Movies like The Wolves (1971)
The best movies like The Wolves (1971) are House of Bamboo (1955), Each Dawn I Die (1939) and Under the Open Sky (2021). If The Wolves 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 ratedKill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)8.0/10 from 19,702 votes
- NewestDetective Conan: The Bride of Halloween (2022)Released 2022
- In JapaneseUnder the Open Sky (2021)Also in Japanese
House of Bamboo (1955)
Eddie Kenner is given a special assignment by the Army to get the inside story on Sandy Dawson, a former GI who has formed a gang of fellow servicemen and Japanese locals.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEach Dawn I Die (1939)
A corrupt D.A. with governatorial ambitions is annoyed by an investigative reporter's criticism of his criminal activities and decides to frame the reporter for manslaughter in order to silence him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnder the Open Sky (2021)
Mikami, an ex-yakuza of middle age with most of his life in prison, gets released after serving 13 years of sentence for murder. Hoping to find his long lost mother, from whom he was separated as a child, he applies for a TV show and meets a young TV director Tsunoda. Meanwhile, he struggles to get a proper job and fit into society. His impulsive, adamant nature and ingrained beliefs cause friction in his relationship with Tsunoda and those who want to help him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPlunder Road (1957)
A spectacular heist starts to unravel as the crooks take it on the lam.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLupin the 3rd: Goemon's Blood Spray (2017)
A yakuza boss hires Goemon Ishikawa, a modern day samurai, to protect him aboard his cruise ship casino. Everything goes sideways when the famous thief, Lupin the Third, tries to rob the vessel. Lupin's being hunted by a powerful and mysterious man: the so called “Ghost of Bermuda.” With Goemon's employer dead in the ensuing chaos, his honor is at stake, and the only way to preserve it is with blood. But this opponent is like no other, and to make things right, Goemon may need to sharpen not only his sword, but himself as well!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCry of the City (1948)
Petty crook and cop-killer Martin Rome, in bad shape from wounds in the hospital prison ward, still refuses to help slimy lawyer Niles clear his client by confessing to another crime. Police Lt. Candella must check Niles' allegation; a friend of the Rome family, he walks a tightrope between sentiment and cynicism. When Martin fears Candella will implicate his girlfriend Teena, he'll do anything to protect her. How many others will he drag down to disaster with him?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Recently paroled from prison, legendary burglar "Doc" Riedenschneider, with funding from Alonzo Emmerich, a crooked lawyer, gathers a small group of veteran criminals together in the Midwest for a big jewel heist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStray Dog (1949)
A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Public Enemy (1931)
Two young Chicago hoodlums, Tom Powers and Matt Doyle, rise up from their poverty-stricken slum life to become petty thieves, bootleggers and cold-blooded killers. But with street notoriety and newfound wealth, the duo feels the heat from the cops and rival gangsters both. Despite his ruthless criminal reputation, Tom tries to remain connected to his family, however, gang warfare and the need for revenge eventually pull him away.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Quiller Memorandum (1966)
After two British Secret Intelligence Service agents are murdered at the hands of a cryptic neo-Nazi group known as Phoenix, the suave agent Quiller is sent to Berlin to investigate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisDetective Conan: The Raven Chaser (2009)
A new member from the Black Organization that shrunk Shinichi's body manages to find out about Shinichi's transformation into Conan. This discovery starts to put those around him in danger as Gin and the other Black Organization members start to take action.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisYouth of the Beast (1963)
When a mysterious stranger muscles into two rival yakuza gangs, Tokyo's underworld explodes with violence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDetective Conan: The Darkest Nightmare (2016)
On a dark night, the Japanese police is raided by a spy. Different countries' intelligence agencies - such as England's MI6, Germany's BDN, and America's CIA - as well as the FBI's secret files are going to be taken, but public safety officers lead by Tooru Amuro arrive just in time. The spy steals a car and escapes. The spy and Amuro are then locked in a dead heat on the highway, and just as it is about to cause an accident with multiple cars, the spy's car is hit by FBI agent Shuichi Akai's rifle bullet and falls of the roadway. The next day, Conan and his friends go to a newly-remodeled aquarium in Tokyo. Under the main attraction, a Ferris wheel, Conan finds an attractive woman alone and injured. Her left and right eyes are different colors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Blue Gardenia (1953)
Upon waking up to the news that the man she’d gone on a date with the previous night has been murdered, a young woman with only a faint memory of the night’s events begins to suspect that she murdered him while attempting to resist his advances.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCase Closed: The Fourteenth Target (1998)
