Movies like Nagasaki Butterfly (1972)
The best movies like Nagasaki Butterfly (1972) are K-20: The Fiend with Twenty Faces (2008), The Enforcer (2022) and Female Yakuza Tale (1973). If Nagasaki Butterfly hooked you with its action and crime, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBlue Story (2019)7.3/10 from 254 votes
- NewestOne Mile: Chapter Two (2026)Released 2026
- In JapaneseK-20: The Fiend with Twenty Faces (2008)Also in Japanese
K-20: The Fiend with Twenty Faces (2008)
In an alternate version of 1949 Japan in which World War II never happened, the Japanese capital of Teito is home to both an ultra rich upper class and the dirt poor masses. The city is thrown into a state of panic when a phantom thief called “The Kaijin (Fiend) with 20 Faces” (K-20 for short) begins to use his mysterious abilities to steal from the rich and give to the poor. One day a circus acrobat named Heikichi Endo (Takeshi Kaneshiro) is framed for K-20’s crimes and becomes determined to clear his name. He teams up with K-20’s next target, a wealthy duchess named Yoko Hashiba (Takako Matsu) and her detective fiancé (Toru Nakamura), to take K-20 down once and for all.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Enforcer (2022)
A noir thriller set in Miami, the film follows an enforcer who discovers his femme fatale boss has branched out into cyber sex trafficking, putting a young runaway he’s befriended at risk. He sacrifices everything to save the young girl from the deadly organization he’s spent his life building.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFemale Yakuza Tale (1973)
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 gang of female thieves.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSex and Fury (1973)
Sex & Fury chronicles Ocho's exploits as she searches for her father's killers, each identified by unique tattoos on their backs (a deer, a boar, and a butterfly). Along the way, she also crosses paths with Shunosuke, a radical set on murdering prominent politician Kurokawa, and Christina, an American spy posing as a gambler.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Protector (1985)
Billy Wong is a New York City cop whose partner is gunned down during a robbery. Billy and his new partner, Danny Garoni, are working security at a fashion show when a wealthy man's daughter, Laura Shapiro, is kidnapped. The Federal authorities suspect that Laura's father is involved with Mr. Ko, a Hong Kong drug kingpin, so the NYC police commissioner sends the two cops to Hong Kong to investigate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisRisqué (2025)
Fired from a strip club, a vengeful dancer masterminds a high-stakes heist with fellow strippers to take down the corrupt boss and the men who underestimate them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOne Mile: Chapter Two (2026)
Former special forces operative Danny is forced back onto a remote island when a violent, secretive community takes revenge by abducting his daughter Alex, launching a relentless hunt against enemies prepared for his every move.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHow to Rob a Bank (2007)
Caught in the middle of a bank robbery, a slacker and a bank employee become the ones who arbitrate the intense situation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe City of Lost Souls (2000)
Brazilian-Japanese gangster Mario rescues his Chinese girlfriend Kei as she's about to be deported from Japan. Desperate to escape, he hides in Tokyo's booming Japanese-Portuguese community and seeks passage from the country from a Russian mobster. To meet his price, they hold up a bigtime drug deal between the Chinese Mafia and the local Yakuza.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEl padrino: The Latin Godfather (2004)
In the streets of East Los Angeles, Manny is a formidable drug dealer. Impressed by his extravagant lifestyle and prowess, his young son, Kilo, yearns to follow in his footsteps. Kilo resolves to learn how to prosper in the drug world, and his new life as a dealer begins. In a world where a man wants everything, he may end up with nothing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisState Property (2002)
A Philadelphia gang member becomes a drug kingpin and starts a feud with vicious rivals in his quest for the American Dream.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAbsolution (2024)
An aging ex-boxer gangster working as muscle for a Boston crime boss receives an upsetting diagnosis. Despite a faltering memory, he attempts to rectify the sins of his past and reconnect with his estranged children. He is determined to leave a positive legacy for his grandson, but the criminal underworld isn’t done with him and won’t loosen their grip willingly.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Killer (2024)
Zee is a feared contract killer known as "the Queen of the Dead," but when she refuses to murder a young blind woman, she finds herself hunted both by criminal colleagues and a determined police detective.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe System (2022)
When a young soldier, newly returned from war, gets caught up in a drug bust, he is recruited by the authorities to go undercover in a notoriously dangerous prison in order to figure out what is really going on.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisYakuza Graveyard (1976)
A police investigator cracks down on yakuza business, but once he realizes the police are in negotiations with certain factions, he sides with his own syndicate of choice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisX (2011)
A veteran call girl and a runaway prostitute witness a murder which sends them on an out-of-control roller coaster ride through the twilight zone of sex-for-sale.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlue Story (2019)
