Movies Like A Lively Geisha
If you liked A Lively Geisha (1970), a drama and crime movie directed by Kōsaku Yamashita, 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
Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima (1973)
★ 7.3/10Also drama and crimeRepeatedly beat to a pulp by gamblers, cops, and gangsters, lone wolf Shoji Yamanaka finally finds a home as a Muraoka family hitman and falls in love with boss Muraoka's niece. Meanwhile, the ambitions of mad dog…
- 2
Female Yakuza Tale (1973)
★ 6.1/10Also crime and dramaOcho 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…
- 3
Graveyard of Honor (2002)
★ 6.3/10Also crime and dramaA barkeeper saves a yakuza boss' life and thus makes his way up in the organization. However, his fear of nothing soon causes problems.
- 4
The Eel (1997)
★ 6.9/10Also drama and crimeA 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.
- 5
The Yakuza (1974)
★ 7.1/10Also crime and dramaWhen George Tanner does business with high-ranking Yakuza Tono, Tono kidnaps his daughter, and George summons his old friend, private eye Harry Kilmer, to Japan to investigate.
- 6
Zatoichi (2003)
★ 7.2/10Also dramaBlind traveler Zatoichi is a master swordsman and a masseur with a fondness for gambling on dice games. When he arrives in a village torn apart by warring gangs, he sets out to protect the townspeople.
- 7
Gonin (1995)
★ 6.6/10Also crime and dramaFive men plot to steal a large sum of money from the local yakuza, but everything does not go as planned and the men find themselves hunted down by contract killers.
- 8
Lady Snowblood (1973)
★ 7.5/10Also crime and dramaA strikingly beautiful young woman is trained from birth to be a deadly instrument of revenge against the swindlers who destroyed her family.
- 9
The Killer (2024)
★ 6.3/10Also crimeZee is a feared contract killer known as "the Queen of the Dead," but when she refuses to murder a young blind woman, she finds herself hunted both by criminal colleagues and a determined police detective.
- 10
The Parts You Lose (2019)
★ 6.7/10Also drama and crimeAn unlikely friendship unfolds between a young deaf boy, Wesley, and a fugitive criminal who takes refuge in an abandoned barn on the family’s rural North Dakota farm.
- 11
Agitator (2001)
★ 6.4/10Also crime and dramaWhen a young yakuza torments the customers in a rival crime family's nightclub, it is not long before his dead body is found. Soon, inter-family retaliation follows, resulting in the death for a prominent crime boss…
- 12
Under the Open Sky (2021)
★ 7.5/10Also crime and dramaMikami, an ex-yakuza of middle age with most of his life in prison, gets released after serving 13 years of sentence for murder. Hoping to find his long lost mother, from whom he was separated as a child, he applies…
- 13
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
★ 8/10Also crimeAn assassin is shot by her ruthless employer, Bill, and other members of their assassination circle – but she lives to plot her vengeance.
- 14
The Last Days of American Crime (2020)
★ 6.4/10Also crimeIn the not-too-distant future, as a final response to crime and terrorism, the U.S. government plans to broadcast a signal that will make it impossible for anyone to knowingly break the law.
- 15
Above the Rim (1994)
★ 7.1/10Also crime and dramaStory of a promising high school basketball star and his relationships with two brothers, one a drug dealer and the other a former basketball star fallen on hard times and now employed as a security guard.
- 16
Tokyo Drifter (1966)
★ 7.1/10Also crimeAfter yakuza boss Kurata dissolves his own criminal empire, a rival kingpin offers a position to Kurata's top operative, Tetsuya "Phoenix Tetsu" Hondo. When the fiercely loyal Tetsu declines, Otsuka taps unstoppable…
- 17
Panic (2000)
★ 6.2/10Also crime and dramaAlex is going through a midlife crisis and it has become a very difficult time for him. His marriage is struggling, he's worried about his son, and his job of killing people for his family has become the most stressful…
- 18
Sex and Fury (1973)
★ 6.2/10Also crimeSex & 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…
- 19
Wardriver (2026)
★ 7.4/10Also crimeHe’s a Wardriver: a hacker who steals from banks, not people—until he’s noticed. Now the money turns violent, and the woman caught in it could save him or kill them both.
- 20
Mr. Long (2017)
★ 7.3/10Also crime and dramaLong is a Taiwanese killer known for his sword skills. After Long fails a Tokyo mission, he moves to a small town where no one knows about him.