Best movies like Tokyo Drifter

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Tokyo Drifter Starring Tetsuya Watari, Chieko Matsubara, Tamio Kawachi, Hideaki Nitani, and more. If you liked Tokyo Drifter then you may also like: The Yakuza, Yakuza Apocalypse, Yakuza's Law, Youth of the Beast, Woman in the Dunes 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.

After yakuza boss Kurata dissolves his own criminal empire, a rival kingpin offers a position to Kurata's top operative, Tetsuya "Phoenix Tetsu" Hondo. When the fiercely loyal Tetsu declines, Otsuka taps unstoppable Tatsuzo the "Viper", a ruthless gun-for-hire, to assassinate him. As the Viper trails his target through the countryside, the agile Phoenix Tetsu grows concerned that one of his former associates has betrayed him.

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The Yakuza

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.

Yakuza Apocalypse

Akira admires Genyo Kamiura, the most powerful yakuza. Genyo Kamiura has been targeted numerous times, but he has never been killed. He is called the invincible person. Because of Genyo Kamiura, Akira enters the world of the yakuza. His yakuza colleagues treat him like an idiot, and Akira can't even get tattoos because of his sensitive skin. An assassin is sent to take out Genyo Kamiura. The killers know that Genyo Kamiura is a vampire. Thus begins the apocalypse.

Youth of the Beast

When a mysterious stranger muscles into two rival yakuza gangs, Tokyo's underworld explodes with violence.

Woman in the Dunes

An entomologist suffers extreme psychological and sexual torture after being taken captive by the residents of a poor seaside village.

Rainy Dog

A Japanese assassin stranded in Taiwan must take work from a local crime boss to make ends meet when suddenly a woman from his past delivers a son to him.

Kate

A ruthless criminal operative has less than 24 hours to exact revenge on her enemies and in the process forms an unexpected bond with the daughter of one of her past victims.

Kill the Irishman

Over the summer of 1976, thirty-six bombs detonate in the heart of Cleveland while a turf war raged between Irish mobster Danny Greene and the Italian mafia. Based on a true story, Kill the Irishman chronicles Greene's heroic rise from a tough Cleveland neighborhood to become an enforcer in the local mob.

King of New York

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.

Black Rain

Two New York cops get involved in a gang war between members of the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia. They arrest one of their killers and are ordered to escort him back to Japan. However, in Japan he manages to escape, and as they try to track him down, they get deeper and deeper into the Japanese Mafia scene and they have to learn that they can only win by playing the game—the Japanese way.

Boiling Point

Masaki, a baseball player and gas-station attendant, gets into trouble with the local Yakuza and goes to Okinawa to get a gun to defend himself. There he meets Uehara, a tough gangster, who is in serious debt to the yakuza and planning revenge.

Branded to Kill

After botching his latest assignment, a third-ranked Japanese hit man becomes the target of another assassin.

Brother

A Japanese Yakuza gangster’s deadly existence in his homeland gets him exiled to Los Angeles, where he is taken in by his little brother and his brother’s gang.

Gozu

Minami mistakenly kills a gangster associate of his named Brother. Almost as soon as the murder takes place, the body of the deceased man is gone, prompting Minami to conduct a search. While looking, he finds a mysterious isolated hotel where he decides to take a rest. Not only are the front desk clerks a bit strange, but even the ambiance feels unusual. Minami soon realizes he may have gotten more than he bargained for.

The Long Good Friday

In the late 1970s, Cockney crime boss Harold Shand, a gangster trying to become a legitimate property mogul, has big plans to get the American Mafia to bankroll his transformation of a derelict area of London into the possible venue for a future Olympic Games. However, a series of bombings targets his empire on the very weekend the Americans are in town. Shand is convinced there is a traitor in his organization, and sets out to eliminate the rat in typically ruthless fashion.

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai

An African-American Mafia hit man who models himself after the samurai of ancient Japan finds himself targeted for death by the mob.

One in the Chamber

A seasoned assassin plays both sides in a Russian gang war and becomes the target of an unknown enemy.

A Better Tomorrow

Two brothers on different sides of the law go head-to-head.

