his match? Will he solve the murders or be the next victim? And who is Akiba?

The seventh in the shocking "Jingi Naki Tatakai" movie series, which exposes the true lives of the yakuza that is hidden by a mask of "jingi". The next stage of this continuing drama is the Kanmon Channel where the Owada and the Kyoei groups are battling for territorial rights and drug smuggling. The Owada sends their man, Tetsu, and his friend Shuji to kill the Kyoei boss. With the promise of fame and riches, Shuji takes the fall and goes to jail for 7 years. But when he's released, he discovers that he and Tetsu have been all but forgotten by the Owada. Feeling betrayed, Shuji takes matters into his own hands and becomes an unsuspecting pawn in an internal conflict and an assassination attempt on the Owada boss. And now angered, Shuji seeks revenge...

Thirsting for revenge, Jokichi rashly attempts to assassinate the evil Chogoro but ends up being captured by Yakuza. His life is spared by Boss Juzaburo, in order that the harmony of an important commemoration not be further disturbed. Though now even more of an outcast, Jokichi is asked by another Yakuza boss, Umezo, to guard Oyuki, the wayward daughter of Juzaburo. The tragic consequences of this assignment will lead him into a deadly trap and a final confrontation with Chogoro.

Kosaka Hiroshi is a small time swindler and the boss of a motorcycle gang in Shinjuku. Living only to make money, he never made the big time until he gets involved with a Yakuza's daughter. But when he gets involved in a scheme to blackmail a Yakuza gang and a land developer, he realizes he's gone way over his head…

After a yakuza boss is assassinated by a rival, his naval officer son returns home to take over the gang.

Japanese crime film.

After he's fired from his job -- by his mother, no less -- Bob Funk agrees to quit drinking, see a therapist, and eventually report to a new boss, who might just be the woman of his dreams.

Kenji, the young head of Kato yakuza organisation, just got out of the jail. He comes home and founds out the opposing Sawaki yakuza is invading Kato's territory. Sawaki recruited Ikeyama and asked him to kill Kenji, but Ikeyama was Kenji's lover who exchanged the cup of brothers in a jail.

A dramedy redefining the existence of Cole Killian who's large heart and ill judgment leads him into twisted relationship issues causing life destructive consequences.

An ex-boxer working for a game parlor owner gets caught up in a complex blackmail operation he doesn't understand. Before long he's caught between two yakuza bosses and a mysterious thief who motivation is unknown. Add in the boss' daughter who has a crush on him and watch him struggle to make sense of it all and come out alive.

Tokyo, 1934. The boss of the clan that controls gambling agonizes and some of his followers propose to Nakai to take his place, but he refuses the offer.

Following the journey of a caterpillar along the Japanese islands from Nagasaki to Hokkaido, this allegorical and oblique first feature film by Kuroki depicts in exquisite images a series of encounters and life's turning points.

A group of teens in a small town come across a strange object that tests their loyalties to each other with increasingly destructive consequences the deeper into the game they go.