Movies Like Forbidden Sands

If you liked Forbidden Sands (1957), a movie directed by Manao Horiuchi, 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
Golden Kamuy (2024)
★ 7/10
On the Hokkaido frontier, a war veteran and Ainu girl race against misfits and military renegades to find treasure mapped out on tattooed outlaws.
2
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…
3
One Million Yen Girl (2008)
★ 7.2/10
A 21-year-old girl is released from prison, only to deal with the neighborhood gossip about her and family conflicts. She decides to save one million yen, move to where no one knows her and keep repeating the process.
4
Still the Water (2014)
★ 6.7/10
On the Japanese island of Amami, despite lacking parental guidance, Kaito and his girlfriend Kyoko try to find their place in the world. While Kaito suffers from the absence of his father, who moved to Tokyo after his…
5
Radiance (2017)
★ 6.5/10
The story follows the social intercourse between a cameraman, Masaya, with a visual impairment, and Misako who disconnects from the world.
6
Chûshingura (1962)
★ 7.1/10
After their lord is tricked into committing ritual suicide, forty-seven samurai warriors await the chance to avenge their master and reclaim their honor.
7
Millennium Actress (2002)
★ 7.9/10
Documentary filmmaker Genya Tachibana has tracked down the legendary actress Chiyoko Fujiwara, who mysteriously vanished at the height of her career. When he presents her with a key she had lost and thought was gone…
8
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.
9
Detective Conan: The Time Bombed Skyscraper (1997)
★ 7.4/10
Once brilliant teenage detective Shinichi Kudo was given a poison that reverted him to a 4-year-old. He's adopted the pseudonym Conan Edogawa so no one (save for an eccentric inventor) will know. Now he's got to solve…
10
Birth of the Dragon (2017)
★ 5.8/10
Set against the backdrop of San Francisco’s Chinatown, this cross-cultural biopic chronicles Bruce Lee’s emergence as a martial-arts superstar after his legendary secret showdown with fellow martial artist Wong Jack Man.
11
Inuyasha the Movie 4: Fire on the Mystic Island (2004)
★ 7.6/10
The mysterious island of Houraijima has reappeared after 50 years, and with its reappearance has brought the attack of four gods, the Shitoushin, who have their eyes set on the powers that protect and sustain the…
12
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…
13
The Trials of Cate McCall (2013)
★ 6.4/10
In order to be reinstated to the bar and recover custody of her daughter, a hotshot lawyer, now in recovery and on probation, must take on the appeal of a woman wrongfully convicted of murder.
14
Love & Pop (1998)
★ 7.7/10
Tokyo schoolgirl Hiromi and her friends engage in a practice known as enjo kosai, or "compensated dating", where older men pay young girls for dates. Hiromi plunges deeper into this world to raise money for an…
15
Sex and Fury (1973)
★ 6.2/10
Sex & Fury chronicles Ocho's exploits as she searches for her father's killers, each identified by unique tattoos on their backs (a deer, a boar, and a butterfly). Along the way, she also crosses paths with Shunosuke…
16
Koati (2021)
★ 7.1/10
Three unlikely heroes - Nachi, a free-spirited coati; Xochi, a fearless monarch butterfly and Pako, a hyperactive glass frog - embark on an adventure to stop wicked coral snake Zaina from destroying their rain forest…
17
Hounddog (2008)
★ 6.5/10
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
18
Kite (1998)
★ 6.6/10
Sawa, orphaned as a child by murderous thugs, now targets the scourge of society as a trained killer for a mercenary syndicate. Coquettish and capable of unimaginable violence, she's grown into the perfect weapon — but…
19
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…
20
Detective Conan: The Million-Dollar Pentagram (2024)
★ 6.9/10
A message has arrived from Kid the Phantom Thief, that he will steal a Japanese sword belonging to wealthy Onoe Family in Hakodate, Hokkaido. Conan and Heiji Hattori, who happened to be in Hakodate, are on the case to…