Movies like Samurai Fiction (1998)
The best movies like Samurai Fiction (1998) are Scooby-Doo! and the Samurai Sword (2009), The Paper Tigers (2020) and Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991). If Samurai Fiction hooked you with its action and comedy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedSanjuro (1962)7.9/10 from 763 votes
- NewestLast will (2025)Released 2025
- In JapaneseSukiyaki Western Django (2007)Also in Japanese
Scooby-Doo! and the Samurai Sword (2009)
The Mystery Inc. gang takes a trip to Japan and finds themselves circling Asia and the Pacific in a treasure hunt, racing against the vengeful Black Samurai and his Ninja warriors to find the legendary Sword of Fate, an ancientblade fabled to possess extraordinary supernaturalpowers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Paper Tigers (2020)
Three middle aged men polish their martial arts skills to avenge their fallen master.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShowdown in Little Tokyo (1991)
An American with a Japanese upbringing, Chris Kenner is a police officer assigned to the Little Tokyo section of Los Angeles. Kenner is partnered with Johnny Murata, a Japanese-American who isn't in touch with his roots. Despite their differences, both men excel at martial arts, and utilize their formidable skills when they go up against Yoshida, a vicious yakuza drug dealer with ties to Kenner's past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSukiyaki Western Django (2007)
A nameless gunfighter arrives in a town ripped apart by rival gangs and, though courted by both to join, chooses his own path.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGolden Kamuy (2024)
On the Hokkaido frontier, a war veteran and Ainu girl race against misfits and military renegades to find treasure mapped out on tattooed outlaws.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKung Pow: Enter the Fist (2002)
A movie within a movie, created to spoof the martial arts genre. Writer/director Steve Oedekerk uses contemporary characters and splices them into a 1970s kung-fu film, weaving the new and old together. As the main character, The Chosen One, Oedekerk sets off to avenge the deaths of his parents at the hands of kung-fu legend Master Pain. Along the way he encounters some strange characters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCrows Zero (2007)
The students of Suzuran High compete for the King of School title. An ex-graduate yakuza is sent to kill the son of a criminal group, but he can't make himself do it as he reminds him of his youth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlade of the 47 Ronin (2022)
A new class of warriors emerges among the Samurai clans to keep a sought-after sword from falling into the wrong hands.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLast Knights (2015)
When an evil emperor executes their leader, his band of knights – bound by duty and honour – embarks on a journey of vengeance that will not come to an end until they've destroyed their mortal foe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKingdom (2019)
Set in Qin Dynasty during the warring states period in ancient China. Shin was a war orphan. He has a dream of becoming a great general Shin has a fateful encounter with young King Eisei. King Eisei aims to unify all of China.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLupin the Third: Jigen's Gravestone (2014)
Lupin & Jigen have their sights set on a treasure called the Little Comet, which is located in the heavily fortified country of East Doroa. During the heist, Jigen is almost killed by a sniper named Yael Okuzaki. His specialty is preparing tombstones for his targets before executing them. It's said that no one can survive after Yael makes their tombstone.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAmerican Ninja (1985)
Joe Armstrong, an orphaned drifter with little respect for much other than martial arts, finds himself on an American Army base in the Philippines after a judge gives him a choice of enlistment or prison. On one of his first missions driving a convoy, his platoon is attacked by a group of rebels who try to steal the weapons the platoon is transporting and kidnap the base colonel's daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHe-Man and She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword (1985)
After experiencing traumatic nightmares of a time now past, the Sorceress summons Prince Adam and Cringer to Castle Grayskull to give Adam a precious, jeweled sword and send the pair to the planet Etheria to investigate its secrets.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeyond Outrage (2012)
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 become a nationwide war in Outrage Beyond.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRoad to Ninja: Naruto the Movie (2012)
Sixteen years ago, a mysterious masked ninja unleashes a powerful creature known as the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox on the Hidden Leaf Village Konoha, killing many people. In response, the Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze and his wife Kushina Uzumaki, the Demon Fox's living prison or Jinchūriki, manage to seal the creature inside their newborn son Naruto Uzumaki. With the Tailed Beast sealed, things continued as normal. However, in the present day, peace ended when a group of ninja called the Akatsuki attack Konoha under the guidance of Tobi, the mysterious masked man behind Fox's rampage years ago who intends on executing his plan to rule the world by shrouding it in illusions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRurouni Kenshin Part III: The Legend Ends (2014)
Shishio sets sail in his ironclad ship to bring down the government. In order to stop him, Kenshin trains with his old master to learn his final technique.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisConan the Destroyer (1984)
Conan is commissioned by the evil queen Taramis to safely escort a teen princess and her powerful bodyguard to a far away castle to retrieve the magic Horn of Dagoth. Unknown to Conan, the queen plans to sacrifice the princess when she returns and inherit her kingdom after the bodyguard kills Conan. The queen's plans fail to take into consideration Conan's strength and cunning and the abilities of his sidekicks: the eccentric wizard Akiro, the warrior woman Zula, and the inept Malak. Together the hero and his allies must defeat both mortal and supernatural foes in this voyage to sword-and-sorcery land.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLupin the Third: Dragon of Doom (1994)
