Movies Like Shimizu Harbor Is More Frightening Than the Devil

If you liked Shimizu Harbor Is More Frightening Than the Devil (1952), a movie directed by Tai Katō, here are 20 movies with a similar feel, based on TMDB's recommendations. Each one links to its cast, trailer and where it's streaming.

1
Kamui (2009)
★ 6.1/10
A rebellious ninja in 17th century Japan takes refuge with a fisherman and his family.
2
Rurouni Kenshin Part I: Origins (2012)
★ 7.5/10
In 1868, after the Bakumatsu war ends, the ex-assassin Kenshin Himura traverses Japan with an inverted sword, to defend the needy without killing.
3
Samurai Rebellion (1967)
★ 8.2/10
The mother of a feudal lord's only heir is kidnapped by the lord. Her husband and his samurai father must decide whether to accept the unjust decision, or risk death to rescue her.
4
Rurouni Kenshin Part III: The Legend Ends (2014)
★ 7.7/10
Shishio sets sail in his ironclad ship to bring down the government. In order to stop him, Kenshin trains with his old master to learn his final technique.
5
Kill! (1968)
★ 7/10
A pair of down-on-their-luck swordsmen arrive in a dusty, windblown town, where they become involved in a local clan dispute. One, previously a farmer, longs to become a noble samurai. The other, a former samurai…
6
Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple (1955)
★ 7.2/10
After years on the road establishing his reputation as Japan's greatest fencer, Takezo returns to Kyoto. Otsu waits for him, yet he has come not for her but to challenge the leader of the region's finest school of…
7
Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's Art World Tales (2025)
★ 8.1/10
Nobita and Doraemon enter the world in a European Renaissance painting, but run into trouble as they hop from piece to piece in search of a malevolent time traveler who wishes to recreate the extinct pigment of…
8
Double Suicide (1969)
★ 7/10
Successful and married with children, paper-mill owner Jihei knows better than to contradict the strict social and moral codes of 18th-century Japan. But when he meets the lovely courtesan Koharu, he becomes a man…
9
47 Ronin (2013)
★ 6.2/10
Kai—an outcast—joins Oishi, the leader of 47 outcast samurai. Together they seek vengeance upon the treacherous overlord who killed their master and banished their kind. To restore honour to their homeland, the…
10
Kaiju No. 8: Mission Recon (2025)
★ 8/10
In a Kaiju-filled Japan, Kafka Hibino works in monster disposal. After reuniting with his childhood friend Mina Ashiro, a rising star in the anti-Kaiju Defense Force, he decides to pursue his abandoned dream of joining…
11
Zatoichi: Darkness Is His Ally (1989)
★ 6.4/10
Older, wiser but still a wandering loner, the blind, peace-loving masseur Ichi seeks a peaceful life in a rural village. When he's caught in the middle of a power struggle between two rival Yakuza clans, his reputation…
12
Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto (1954)
★ 7.2/10
Struggling to elevate himself from his low caste in 17th century Japan, Miyamoto trains to become a mighty samurai warrior.
13
Ugetsu (1953)
★ 8/10
In 16th century Japan, peasants Genjuro and Tobei sell their earthenware pots to a group of soldiers in a nearby village, in defiance of a local sage's warning against seeking to profit from warfare. Genjuro's pursuit…
14
Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning (2021)
★ 7.7/10
Before he was a protector, Kenshin was a fearsome assassin known as Battosai. But when he meets gentle Tomoe Yukishiro, a beautiful young woman who carries a huge burden in her heart, his life will change forever.
15
Love and Honor (2006)
★ 7.4/10
A look at the relationship between a young blind samurai and his wife, who will make a sacrifice in order to defend her husband's honor.
16
The Twilight Samurai (2002)
★ 7.8/10
Seibei Iguchi leads a difficult life as a low ranking samurai at the turn of the nineteenth century. A widower with a meager income, Seibei struggles to take care of his two daughters and senile mother. New prospects…
17
Crayon Shinchan the Movie: Super-Dimension! The Storm Called My Bride (2010)
★ 7.6/10
Shin-chan is approached by his time-traveling future bride-to-be Tamiko, who asks him to help save his adult self from the ruler of Neo Tokio.
18
Cat Soup (2001)
★ 7.1/10
The surreal black comedy follows Nyatta, an anthropomorphic kitten, on his travel to the land of the dead and back in an effort to save his sister's soul.
19
ICHI (2008)
★ 6.8/10
Ichi is a blind entertainer that travels the countryside with her traditional Japanese guitar and walking stick. She’s in search for the kind man that brought her up as a child, but because of her beauty she encounters…
20
Ran (1985)
★ 8/10
Shakespeare's King Lear is reimagined as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan where an aging warlord divides his kingdom between his three sons.