Movies Like Hostess No. 1
If you liked Hostess No. 1 (2000), a movie directed by Shūji Kataoka, 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

Sakuran (2006)
★ 6.5/10Kiyoha 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.
- 2

Kids Return (1996)
★ 6.9/10Shinji 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…
- 3

Pigs and Battleships (1961)
★ 7.2/10In the city of Yokosuka, Kinta and his lover Haruko, both involved with yakuza, brave the post-occupation period with a goal to be together.
- 4

Street of Shame (1956)
★ 7.7/10Follows five sex workers employed at a Japanese brothel while the nation debates the passage of an anti-prostitution law.
- 5

The Fable (2019)
★ 6.7/10The Fable is a legendary yakuza hitman equal to none—but his boss orders him and his sultry associate to lay low and learn how to live a "normal life" in Osaka.
- 6

Kamikaze Girls (2004)
★ 7.2/10Momoko, a strange and seemingly emotionless girl obsessed with 18th century France, befriends a Yanki biker and the two experience the ups and downs of their unusual lives in a rural Japanese town.
- 7

It Feels So Good (2019)
★ 6.6/10When it rains it pours. Kenji divorced his wife, lost his job and his old squeeze Naoko is getting married back home in the north of Japan, specifically in Akita. He returns there in order to attend her wedding. Naoko…
- 8

Midnight Diner (2014)
★ 7.7/10A restaurant opens at midnight. Both the menu offerings and personality of the owner draw a series of flawed patrons including Tamako, whose boyfriend has passed away, live-in worker Michiru, and ruckus-raising Kenzo.
- 9

Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (1972)
★ 7/10After being cruelly set up and deceived by Sugimi, a detective in cahoots with the mob with whom she was whole-heartedly in love, Matsushima’s desire for revenge knows no bounds.
- 10

Swallowtail Butterfly (1996)
★ 7.5/10The struggles of a group of outcasts living in "Yentown", in an alternate-future Japan.
- 11

The End of Summer (1961)
★ 7.5/10The family of an older man who runs a small sake brewery become concerned with his finances and his health after they discover him visiting an old mistress from his youth.
- 12

Rape Zombie: Lust of the Dead 2 (2013)
★ 6.2/10A strange virus turns 90% of the world population into Lust eating Zombies. However, in Akihabara, Japan, some males were found to be uninfected. These men team up with the Zombies to go after the flesh and blood of…
- 13

Night Is Short, Walk On Girl (2017)
★ 7.4/10As a group of university students go out for a night on the town, a sophomore known only as "The Girl with Black Hair" experiences a series of surreal encounters with the local nightlife – all the while unaware of the…
- 14

Flying Colors (2015)
★ 7.5/10A high school girl, Sayaka Kudō was the bottom of the class. After a year, she improved her deviation value from 30 to 70, then passed Keio University that is considered one of the most difficult to enter in Japan.
- 15

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)
★ 7.6/10In the years before World War II, a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house.
- 16

The Clique (2008)
★ 5.9/10A young girl tries to fit in with a clique of popular middle school girls after moving into the guest house of one of their homes.
- 17

April Story (1998)
★ 7.1/10In spring, a girl leaves the island of Hokkaido to attend university in Tokyo. Once there, she is asked to reveal why she wanted to go there in the first place.
- 18

Boiling Point (1990)
★ 6.9/10Masaki, 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…
- 19

After the Rain (2018)
★ 7.5/10Akira Tachibana is a soft-spoken high school student who used to be a part of the track and field club. Working part-time at a restaurant, she finds herself inexplicably falling in love with her manager, a divorced…
- 20

Gintama 2: Rules Are Made to Be Broken (2018)
★ 7.1/10The Yorozuya gang returns to protect the country's shogun when the Shinsengumi police force finds itself in a crisis.