Movies like Japanese Torture (1978)
The best movies like Japanese Torture (1978) are Flower & Snake: Zero (2014), The Transgressor (1974) and Audition (2000). If Japanese Torture hooked you with its drama and horror, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedAudition (2000)7.1/10 from 1,897 votes
- NewestThe Surrender (2025)Released 2025
- In JapaneseFlower & Snake: Zero (2014)Also in Japanese
Flower & Snake: Zero (2014)
Misaki Amemiya is an assistant inspector for the Metropolitan Police Department's Community Safety Bureau who becomes ensnared in a trap while investigating a mysterious illegal video website called "Babylon". Soon, she's bound and tortured along with Shizuko and an oversexed housewife named Ruri.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Transgressor (1974)
18 years after the mysterious death of her mother, Maya takes religious vows to find out what terrible things happened to her mother inside the Sacred Heart Convent. As soon as the door closes to the nunnery, the nuns start torturing her. She also has to deal with a lecherous archbishops and a lesbian mother superior.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAudition (2000)
Seven years after the death of his wife, widower Shigeharu seeks advice on how to find a new wife from a colleague. Taking advantage of their position as a film company, they stage an audition. Interviewing a series of women, Shigeharu is enchanted by the quiet Asami. But soon things take a twisted turn as Asami isn’t what she seems to be.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Surrender (2025)
A fraught mother-daughter relationship is put to a terrifying test when the family patriarch dies, and the grieving mother hires a mysterious stranger to bring her husband back from the dead.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Woman (2011)
A lawyer puts his family in jeopardy when he captures the last member of a violent clan and tries to forcibly tame her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKotoko (2011)
When a single mother suffers a nervous breakdown, she is suspected of child abuse and her child is taken away. Her mental suffering escalates as she succumbs to her darkest fantasies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCelia (1989)
In 1950s Australia, young Celia is growing up with a sense of isolation and mistrust of the world that surrounds her. Her mother and father won't let her play with the kids next door because their parents are communists. Then her pet bunny is taken away because of rabbit overpopulation. And, more traumatizing yet, when her grandmother dies, she's the one to discover the corpse. To cope, she retreats into elaborate fantasies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Thousand and One Nights (1969)
Aldin, a vagabond water vendor, embarks of a series of fantastical and tragic misadventures through the Middle East in search of love, fortune, and power.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIntruders (2015)
Anna suffers from agoraphobia so crippling that when a trio of criminals break into her house, she cannot bring herself to flee. But what the intruders don't realize is that agoraphobia is not her only psychosis.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
SnoozefestMovies like thisStar of David: Beauty Hunting (1979)
The life of Tatsuya, a young man of proper yet mysterious descent, whose outward respectability hides his urges for rape and torture.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisImprint (2006)
An American journalist travels through 19th-century Japan to find the prostitute he fell in love with but instead learns of the physical and existential horror that befell her after he left.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSuburbia (1984)
When household tensions and a sense of worthlessness overcome Evan, he finds escape when he clings with the orphans of a throw-away society. The runaways hold on to each other like a family until a tragedy tears them apart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Dry White Season (1989)
During 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.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIron Jawed Angels (2004)
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.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRogue Agent (2022)
Conman Robert Freegard poses as an undercover MI5 agent and kidnaps countless victims amidst a high-stakes manhunt, until the woman who fell for him brings him to justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Dark Mirror (1946)
A sister and her disturbed twin are implicated in a murder and a police detective must figure out which one's the killer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Experiment (2010)
20 men are chosen to participate in the roles of guards and prisoners in a psychological study that ultimately spirals out of control.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Truth About Emanuel (2013)
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Eel (1997)
A businessman kills his adulterous wife and is sent to prison. After his release, he opens a barbershop and meets new people, talking to almost no one except for an eel he befriended while in prison.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTalhotBlond (2012)
Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBallads (1993)
The story of a young man who tragically lost his lover in a horriffic motorcycle accident. Now working at a video store and selling uncensored gay hardcore pornography under the counter, he one day discovers the worlds most bizarre snuff video... which happens to "star" a man who looks exactly like his dead lover. Pushed over the edge by this event, the protagonist goes on a violent rampage, attempting to murder everybody involved in the video's creation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & horror
Naked and Betrayed (2004)
Hard-partying friends Talisa, Cory and city council candidate Mike Finnegan (minus wife Stephanie) celebrate with Claire and Jason on the eve of their wedding. The genders separate for stag and spa parties and the friends swing, but a tragic death closes the stag party, and relationships are troubled while police investigate.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
I Am Your God (1983)
A traveling middle-aged woman plans to stay overnight in Bosnian town. In her dreams, she gets sexually aroused by a thought of young receptionist, whose father doesn't let him to meet with the girl he loves.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Devil Angel (1995)
Chi Kit worked in a stock company. One day, the stock market crashed and Chi Kit ran into bankruptcy. He called his girlfriend Siu Suen and told her everything. Siu Suen loved Chi Kit so much that she took all her savings and ran away with him to Singapore to hide away from their debts. Unfortunately, Chi Kit met a wealthy woman with an interesting proposal, and it changed everything.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Party at Kitty and Stud's (1970)
Stud's world revolves entirely around sex, sex, and more sex — an interest he shares with his way-out friends and his girl Kitty, who likes her men mean and muscular!
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisDangerous Affairs (1990)
The young scion of a rich lineage should get married and give an heir to the family. But no one wants to touch his girlfriend before marriage and instead consoled with the beautiful waitress. But things get complicated and suddenly strange deaths begin to hit the family members.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Kelly's First Nudist Retreat (2003)
Kelly fantasizes about steamy sexual escapades, but can never find the courage to fulfill them. Finally, through a nudist retreat, Kelly realizes exactly what she needs to do to be cured.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Woman Who Wants to Be Raped ~ Requiem for Masochism ~ (1992)
Keiharu Suzuki’s body was set ablaze by a bondage rape soaked in blood! The woman who could never forget that pleasure eventually… An unexpected twist and a chilling conclusion. The entire piece is stained with twisted ecstasy…
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
I Have Two Wives (2019)
Min-ji is an ordinary housewife with a dark secret. Unlike the wishes of her husband, In-gyu, who has a business running resorts, they don't have a child yet. They've tried test tubes and home remedies, but nothing has worked. Her husband and her in-laws finally decide to get a surrogate mother, and Min-ji has no choice but to agree to it, as she is worn out from their pressure. Hometown friend Jeong-ah comes knocking on the door. Min-ji is uneasy with Jeong-ah around, as she knows her past secrets, including the time she lived with someone else and had an abortion. On the other hand, In-gyu has completely fallen for bold and sexy Jeong-ah. Like a crow that nests in another's nest, Jeong-ah takes over Min-ji's place slowly and gradually. Min-ji is driven into a corner, so she meets Jeong-ah's husband, Joo-sik, to stop her. However, she falls for his trap and is used to replace his wife who ran away from home.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
People of Twilight (1984)
A woman runs a “mistress service” and interviews young women for “dates” with men. Various couples get together but someone is following and watching them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Japanese Torture?
The closest matches to Japanese Torture are Flower & Snake: Zero (2014), The Transgressor (1974) and Audition (2000). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Japanese Torture?
Start with Flower & Snake: Zero (2014), the closest match to Japanese Torture.
What is the highest-rated movie like Japanese Torture?
Audition (2000), rated 7.1/10 by 1,897 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Japanese Torture?
The Surrender (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Japanese Torture?
Yes: Flower & Snake: Zero (2014), The Transgressor (1974) and Audition (2000).
How are movies similar to Japanese Torture chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Japanese Torture, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.