Movies Like Whipmaster: Ballad of Murder

If you liked Whipmaster: Ballad of Murder (1970), a action and drama movie directed by Takashi Harada, 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
Zatoichi (2003)
★ 7.2/10Also drama and action
Blind 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.
2
ICHI (2008)
★ 6.8/10Also action and drama
Ichi is a blind entertainer that travels the countryside with her traditional Japanese guitar and walking stick. She’s in search for the kind man that brought her up as a child, but because of her beauty she encounters…
3
Zatoichi: Darkness Is His Ally (1989)
★ 6.4/10Also action and drama
Older, wiser but still a wandering loner, the blind, peace-loving masseur Ichi seeks a peaceful life in a rural village. When he's caught in the middle of a power struggle between two rival Yakuza clans, his reputation…
4
The Tale of Zatoichi (1962)
★ 7.3/10Also action and drama
The adventures of a blind, gambling masseur and master swordsman. Zatoichi targets a yakuza-controlled village, because war with a neighbouring town's smaller gang is brewing.
5
Rurouni Kenshin Part I: Origins (2012)
★ 7.5/10Also action and history
In 1868, after the Bakumatsu war ends, the ex-assassin Kenshin Himura traverses Japan with an inverted sword, to defend the needy without killing.
6
Harakiri (1962)
★ 8.5/10Also action and drama
Down-on-his-luck veteran Tsugumo Hanshirō enters the courtyard of the prosperous House of Iyi. Unemployed, and with no family, he hopes to find a place to commit seppuku—and a worthy second to deliver the coup de grâce…
7
Kagemusha (1980)
★ 7.8/10Also action and drama
A feudal epic presenting the tale of a petty thief who is recruited to impersonate Shingen, an aging warlord, in order to avoid attacks by competing clans. The impostor becomes comfortable living his life among…
8
Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto (1954)
★ 7.2/10Also drama and action
Struggling to elevate himself from his low caste in 17th century Japan, Miyamoto trains to become a mighty samurai warrior.
9
Outrage (2010)
★ 6.9/10Also action and drama
When a tough yakuza gangster is betrayed by his bosses, it means all out war. Bodies pile up as he takes out everyone in his way to the top in a brutal quest for revenge.
10
Samurai Marathon (2019)
★ 6/10Also action and drama
When feudal lord Itakura Katsuakira decides to prepare his samurai troops for the onslaught of modernization by having them compete in a marathon, his independent-minded daughter Yuki secretly joins the race.
11
Blind Fury (1989)
★ 6.5/10Also action and drama
A blind Vietnam vet, trained as a swordfighter, comes to America and helps to rescue the son of a fellow soldier.
12
Inu-Oh (2022)
★ 7.5/10Also drama and history
A cursed dancer and a blind musician — both ostracized by society — become business partners and inseparable friends as their larger-than-life concerts propel them to stardom in 14th century Japan.
13
Afro Samurai: Resurrection (2009)
★ 6.9/10Also action and drama
Afro Samurai avenged his father and found a life of peace. But the legendary master is forced back into the game by a beautiful and deadly woman from his past. The sparks of violence dropped along Afro’s bloody path…
14
Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo (1970)
★ 6.8/10Also action and drama
Zatoichi treks to a village that has always been a favorite spot of his, only to discover that it’s become a living hell, plagued by feuding father and son yakuza as well as the younger crime boss’s bodyguard, scruffy…
15
Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1973)
★ 7.3/10Also action and drama
In the teeming black markets of postwar Japan, Shozo Hirono and his buddies find themselves in a new war between factious and ambitious yakuza.
16
Black Rain (1989)
★ 6.6/10Also drama and action
Two New York cops get involved in a gang war between members of the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia. They arrest one of their killers and are ordered to escort him back to Japan. However, in Japan he manages to escape, and…
17
Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima (1973)
★ 7.3/10Also drama and action
Repeatedly 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…
18
The Sword of Doom (1966)
★ 7.8/10Also drama and action
Ryunosuke, a gifted swordsman plying his trade during the turbulent final days of Shogunate rule, has no moral code and kills without remorse. It’s a way of life that leads to madness.
19
Samurai Assassin (1965)
★ 7.3/10Also drama and action
Japan, 1860. The men of the Mito clan, victims of the Ansei purge, anxiously prowl around the Sakurada Gate of Edo Castle with the intention of assassinating Naosuke Ii of Hikone, tairō of the Tokugawa shogunate and…
20
Seven Samurai (1954)
★ 8.5/10Also action and drama
A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and…