Movies like A Dirty Carnival (2006)
The best movies like A Dirty Carnival (2006) are Breathless (2009), Rough Cut (2008) and New World (2013). If A Dirty Carnival hooked you with its crime and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedSympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002)7.5/10 from 1,820 votes
- NewestProject Y (2026)Released 2026
- In KoreanBreathless (2009)Also in Korean
Breathless (2009)
Sang-hoon is a lowlife gangster, a debt collector exercising thuggish ways to collect his money. The recipient of nothing but anger since his childhood, he expresses himself through violence. When he finally encounters someone who can stand up to him, feisty school-girl Yoon-hee they become unlikely friends.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRough Cut (2008)
Gang-pae is #2 gangster in his organization who longs to become an actor. Su-ta is a superstar actor who takes on the role of a gangster in an action movie called Rough Cut. When another actor leaves the set due to Su-tas violent ways, the production is on the verge of shutting down. Su-ta asks Gang-pae, whom he met by chance, to play alongside him in the movie in order to save the production.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNew World (2013)
An undercover cop has his loyalties tested when the boss of the corporate gang he's spent years infiltrating dies.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFriend (2001)
Despite their different family backgrounds, four friends grew up together in the wearisome years of the 70s. But as time goes by, each of them takes a different life path.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Show Must Go On (2007)
A middle-aged gangster's lifetime of mistakes catch up with him as his personal and professional life is destroyed.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMarrying the Mafia 2 (2005)
A powerful crime matriarch wants her eldest son to marry well and tasks his brothers with finding the perfect match. When he falls for a beautiful woman, he discovers her career could threaten his entire family's empire.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & action
Gangnam Blues (2015)
Jong-dae and Yong-ki make a living by picking up paper and empty bottles. Both then join different gangster clan and becomes involved in a struggle of political interests over development in Gangnam, Seoul.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNameless Gangster (2012)
Ik-hyeon, a corrupt officer, joins forces with another crook, Hyung-bae, to continue his illegal activities before he loses his job. Eventually, he decides to escape and pin the blame on his partner.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Bittersweet Life (2005)
Kim Sun-woo is an enforcer and manager for a hotel owned by a cold, calculative crime boss, Kang who assigns Sun-woo to a simple errand while he is away on a business trip; to shadow his young mistress, Hee-soo, for fear that she may be cheating on him with a younger man with the mandate that he must kill them both if he discovers their affair.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Divine Move (2014)
A professional GO player gathers a team to help him carry out his revenge against the man who killed his brother.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Yellow Sea (2010)
A Korean man in China takes an assassination job in South Korea to make money and find his missing wife. But when the job is botched, he is forced to go on the run from the police and the gangsters who paid him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Merciless (2017)
Jae-ho, who aims to become the number one in a crime organization, gets to build up trust with Hyun-su, an ambitious newbie in prison. When they try to take over the organization after their release, their ulterior motives start to emerge.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisInside Men (2015)
A disgruntled henchman teams up with an ambitious prosecutor to bring down a leading presidential candidate and the news editor behind him who is truly pulling the strings.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSunflower (2006)
Tae-sik gets out of a prison after spending 10 years for killing a man and wishes nothing but an ordinary life. A local lady welcomes him into her household like a son and he gets a second chance in life. His former gang tries to destroy his new home in order to build a night club but he won’t let them destroy his new family.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMarrying the Mafia (2002)
An up-and-coming lawyer wakes up next to a beautiful woman with mafia connections, but neither remembers how they got there. That's a problem.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & crime
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002)
A deaf man and his girlfriend resort to desperate measures in order to fund a kidney transplant for his sister. Things go horribly wrong, and the situation spirals rapidly into a cycle of violence and revenge.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAsura: The City of Madness (2016)
A shady cop finds himself in over his head when he gets caught between Internal Affairs and the city’s corrupt mayor.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Hard Day (2014)
