Movies Like Karayuki-san

If you liked Karayuki-san (1937), a movie directed by Sotoji Kimura, 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
Imprint (2006)
★ 6.8/10
An American journalist travels through 19th-century Japan to find the prostitute he fell in love with but instead learns of the physical and existential horror that befell her after he left.
2
Antiporno (2017)
★ 6.6/10
Kyôko, a traumatized young Japanese girl, finds herself struggling with her self-confidence in her adult life. Growing up in a family without her mother and her sister, she constantly questions the rationale of sex and…
3
A Man (2022)
★ 7.1/10
Akira works as a lawyer. One day, he meets with his former client Rie, who asks Akira to perform a background check on her late husband Daisuke.
4
Irezumi (1966)
★ 6.8/10
Otsuya, the daughter of a rich merchant, elopes with her lover Shinsuke, an employee of her father's. During their flight, Otsuya's beauty attracts the gaze of Seikichi, a mysterious master tattooist who sees her…
5
Detective Conan: Crossroad in the Ancient Capital (2003)
★ 7.1/10
Mouri Kogoro is called to a special case in the ancient capital of Kyoto. There, Conan meets Heiji and they team up once again to solve the case, recover the stolen Healing Buddha statue, and even discover the identity…
6
Tokyo Decadence (1992)
★ 6/10
A submissive hooker goes about her trade, suffering abuse at the hands of Japanese salarymen and Yakuza types. She's unhappy about her work, and is apparently trying to find some sort of appeasement for the fact that…
7
The World of Kanako (2014)
★ 6.4/10
When Kanako, a model daughter and a brilliant student, disappears, her mother asks her ex-husband, a violent former policeman, to find her. As his investigation progresses, his idealized image of Kanako cracks: the…
8
Late Spring (1949)
★ 8/10
Noriko is perfectly happy living at home with her widowed father, Shukichi, and has no plans to marry -- that is, until her aunt Masa convinces Shukichi that unless he marries off his 27-year-old daughter soon, she…
9
Guilty of Romance (2011)
★ 6.9/10
While police investigate a woman found dead in a derelict love hotel, a romance novelist's wife lives a life that seems simply a daily repetition without romance. To escape the loveless monotony, she follows her…
10
Female Yakuza Tale (1973)
★ 6.1/10
Ocho is accidentally captured by a drug trafficking cartel who use Chinese women to smuggle drugs into Japan by hiding it in their vaginas. She is tortured, and manages to escape, fighting both the male yakuzas and a…
11
Sakuran (2006)
★ 6.5/10
Kiyoha rises from the lowly courtesan ranks to the high class position of Oiran in the steamy red-light district of Yoshiwara. She is determined to stand on her own two feet and live life as she pleased.
12
Blood and Bones (2004)
★ 6.6/10
In 1923, teenager Kim Shun-Pei moves from Cheju Island, in South Korea, to Osaka, in Japan. Along the years, he becomes a cruel, greedy and violent man and builds a factory of kamaboko, processed seafood products, in…
13
GO (2001)
★ 7.4/10
Sugihara, a Japanese-born, third-generation Korean teenager struggles to find a place in a society that will not accept him.
14
Strange Circus (2005)
★ 7.2/10
The erotic novelist Taeko is writing a morbid story of a family destroyed by incest, murder and abuse. Her assistant, Yuji, sets on a mission to uncover the reality of this story, but the reality might be too much to…
15
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…
16
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (2021)
★ 7.2/10
An unexpected love triangle, a seduction trap, and a random encounter are the three episodes, told in three movements to depict three female characters and trace the trajectories between their choices and regrets.
17
MOTHER (2020)
★ 7/10
Shuhei is leading a tough life. His alcoholic mother Akiko can only hook up with bad guys and order Shuhei to go get money from his disapproving grandparents instead of going to school. Except raising the little…
18
Love Exposure (2008)
★ 7.9/10
The story of a teenage boy called Yu, who falls for Yoko, a girl he runs into while operating for the sake of sin as an upskirt photographer in an offshoot of the porn industry. His attempts to woo her are complicated…
19
Sayonara (1957)
★ 6.7/10
Air Force Major Lloyd Gruver is reassigned to a Japanese air base and is confronted with US racial prejudice against the Japanese people. The issue is compounded because a number of the soldiers become romantically…
20
The Beautician and the Beast (1997)
★ 6.7/10
A New York City beautician is mistakenly hired as the school teacher for the children of the president of a small Eastern European country.