Movies like Punishment of a Lawless Villian (1964)
The best movies like Punishment of a Lawless Villian (1964) are Lady Snowblood (1973), A Colt is My Passport (1967) and Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima (1973). If Punishment of a Lawless Villian hooked you with its crime and action, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedRurouni Kenshin Part II: Kyoto Inferno (2014)7.6/10 from 683 votes
- NewestPrimitive War (2025)Released 2025
- In JapaneseLady Snowblood (1973)Also in Japanese
Lady Snowblood (1973)
A strikingly beautiful young woman is trained from birth to be a deadly instrument of revenge against the swindlers who destroyed her family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Colt is My Passport (1967)
A gang lord hires Kamimura, a hit man, to take out a rival boss who's gotten greedy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBattles Without Honor and Humanity: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima (1973)
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 Katsutoshi Otomo draws our series' hero, Shozo Hirono, and the other yakuza into a new round of bloodshed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNo Retreat, No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers (1990)
Two feuding brothers of differing political views, one a policeman, the other a martial artist, join forces to avenge the death of their father, a retired agent who was brutally murdered by the mafia.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAccident Man (2018)
Mike Fallon, the Accident Man, is a stone cold killer. When a loved one is murdered by his own crew, Fallon is forced to avenge the one person who actually meant something to him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRainy Dog (1997)
A Japanese assassin stranded in Taiwan must take work from a local crime boss to make ends meet when suddenly a woman from his past delivers a son to him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJigen Daisuke (2023)
Feeling unhappy with his gun, Jigen is looking for the world’s best gunsmith. He finally finds out that Chiharu, who runs a watch shop, is the person he’s been seeking. Then, Jigen meets Oto, who comes to Chiharu’s shop looking for a gun. Jigen finds out about Oto's secrets and the mysterious organization that’s after her. After Oto is kidnapped, Jigen gets into a desperate battle to save her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRevenge of the Ninja (1983)
A peaceful ex-ninja's life shatters when his son's kidnapping forces him back into violence amid an American-Japanese criminal drug war.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAccident Man: Hitman's Holiday (2022)
The Accident Man is back, and this time he must best the top assassins in the world to protect the ungrateful son of a mafia boss, save the life of his only friend and rekindle his relationship with his maniacal father figure.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fable (2019)
The Fable is a legendary yakuza hitman equal to none—but his boss orders him and his sultry associate to lay low and learn how to live a "normal life" in Osaka.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Virtuoso (2021)
Danger, deception and murder descend upon a sleepy town when a professional assassin accepts a new assignment from his enigmatic boss.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & action
SnoozefestMovies like thisNinja (2009)
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.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRurouni Kenshin Part I: Origins (2012)
In 1868, after the Bakumatsu war ends, the ex-assassin Kenshin Himura traverses Japan with an inverted sword, to defend the needy without killing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPokémon the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back - Evolution (2019)
After accepting an invitation from a mysterious trainer, Ash, Misty and Brock meet Mewtwo, an artificially created Pokémon who wants to do battle.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRurouni Kenshin Part II: Kyoto Inferno (2014)
Kenshin has settled into his new life with Kaoru and his other friends when he is approached with a request from the Meiji government. Makoto Shishio, a former assassin like Kenshin, was betrayed, set on fire and left for dead. He survived, and is now in Kyoto, plotting with his gathered warriors to overthrow the new government. Against Kaoru's wishes, Kenshin reluctantly agrees to go to Kyoto and help keep his country from falling back into civil war.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGantz: Perfect Answer (2011)
Summoned by the black sphere, Kei and Masaru fight against extraterrestrials until Masaru grows tired of fighting and refuses to continue.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMumon: The Land of Stealth (2017)
Raised suckling poison arrows among the sparring Iga ninja factions, Mumon is a carefree 16th-century mercenary. When the ninja council makes a power play to defeat the young Nobukatsu Oda struggling to step into his father’s warlord shoes as they expand rule across the country, Mumon jumps into the fray to satisfy his new bride Okuni’s demand that he make good on his promises of wealth. Yet Mumon soon finds what is worth fighting for beyond money or nation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKubi (2023)
Lord Oda Nobunaga plans to control Japan where rival warlords battle by waging war against several clans. His vassal Araki Murashige stages a rebellion and promptly disappears.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like this11 Rebels (2024)
When the brutal Boshin War breaks out in Japan, a group of inmates on death row unite to defend a fortress against the Imperial army.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKiller Sword (1965)
1884. The samurai days have come to an end. Capitalism and democracy flourished across Japan. But in Chichibu, an area just north of Tokyo, samurai spirits still lived. Out of the many schools that taught Japanese swordsmanship, the school of Ono and Kogen were most dominant. Every year, they each selected a master swordsman to fight a dedicatory match held at the Chichibu Shrine. Gengo (Hideki Takahashi) represented the school of Ono. His opponent Danhichiro of the Kogen school was feared by many as the "Devil".