Dead or Alive

Ryūichi and his small gang of Triad vie for control of the Japanese underworld in a crime-ridden Shinjuku quarter while Detective Jojima tries to bring it down.

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Family

When the mobster Iwaida Nishikawi is executed by the hit man Takeshi, his family chases the killer. Takeshi's brothers Takashi and Hideshi Miwa try to find Takeshi, who is hidden with the nurse Rie Ishibashi, to protect him and Hideshi discovers that Takeshi was secretly sent by their Yakuza boss to eliminate Iwaida. Meanwhile, the mobster Kenmoshi abducts Takashi's wife Mariko and rapes her, trying to force Takashi to deliver his brother to him.

Fudoh: The New Generation

In order to settle a business dispute, a mob leader murders one of his own teenage sons. The surviving son vows to avenge his brother's death, and organizes his own gang of teenage killers to destroy his father's organization.

Miller's Crossing

Set in 1929, a political boss and his advisor have a parting of the ways when they both fall for the same woman.

The Hunted

Paul Racine, a high-powered American business executive in Japan, is catapulted into a maze of danger and intrigue after he and his sexy companion are the targets of assassins hired by the ruthless Kinjo. To survive, Racine must join forces with a powerful samurai and together they will fight the force of evil in an awesome battle rooted in centuries of brutal conflict.

Sonatine

Murakawa, a Tokyo yakuza tiring of gangster life, is sent by his boss to Okinawa along with a few of his henchmen to help end a gang war, supposedly to mediate between two warring clans. He finds that the dispute between the clans is insignificant and whilst wondering why he was sent to Okinawa at all, Murakawa’s headquarters are bombed and he and his gang are ambushed.

Japanese Summer: Double Suicide

A sex-obsessed young woman, a suicidal young man she meets on the street, a gun-crazy wannabe gangster—these are just three of the irrational, oddball anarchists trapped in an underground hideaway in Oshima’s devilish, absurdist portrait of what he deemed the “death drive” in Japanese youth culture.

The City of Lost Souls

Brazilian-Japanese gangster Mario rescues his Chinese girlfriend Kei as she's about to be deported from Japan. Desperate to escape, he hides in Tokyo's booming Japanese-Portuguese community and seeks passage from the country from a Russian mobster. To meet his price, they hold up a bigtime drug deal between the Chinese Mafia and the local Yakuza.

A Colt Is My Passport

A gang lord hires Kamimura, a hit man, to take out a rival boss who's gotten greedy.

Kids Return

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.

Graveyard of Honor

A self-destructive man becomes a powerful member of the Japanese mafia but quickly loses his self control. Based on the true story of Rikio Ishikawa.

Graveyard of Honor

A barkeeper saves a Yakuza boss' life and thus makes his way up in the organization. However, his fear of nothing soon causes problems.

Pale Flower

Muraki, a hardboiled Yakuza gangster, has just been released from prison after serving a sentence for murder. Revisiting his old gambling haunts, he meets Saeko, a striking young upper-class woman who is out seeking thrills, and whose presence adds spice to the staid masculine underworld rituals. Muraki becomes her mentor while simultaneously coping with the shifts of power that have affected the gangs while he was interred. When he notices a rogue, drug-addicted young punk hanging around the gambling dens, he realizes that Saeko's insatiable lust for intense pleasures may be leading her to self-destruction.

Pistol Opera

An assassin fends off numerous attacks from her comrades, who are trying to move up in rank by killing off the competition.

Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell, Bastards!

Tajima is a private detective in charge of his own company, Detective Bureau 2-3. When warring criminal gangs go overboard by robbing U.S. military munitions, Tajima steps in to stop what the cops can't.

The Hit

Ten years after ratting on his old mobster friends in exchange for personal immunity, two hit men drive a hardened criminal to Paris for his execution. However, while on the way, whatever can go wrong, does go wrong.

Another Lonely Hitman

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.

Killer

Cynical hit man Mick is tiring of his job and asks his boss George for time off. However, George gives him the assignment of his life, prompting Mick's soul-searching to reach new heights. Mick is asked to kill sultry Fiona, who owes George money and claims she wants to die. But as Mick spends time with her, he finds himself falling for her.

