Movies Like Japanese Torture

If you liked Japanese Torture (1978), a drama and horror movie directed by Banmei Takahashi, 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
Star of David: Beauty Hunting (1979)
★ 6.2/10Also horror
The life of Tatsuya, a young man of proper yet mysterious descent, whose outward respectability hides his urges for rape and torture.
2
The Transgressor (1974)
★ 6.4/10Also drama and horror
18 years after the mysterious death of her mother, Maya takes religious vows to find out what terrible things happened to her mother inside the Sacred Heart Convent. As soon as the door closes to the nunnery, the nuns…
3
Imprint (2006)
★ 6.8/10Also horror
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.
4
Audition (2000)
★ 7.1/10Also horror and drama
Seven years after the death of his wife, widower Shigeharu seeks advice on how to find a new wife from a colleague. Taking advantage of their position as a film company, they stage an audition. Interviewing a series of…
5
The Surrender (2025)
★ 5.9/10Also drama and horror
A fraught mother-daughter relationship is put to a terrifying test when the family patriarch dies, and the grieving mother hires a mysterious stranger to bring her husband back from the dead.
6
Rogue Agent (2022)
★ 6.3/10Also drama
Conman Robert Freegard poses as an undercover MI5 agent and kidnaps countless victims amidst a high-stakes manhunt, until the woman who fell for him brings him to justice.
7
Savaged (2014)
★ 6.7/10Also drama and horror
After thugs brutalize a deaf-mute woman, the spirit of an Apache warrior takes over her lifeless body and sets out on a bloodthirsty quest for revenge.
8
The Eel (1997)
★ 6.9/10Also drama
A businessman kills his adulterous wife and is sent to prison. After his release, he opens a barbershop and meets new people, talking to almost no one except for an eel he befriended while in prison.
9
Baby Blues (2008)
★ 6/10Also drama and horror
On a secluded family farm, a mother suffers a psychotic break due to postpartum depression, forcing the eldest son to protect his sibling from the mother they have always known and loved.
10
The Experiment (2010)
★ 6.4/10Also drama
20 men are chosen to participate in the roles of guards and prisoners in a psychological study that ultimately spirals out of control.
11
Intruders (2015)
★ 5.9/10Also drama and horror
Anna suffers from agoraphobia so crippling that when a trio of criminals break into her house, she cannot bring herself to flee. But what the intruders don't realize is that agoraphobia is not her only psychosis.
12
TalhotBlond (2012)
★ 6.3/10Also drama
Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.
13
The Woman (2011)
★ 6.1/10Also drama and horror
A lawyer puts his family in jeopardy when he captures the last member of a violent clan and tries to forcibly tame her.
14
A Thousand and One Nights (1969)
★ 6.7/10Also drama and horror
Aldin, a vagabond water vendor, embarks of a series of fantastical and tragic misadventures through the Middle East in search of love, fortune, and power.
15
The Truth About Emanuel (2013)
★ 6/10Also drama
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
16
Girl in the Box (2016)
★ 6.7/10Also drama
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
17
The House on Carroll Street (1988)
★ 5.9/10Also drama
A reporter, fired after refusing to give names to a 1951 House Un-American Activities Committee, takes a part-time job as companion to an old lady. While working she overhears a noisy argument in the neighboring house…
18
Antichrist (2009)
★ 6.6/10Also drama and horror
A grieving couple retreats to their cabin 'Eden' in the woods, hoping to repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage. But nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse.
19
Werewolf: The Beast Among Us (2012)
★ 5.9/10Also drama and horror
Set in a 19th century village, a young man studying under a local doctor joins a team of hunters on the trail of a wolf-like creature.
20
Guilty by Suspicion (1991)
★ 6.5/10Also drama
Owing to his alleged involvement with communist parties, film director David Merrill is forbidden from working in Hollywood. He decides to fight for his rights and faces numerous challenges.