After trying to cover up a car accident that left a man dead, a crooked homicide detective is stalked by a mysterious man claiming to have witnessed the event.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDrug War (2012)
A drug cartel boss is arrested in a raid and coerced into betraying his former accomplices as part of an undercover operation.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnother Public Enemy (2005)
A criminal psychopath from a wealthy family is confronted with Chul-jung Kang, a former classmate who no longer likes his activities.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Company Man (2012)
A contract killer becomes disenchanted with his line of work and spares the lives of his two latest would-be-victims. But the assassination company he works for has no intentions of letting him quit.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisProject Y (2026)
Mi-sun and Do-kyung might be used to struggling in the most dangerous part of Seoul's Gangnam district, but that doesn't mean they've settled into it. With no one but each other to rely on, the two friends grind away to save the money needed to leave their dangerous lifestyles behind. But just as "retirement" comes within reach, the world betrays them, shattering their hopes. On the edge of a dead end, they discover a hidden fortune of dirty cash and gold in Gangnam – and place all their bets on one final high-stakes gamble of a lifetime.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Outrage Coda (2017)
Five years after the all-out war between the Sanno and Hanabishi crime families, former yakuza boss Otomo works in South Korea for Mr. Chang, a noted fixer. When tensions rise between Chang and the Hanabishi, and Chang's life is endangered, Otomo returns to Japan to settle things once and for all.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBleak Night (2011)
The suicide of a former high-school bully puts the boy's father on a quest for answers.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNight in Paradise (2020)
An assassin named Tae-goo is offered a chance to switch sides with his rival Bukseong gang, headed by Chairman Doh. Tae-goo rejects the offer that results in the murder of his sister and niece. In revenge, Tae-goo brutally kills Chairman Doh and his men and flees to Jeju Island where he meets Jae-yeon, a terminally ill woman. Though, the henchman of the Bukseong gang, Executive Ma is mercilessly hunting Tae-goo to take revenge.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBroken (2014)
Following the brutal rape and murder of his 16-year-old daughter, Sang-hyeon stumbles into an ever-widening conspiracy of rage, revenge, and murder.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDirty Money (2024)
Two detectives in need; Myung-deuk looks after gang and takes bribes for his sick daughter; Dong-hyeok helps Myung-deuk to settle his gambling debts. One day they hear an information that Chinese gang is shipping a big amount of cash abroad and decide to steal it for themselves. But things go wrong and they're now chased both by police and Chinese gang.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & action
The City of Violence (2006)
Tae-su, a detective fighting organized crime, returns to his hometown for his high school friend Wang-jae's funeral. There, he meets his old friends Pil-ho, Dong-hwan and Seok-hwan and they reminisce. Suspecting something fishy about Wang-jae's death, Tae-su and Seok-hwan start investigating it, each in his own way. Their investigations lead to a land development project that Pil-ho is directing.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both action & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Drug King (2018)
Busan, South Korea, 1970s. Lee Doo-sam is a small-time smuggler. After helping a drug gang to smuggle meth, he falls into the dark crime world. Quick-witted and full of ambition, he eventually takes over the drug underworld and starts to lead a double life: a good community leader during the day but an infamous drug lord during the night.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVoice of Silence (2020)
Two guys who are working for cartels as cleaners get a request to monitor an 11-year-old kidnapped girl, but the situation gets worse when their supervisor gets killed.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like A Dirty Carnival?
The closest matches to A Dirty Carnival are Breathless (2009), Rough Cut (2008) and New World (2013). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after A Dirty Carnival?
People who watched A Dirty Carnival most often go on to Breathless (2009), Rough Cut (2008) and New World (2013).
What is the highest-rated movie like A Dirty Carnival?
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), rated 7.5/10 by 1,820 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like A Dirty Carnival?
Project Y (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Korean movies like A Dirty Carnival?
Yes: Breathless (2009), Rough Cut (2008) and New World (2013).
How are movies similar to A Dirty Carnival chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside A Dirty Carnival, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.