MOVIEPAD
Search icon

Movies Like The General and His Empire of Joy

If you liked The General and His Empire of Joy (1977), a drama movie directed by Ikuo Sekimoto, 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. 1Tokyo Decadence

    Tokyo Decadence (1992)

    ★ 6/10Also drama

    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…

  2. 2Antiporno

    Antiporno (2017)

    ★ 6.6/10Also drama

    Kyôko, a traumatized young Japanese girl, finds herself struggling with her self-confidence in her adult life. Growing up in a family without her mother and her sister, she constantly questions the rationale of sex and…

  3. 3One Million Yen Girl

    One Million Yen Girl (2008)

    ★ 7.2/10Also drama

    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. 4Hounddog

    Hounddog (2008)

    ★ 6.5/10Also drama

    A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.

  5. 5Intentions of Murder

    Intentions of Murder (1964)

    ★ 7.1/10Also drama

    The neglected common-law wife of a Japanese librarian is repeatedly harassed by a young man with a heart condition who seduces her with the prospect of a better life.

  6. 6Iron Jawed Angels

    Iron Jawed Angels (2004)

    ★ 6.8/10Also drama

    Defiant young activists take the women's suffrage movement by storm, putting their lives at risk to help American women win the right to vote.

  7. 7The Trials of Cate McCall

    The Trials of Cate McCall (2013)

    ★ 6.4/10Also drama

    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.

  8. 8Sakuran

    Sakuran (2006)

    ★ 6.5/10Also drama

    Kiyoha 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.

  9. 9The Safety of Objects

    The Safety of Objects (2002)

    ★ 6.5/10Also drama

    In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband…

  10. 10Female Yakuza Tale

    Female Yakuza Tale (1973)

    ★ 6.1/10Also drama

    Ocho 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…

  11. 11Call Me Crazy: A Five Film

    Call Me Crazy: A Five Film (2013)

    ★ 7/10Also drama

    A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.

  12. 12Pimp

    Pimp (2018)

    ★ 6.2/10Also drama

    An urban love story set on the hard streets of the Bronx. A struggling female pimp, named Wednesday, grows up learning the game from her dad. Once he's gone she's left to look out for her prostitute mother and…

  13. 13Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl

    Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998)

    ★ 7.2/10Also drama

    Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even…

  14. 14House of Bamboo

    House of Bamboo (1955)

    ★ 6.2/10Also drama

    Eddie Kenner is given a special assignment by the Army to get the inside story on Sandy Dawson, a former GI who has formed a gang of fellow servicemen and Japanese locals.

  15. 15Mai Mai Miracle

    Mai Mai Miracle (2009)

    ★ 7.1/10Also drama

    Inspired by her grandfather's stories, young Shinko embarks on wild flights of fancy about the history of the little town she lives in. But dreams can't fend off the realities of growing up.

  16. 16The Poker House

    The Poker House (2008)

    ★ 6.2/10Also drama

    Agnes and her two sisters struggle through a day in a home overrun by gamblers, thieves, and johns.

  17. 17Ritual

    Ritual (2000)

    ★ 7.7/10Also drama

    A disillusioned filmmaker has an encounter with a young woman who has a ritual of repeating "Tomorrow is my birthday" everyday. He tries to communicate with her through his video camera.

  18. 18Lucky Them

    Lucky Them (2013)

    ★ 6/10Also drama

    More interested in partying and flirting with young musicians than work, veteran rock journalist Ellie Klug has one last chance to prove her value to her magazine’s editor: a no-stone-unturned search to discover what…

  19. 19Irezumi

    Irezumi (1966)

    ★ 6.8/10Also drama

    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…

  20. 20BLAME!

    BLAME! (2017)

    ★ 6.5/10Also drama

    In the distant technological future, civilization has reached its ultimate Net-based form. An "infection" in the past caused the automated systems to spiral out of order, resulting in a multi-leveled city structure…

← Back to The General and His Empire of Joy