Agitator

When a young Yakuza torments the customers in a rival crime family's nightclub, it is not long before his dead body is found. Soon, inter-family retaliation follows, resulting in the death for a prominent crime boss. Devastated by this turn of events, the temperamental Kenzaki vows to avenge his boss's death and, as bloody violence ensues, the body count reaches excessive proportions.

American Yakuza

When Nick Davis leaves prison after one year in solitaire, he is hired to operate forklift in a warehouse in the harbor owned by the Japanese Yakuza patriarch Isshin Tendo. The place is assaulted by the Italian Mafia leaded by Dino Campanela and Nick rescues and saves the life of Shuji Sawamoto, who is the representative of Yakuza interests in America. Shuji hires Nick to work for Yakuza and becomes his godfather in the family after his oath to join Yakuza. However, Nick is a lonely FBI undercover agent assigned to penetrate in the criminal organization. When the FBI discovers that Campanela is organizing a massive attack to destroy the Yakuza, Nick's boss Littman calls off the operation to leave the dirty work to the Italian Mafia. But the connection of Nick with Shuji and his goddaughter Yuko forces him to help his Japanese family.

American Dragons

Murders in Seoul, Korea and in America pair two cops from each of the countries together to solve the crimes. The investigation leads to a gang war between the Mafia and the Yakuza, but one that may not be of either of their making. A shadowy assassin is killing the leaders and an Italian assassin may have his own agenda.

Double Tap

A drug-lord targets an undercover FBI agent and the hit man she falls in love with while tracking.

Gangster Land

The story of America's most famous mobsters and their rise to power. Examine Al Capone's ascension through the eyes of his second in command, “Machine Gun” Jack McGurn.

Outrage Coda

Five years after the all-out war between the Sanno and Hanabishi crime families, former yakuza boss Otomo works in South Korea for Mr. Chang, a noted fixer. When tensions rise between Chang and the Hanabishi, and Chang's life is endangered, Otomo returns to Japan to settle things once and for all.

Beyond Outrage

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.

Cops vs. Thugs

When a lucrative waterfront development becomes available, the Kawade gang quickly use their political connections to secure the land. However, the acting boss of the Ohara gang also has his eyes on the property and recruits crooked detective Tokumatsu Kuno to help him hijack the deal. With relations between the rival gangs at breaking point, it's not long before all-out war breaks out as the gangsters, police and local politicians battle for control of the city.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon

Former yakuza underling Kazuma Kiryū has recently been released from prison after a lengthy incarceration and is trying to piece his life together and distance himself from his yakuza past. Unfortunately, Kiryū's problems slowly escalate as he is pursued by a former associate, the baseball-bat-wielding psycho Gorō Majima, who has a grudge to settle with Kiryū.

Street Mobster

After serving time, a defiant street thug is incensed to find his town overrun by two yakuza factions. He gathers his crew and takes them on.

Killer's Romance

A triad assassin is sent to kill a female witness to a murder only to fall in love with her instead.

Tokyo Drifter 2: The Sea Is Bright Red as the Color of Love

The film focuses on the romantic life of Tetsu (Watari), the drifter, and the girls he loves but can never quite bring himself to settle down with. To make matters even more atmospheric, our story is set in a picturesque harbor town. Yoshida is Tetsu's double-crossing rival who pays in the end with his life. Fairly superficial, but the tone isn't particularly light; in fact, it is downright melancholic, which is the picture's salvation. The emphasis on Tetsu never being able to escape his criminal life despite his tender side, the downbeat undercurrent of cynical gang activity amidst the sunset-dappled waves, actually makes this an entertaining sequel. However, Suzuki's irreverent surrealism is replaced by Morinaga's Monet-like impressionism.

Party 7

Seven characters, introduced at the start of the film, get thrown together into the same hotel room: a thief who's stolen a suitcase of money from the mob, his ex-girlfriend, her obsessive boyfriend, the mob soldier sent to retrieve the briefcase, another mobster sent to kill them, master voyeur Captain Banana and his new apprentice, The Mister Yellow. Who will end up with the money?

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