Movies Like Bad Company
If you liked Bad Company (2001), a drama movie directed by Tomoyuki Furumaya, 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

Twenty-Four Eyes (1954)
★ 7.7/10Also dramaFrom 1928 to 1946, the lives of 12 young people and their school teacher in a poor Japanese village are profoundly affected by historical events and personal circumstances.
- 2

High and Low (1963)
★ 8.4/10Also dramaA Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.
- 3

Tokyo Story (1953)
★ 8.2/10Also dramaThe elderly Shukishi and his wife, Tomi, take the long journey from their small seaside village to visit their adult children in Tokyo. Their elder son, Koichi, a doctor, and their daughter, Shige, a hairdresser, don't…
- 4

The Emperor's Club (2002)
★ 7.1/10Also dramaWilliam Hundert is a passionate and principled Classics professor who finds his tightly-controlled world shaken and inexorably altered when a new student, Sedgewick Bell, walks into his classroom. What begins as a…
- 5

Kids Return (1996)
★ 6.9/10Also dramaShinji 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…
- 6

Shoplifters (2018)
★ 7.8/10Also dramaIn the outskirts of Tokyo, a poor but close-knit group living on the fringes of society survives through shoplifting and odd jobs. When Osamu and his son take in a neglected young girl, their already fragile existence…
- 7

Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima (1973)
★ 7.3/10Also dramaRepeatedly 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…
- 8

Street of Shame (1956)
★ 7.7/10Also dramaFollows five sex workers employed at a Japanese brothel while the nation debates the passage of an anti-prostitution law.
- 9

Blood and Bones (2004)
★ 6.6/10Also dramaIn 1923, teenager Kim Shun-Pei moves from Cheju Island, in South Korea, to Osaka, in Japan. Along the years, he becomes a cruel, greedy and violent man and builds a factory of kamaboko, processed seafood products, in…
- 10

Song for a Raggy Boy (2003)
★ 7.3/10Also dramaWilliam Franklin is a teacher who was born in Ireland and moved to the United States only to repatriate in 1939 after his leftist political views cause him to lose his job. Franklin becomes the first non-cleric…
- 11

Detachment (2011)
★ 7.6/10Also dramaA chronicle of three weeks in the lives of several high school teachers, administrators and students through the eyes of substitute teacher Henry Barthes. Henry roams from school to school, imparting modes of…
- 12

Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window (2023)
★ 7.4/10Also dramaThis engaging series of childhood recollections tells of an unconventional school in Tokyo during World War II that combined learning with fun, freedom, and love. The school had old railroad cars for classrooms and was…
- 13

Steve (2025)
★ 6.4/10Also dramaOver one intense day, the devoted head teacher of a last-chance reform school strives to keep his students in line while facing pressures of his own.
- 14

Late Spring (1949)
★ 8/10Also dramaNoriko is perfectly happy living at home with her widowed father, Shukichi, and has no plans to marry -- that is, until her aunt Masa convinces Shukichi that unless he marries off his 27-year-old daughter soon, she…
- 15

Confessions (2010)
★ 7.6/10Also dramaDevastated at the death of her four-year-old daughter, a grieving middle school teacher is horrified to discover that her students aren't as innocent as she thinks.
- 16

To End All Wars (2001)
★ 6.4/10Also dramaBased on a real-life story, this drama focuses on a small group of Allied soldiers in Burma who are held captive by the Japanese. Capt. Ernest Gordon, Lt. Jim Reardon and Maj. Ian Campbell are among the military…
- 17

A Dry White Season (1989)
★ 6.7/10Also dramaDuring the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
- 18

Battle Royale (2000)
★ 7.3/10Also dramaIn the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act.
- 19

From Up on Poppy Hill (2011)
★ 7.5/10Also dramaYokohama, 1963. Japan is picking itself up from the devastation of World War II and preparing to host the 1964 Olympics—and the mood is one of both optimism and conflict as the young generation struggles to throw off…
- 20

Hardball (2001)
★ 6.5/10Also dramaAn aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.