Blue Story is a tragic tale of a friendship between Timmy and Marco, two young boys from opposing postcodes. Timmy, a shy, smart, naive and timid young boy from Deptford, goes to school in Peckham where he strikes up a friendship with Marco, a charismatic, streetwise kid from the local area. Although from warring postcodes, the two quickly form a firm friendship until it is tested and they wind up on rival sides of a street war. Blue Story depicts elements of Rapman's own personal experiences and aspects of his childhood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIn Secret (2014)
In 1860s Paris, a young woman, Therese, is trapped in a loveless marriage to the sickly Camille by her domineering aunt, Madame Raquin. She spends her days behind the counter of a small shop and her evenings watching Madame play dominos with an eclectic group. After she meets her husband’s alluring friend, Laurent, she embarks on an illicit affair that leads to tragic consequences. Based on Emile Zola’s novel, Thérèse Raquin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKiller Heat (2024)
An expat PI is hired to investigate a suspicious death in Crete, Greece, where jealousies run deep amongst the victim's powerful family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisSmall Apartments (2012)
When a clumsy deadbeat accidentally kills his landlord, he must do everything in his power to hide the body, only to find that the distractions of lust, the death of his beloved brother, and a crew of misfit characters force him on a journey where a fortune awaits him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisTwin Blades of the Ninja (2007)
For Yamame and Suzume, two beautiful young ninjas-in-training, the prospects of a long life are shortened dramatically when they choose the wrong Samurai to relieve of his wallet. Suddenly the buxom pair find themselves caught up in a deadly game with both the life of a princess and their own at stake! But despite the overwhelming odds that face them, Yamame and Suzu have at least one trick no one's expecting inside their ninja arsenal... and they're willing to bare ALL their weapons in order to survive!
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
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 crime
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 crime
Amazon Garden: Uniform Lesbians (1992)
A lesbian teacher (Kanako Kishi) comes to Tokyo in search of her student (Ichiko Kamata), who has dropped out of high school and started living with a bomb-making terrorist (Takeshi Ito).
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Honeymoon (1983)
The first soft core porn flick made in former Yugoslavia (today Croatia). It was a huge cause celebre for the participants and equally infamous for its innumerable shortcomings ranging from the lack of coherent plot-line to the most basic elements of film making. However, in time, it has gained a somewhat cult reputation. A priceless insight into an odd culture and its lax sexual mores and follies!
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Dead End (1978)
A man and woman meet when he pulls her out of an icy fountain that she has just jumped into. But their developing romance is marred by bad friends, money troubles and illegal sex work.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Boss Girl Mafia: Flesh Punishment (Lynch) (1980)
Two young delinquent girls survive on the streets by selling themselves as high school students. But the local girl gang catches them working their territory and brings them to their boss. After they witness a girl getting brutally punished for not obeying their rules the two are given a choice. Join or suffer the consequences. Thus begins a battle of wills and razors as two headstrong women clash.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Bad Detective: Missing (2019)
Mi-ri's friends, who work in a private detective office, leave on a trip to South East Asia. But suddenly, Mi-ri loses contact with her friends, and their whereabouts are unknown. Mi-ri is sure they have been abducted and asks a detective for help... The detective looks into the case, but where will he find Mi-ri's friends?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Rape Ceremony (1980)
In a rural town, ex-members of a motorcycle gang become sporadic victims of vigilante attacks. A group of high school boys are responsible for the various assaults because they're upset that the motorcycle gang had disbanded. The boys idolized the rebel gang and harbored dreams of joining them after graduation. A female student happens to see one of the assaults and is threatened by the high school thugs. But she turns out to tougher than she looks.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Hakuchū no onna gari (2012)
Three men in camouflage uniforms armed with machine guns attack women one after the other as if it were a game. Due to its extreme content, the film was withheld from public release and remained a phantom work for a long time. After 28 years, it was screened for the first time as part of the Nikkatsu 100th anniversary special "Living on Roman Porno" on May 13, 2012.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
Like Nagasaki Butterfly and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Nagasaki Butterfly?
The closest matches to Nagasaki Butterfly are K-20: The Fiend with Twenty Faces (2008), The Enforcer (2022) and Female Yakuza Tale (1973). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Nagasaki Butterfly?
Start with K-20: The Fiend with Twenty Faces (2008), the closest match to Nagasaki Butterfly.
What is the highest-rated movie like Nagasaki Butterfly?
Blue Story (2019), rated 7.3/10 by 254 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Nagasaki Butterfly?
One Mile: Chapter Two (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Nagasaki Butterfly?
Yes: K-20: The Fiend with Twenty Faces (2008), Female Yakuza Tale (1973) and Sex and Fury (1973).
How are movies similar to Nagasaki Butterfly chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Nagasaki Butterfly, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.