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & action
Mute (2022)
William, a middle-aged traveling salesman, confesses his life story to a deaf and mute hitchhiker.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Snow on The Blades (2014)
At Sakurada Gate in 1860, the shogun’s chief minister and his retinue of bodyguards are ambushed and annihilated. Bearing the responsibility and shame for this failure is Shimura Kingo, master swordsman and chief of the guard. Forbidden to take his own life in atonement, he is instead tasked with hunting down the remaining assassins; however, fate intervenes and now only one is left. Devoted to his late lord and his duty, he relentlessly pursues the sole remaining assassin for the next thirteen years. But times are changing in Japan and the way of the sword has become outlawed. What does this mean for Kingo?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Umney's Last Case (2006)
It’s just another ordinary day in 1930s Los Angeles for private investigator Clyde Umney, until a new client walks into his office. Umney soon learns that his client is the crime-fiction writer who not only created him, but now needs to switch places with him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Buddy (2024)
Pallavi is an Air Traffic Control officer who suffers a major accident. The doctor along with his crew sends Pallavi into a coma so that he can sell her body parts in Hong Kong. While all this happens, Pallavi's soul enters a teddy bear and reaches the home of a pilot Aditya Ram who shares a past with Pallavi. The rest of the story is as to how the teddy bear and Aditya head to Hong Kong to save the body of Pallavi. The film is an adaptation of the Tamil film "Teddy".
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Trucks (1997)
A group of seemingly humanistic trucks takeover a truck stop and starts killing everything in sight. The remaining townsfolk must band together and come up with a way to murder the inanimate objects, a seemingly difficult task considering the abnormal circumstances.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
SnoozefestMovies like thisPrimitive War (2025)
During the Vietnam War, a recon unit ventures to an isolated jungle valley to uncover the fate of a missing platoon. They soon find themselves in a fight for their lives against an unexpected enemy — prehistoric dinosaurs.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMute (2012)
Monette, a middle-aged salesman, picks up a deaf/mute hitchhiker on the road. The hitchhiker falls asleep and Monette vents his problems knowing they fall on deaf ears. He rants about his wife’s infidelity and her embezzlement from her employer. Monette thinks nothing of this encounter until two days later his wife and her lover are found murdered.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
In the Deathroom (2014)
Fletcher tells his psychiatrist how he was mistakenly held captive by a mysterious secret service. This secret service is said to have tried to manipulate him in an elaborate power game to break his spirit. Fletcher's psychiatrist is suspicious of the story and tries to help Fletcher stay sane, because the truth is even more frightening.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Saga from Chichibu Mountains - Sword Cuts the Shadows (1967)
During the 1880's a young swordsman, Saotome Gengo, on his way to Tokyo stops at an inn in a small town. But he does not know that his prowess has already attracted envious attention and that Senzo, the boss of the local gang, plans to have him killed. Seiji, the disowned son of the innkeeper, has run up a big gambling bill and, to settle it, the hoodlums decide to kill him. He is saved, however, by Hanako, star of the dancing troupe also staying at the inn. Gengo meets Hanako and learns that the troupe cannot open their show because the local police corruptly demand too much of the receipts. After another fight, Gengo sees the police-chief on behalf of the troupe, but is refused. So he suspects that the police and the hoodlums are implicated with each other. There seems no way to open the show until they hear that the governor is coming to the town for a local banquet. They appeal to him and he promises to investigate. It is decided that a duel will settle the matter...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Punishment of a Lawless Villian?
The closest matches to Punishment of a Lawless Villian are Lady Snowblood (1973), A Colt is My Passport (1967) and Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima (1973). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Punishment of a Lawless Villian?
Start with Lady Snowblood (1973), the closest match to Punishment of a Lawless Villian.
What is the highest-rated movie like Punishment of a Lawless Villian?
Rurouni Kenshin Part II: Kyoto Inferno (2014), rated 7.6/10 by 683 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Punishment of a Lawless Villian?
Primitive War (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Punishment of a Lawless Villian?
Yes: Lady Snowblood (1973), A Colt is My Passport (1967) and Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima (1973).
How are movies similar to Punishment of a Lawless Villian chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Punishment of a Lawless Villian, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.