The Lupin gang is once again dragged onto a wild treasure hunt! This time, the objective is a mysterious, small dragon statue that even Goemon's steel-rendering blade Zantetsuken cannot cut. The artifact, which once eluded even Lupin the Third's esteemed grandfather, rests deep undersea inside the infamous Titanic, and is the key to unlocking the mystery of Zantetsuken's almighty strength. A wealthy gangster, Lupin, and Goemon all want the statue for themselves!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStreet Fighter II: The Animated Movie (1994)
Bison, the ruthless leader of the international terrorist organization Shadowlaw, has been desperately searching for the greatest fighter on the planet for years. He finds it in Ryu, a young wanderer who never stays in one place long enough for Bison to find him. He does, however, get a fix on Ken Masters, an American martial arts champion who studied with Ryu as a child under the same master. Meanwhile, Major Guile of the United States Army is forced to team up with Chun Li from China in hopes of apprehending Bison and putting a stop his international ring of crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSword of the Stranger (2007)
Pursued by formidable Chinese assassins, young Kotaro and his dog run into No Name, a mysterious stranger who gets pulled into the chase. The unlikely companions form a bond over saving the dog from a poison attack, but chaos erupts when the assassins find Kotaro, and No Name must face his past before a horrible fate is met again.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSoldier of Fortune (1976)
Medieval soldier of fortune Ettore is traveling through Europe with his partners looking for a fight where they can earn some money. When they come across a Spanish castle under siege by the French army, Ettore bides his time to determine which side is the winning one. This is at first the French, but the treatment he receives from them is unpleasant enough to make him change his mind and turn to the Spanish side. Somehow, Ettore must rally the weakened Spanish troops to battle their enemy long enough for reinforcements to arrive.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSamurai Cat: The Movie (2014)
The ever versatile Kazuki Kitamura stars as masterless samurai Kyutaro Madarame, a feared swordsman who has fallen on hard times in old Edo. Caught between two warring gangs in an epic battle of cat lovers and dog lovers, he begrudgingly accepts the canine faction's offer to assassinate the opposite leader's beloved pet: an adorable white cat. Yet upon raising his lethal sword, he cannot bring himself to go through with the act, and the cat melts his ronin heart. But before finding peace as a newly minted cat person, the still fearsome Madarame will have to take on both gangs in a classic samurai street brawl.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & comedy
Sanjuro (1962)
In this companion piece and sequel to "Yojimbo," jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan's evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a proper samurai on its ear.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & comedy
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisFirewalker (1986)
A pair of adventurers try to track down an ancient Aztec/Mayan/Egyptian/Apache horde of gold.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisRing of the Nibelungs (2004)
In this swords-and-sorcery tale, good-hearted blacksmith Eyvind hides away infant Prince Siegfried after two malevolent kings murder his father. But a fiery meteor sent by the gods reveals Siegfried's destiny, sending him on the quest of a lifetime. To save a crumbling kingdom claim the heart of his true love, he'll have to slay the nefarious dragon, Fafnir.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlodder 3 (1995)
Back from their trip abroad, the family must meet the people of the neighborhood while preparing for the 25th anniversary of Zonnedael. Ma falls in love with a bum that is not exactly what he seems to be.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisLast will (2025)
A wealthy family gathers for the reading of Eduardo Tejada's will
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Daikaiju Eiga G (2007)
Student film and first feature by director Kiyotaka Taguchi. A giant monster invades Japan sending everyone into a panic. The military efforts are useless until a giant robot appears to save humanity. Blends tokusatsu practical FX with CG for an impressive debut.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
The Crimson Pirate (1952)
Burt Lancaster plays a pirate with a taste for intrigue and acrobatics who involves himself in the goings on of a revolution in the Caribbean in the late 1700s. A light hearted adventure involving prison breaks, an oddball scientist, sailing ships, naval fights and tons of swordplay.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSamurai Hustle (2014)
During the reign of the eighth shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, the Yunagaya Domain in the Tohoku region is a small han. But at the han, there is a gold mine. Suddenly, Masaatsu Naito of Yunagaya Domain receives an order to perform Sankin-kotai within 5 days. Sankin-kotai is a custom that requires the daimyo to visit the shogun in Edo. Unfortunately, the time needed to visit the shogun in Edo for Masaatsu Naito is 8 days. Masaatsu Naito also learns he received the order because a high ranking government official wants the gold mine. Also, the expense for Sankin-kotai is high and the Yunagaya Domain is such a small han that it seems impossible to complete. Nevertheless, Masaatsu Naito begins an unexpected operation to complete Sankin-kotai in 5 days.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Samurai Fiction?
The closest matches to Samurai Fiction are Scooby-Doo! and the Samurai Sword (2009), The Paper Tigers (2020) and Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Samurai Fiction?
Start with Scooby-Doo! and the Samurai Sword (2009), the closest match to Samurai Fiction.
What is the highest-rated movie like Samurai Fiction?
Sanjuro (1962), rated 7.9/10 by 763 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Samurai Fiction?
Last will (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Samurai Fiction?
Yes: Sukiyaki Western Django (2007), Golden Kamuy (2024) and Crows Zero (2007).
How are movies similar to Samurai Fiction chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Samurai Fiction, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.