Movies Like Sympathy for the Underdog

If you liked Sympathy for the Underdog (1971), a drama and action movie directed by Kinji Fukasaku, 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
The Outsider (2018)
★ 6.1/10Also crime and drama
A former American G.I. joins a yakuza family after his release from prison in post-World War II Osaka.
2
Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima (1973)
★ 7.3/10Also drama and crime
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…
3
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…
4
Female Yakuza Tale (1973)
★ 6.1/10Also action and crime
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…
5
The Yakuza (1974)
★ 7.1/10Also crime and drama
When 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
Sonatine (1993)
★ 7.5/10Also action and crime
Murakawa, an aging Tokyo yakuza tiring of gangster life, is sent by his boss to Okinawa along with a few of his henchmen to help end a gang war, supposedly as mediators between two warring clans. He finds that the…
7
Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1973)
★ 7.3/10Also crime and action
In the teeming black markets of postwar Japan, Shozo Hirono and his buddies find themselves in a new war between factious and ambitious yakuza.
8
Kids Return (1996)
★ 6.9/10Also drama and crime
Shinji 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…
9
Outrage (2010)
★ 6.9/10Also action and crime
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
Tokyo Drifter (1966)
★ 7.1/10Also crime and action
After 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…
11
Graveyard of Honor (2002)
★ 6.3/10Also crime and drama
A barkeeper saves a yakuza boss' life and thus makes his way up in the organization. However, his fear of nothing soon causes problems.
12
Gonin (1995)
★ 6.6/10Also action and crime
Five 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.
13
Dead or Alive (1999)
★ 6.4/10Also action and crime
Ryūichi and his small gang of Triad vie for control of the Japanese underworld in a crime-ridden Shinjuku quarter while Detective Jojima tries to bring it down.
14
Ninja (2009)
★ 6.2/10Also action and crime
A westerner named Casey, studying Ninjutsu in Japan, is asked by the Sensei to return to New York to protect the legendary Yoroi Bitsu, an armored chest that contains the weapons of the last Koga Ninja.
15
Outrage Coda (2017)
★ 6.8/10Also action and crime
Five years after the all-out war between the Sanno and Hanabishi crime families, former yakuza boss Otomo works in South Korea for Mr. Chang, a noted fixer. When tensions rise between Chang and the Hanabishi, and…
16
Youth of the Beast (1963)
★ 7/10Also crime and action
When a mysterious stranger muscles into two rival yakuza gangs, Tokyo's underworld explodes with violence.
17
Beyond Outrage (2012)
★ 7/10Also action and crime
As the police launch a full-scale crackdown on organized crime, it ignites a national yakuza struggle between the Sanno of the East and Hanabishi of the West. What started as an internal strife in Outrage has now…
18
American Yakuza (1993)
★ 5.8/10Also crime and action
When Nick Davis leaves prison after one year in solitairy, he is hired to operate a forklift in a warehouse in the harbor owned by the Japanese Yakuza patriarch Isshin Tendo. The place is assaulted by the Italian Mafia…
19
Tokyo Tribe (2014)
★ 6.5/10Also action and drama
In an alternate Japan, territorial street gangs form opposing factions collectively known as the Tokyo Tribes. Merra, leader of the Wu-Ronz tribe of Bukuro, joins forces with heavy-hitting gangster Buppa of Buppa Town…
20
A Family (2021)
★ 7.4/10Also crime and drama
Taken in by the yakuza at a young age, Kenji swears allegiance to his old-school boss, pledging to adhere to the family code amid ever-changing times.