Ran’s secret past revealed! Ten years ago, something happened between her mom and dad. Now, plagued by nightmares, Ran is starting to remember… Meanwhile, a murderous card dealer breaks out of jail to seek revenge. His target: Ran’s father. Can Conan stop him in time and save his girlfriend’s family?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDetective Conan: Sunflowers of Inferno (2015)
Conan tries to track down Kaito Kid, who supposedly steals a replica of one of Van Gogh's Sunflowers paintings during an auction.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKamui (2009)
A rebellious ninja in 17th century Japan takes refuge with a fisherman and his family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Glass Key (1942)
A crooked politician finds himself being accused of murder by a gangster from whom he refused help during a re-election campaign.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDetective Conan: The Bride of Halloween (2022)
Shibuya, Tokyo, is bustling with the Halloween season. A wedding is being held at Shibuya Hikarie, where Detective Miwako Sato of the Metropolitan Police Department is dressed in a wedding dress. While Conan and the other invited guests are watching, an assailant suddenly bursts in, and Detective Wataru Takagi, who was trying to protect Sato, is injured. Takagi survived and the situation was settled, but in Sato's eyes, the image of the grim reaper that she had seen when Detective Matsuda, the man she had been in love with, had been killed in a series of bombings three years ago, overlapped with Takagi's.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDetective Conan: Quarter of Silence (2011)
The explosion of a new Tokyo Subway line leads Conan and his friends in a snow-clad village. Here, after eight years, the little detective sheds light on the dynamics behind the shocking event that caused the death of a woman and the coma of a 15-year-old boy. Under the beautiful snow, Conan gets involved in something bigger than him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDancer in the Dark (2000)
Selma, a Czech immigrant on the verge of blindness, struggles to make ends meet for herself and her young son, who has inherited the same genetic disorder and will suffer the same fate without an expensive operation. When life becomes increasingly difficult, Selma learns to cope through her love of musicals, dreaming up little numbers to the rhythmic beats of her surroundings.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBrother (2000)
A Japanese Yakuza gangster's deadly existence in his homeland gets him exiled to Los Angeles, where he is taken in by his little brother and his brother's gang.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMonster (2003)
In 1989, prostitute Aileen Wuornos befriends and enters a relationship with a young woman named Selby. Determined to straighten out her life, Aileen's limited education lands her back on the corner. She's raped by a trick, who she kills. A string of murder and robbery follows that ultimately leads Aileen to becoming America's first female serial killer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMaria Full of Grace (2004)
A pregnant Colombian teenager becomes a drug mule to make some desperately needed money for her family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSemi: Nakanai Semi (2003)
A taxi driver becomes involved in the world of the mafia & their wars.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & crime
Ruthless Gambler (1969)
Unlike traditional gangster movies, it is a gangster swashbuckler that mixes romance and humanity with a yakuza lover as the main character. A young man who heard that his former boss was killed is imprisoned by slashing his family's minions, and his lover is tortured by the enemy, but rescued by the imprisoned young man's nemesis.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Disco Pigs (2001)
Pig and Runt born on the same day, in the same hospital, moments apart. Twins, all but by bloodline. Inseparable from birth, they are almost telepathic. They are one, needing no one else, inhabiting a delicate, insular and dangerous world where they make their own rules and have their own language. But days before their 17th birthday the balance of their world begins to shift. Pig's sexual awakening and jealousy begins to threaten their private universe.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & crime
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Yakuza (1974)
When George Tanner does business with high-ranking Yakuza Tono, Tono kidnaps his daughter, and George summons his old friend, private eye Harry Kilmer, to Japan to investigate.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTrials of an Okinawa Village (1971)
A boss from a trucking company has run-ins with evil yakuza during the American occupation of Okinawa. Her hometown is threatened by usurers, gangsters and indirectly by American GI influences. She must battle a yakuza organization with her employees to help settle things.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & crime
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
An assassin is shot by her ruthless employer, Bill, and other members of their assassination circle – but she lives to plot her vengeance.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Wolves?
The closest matches to The Wolves are House of Bamboo (1955), Each Dawn I Die (1939) and Under the Open Sky (2021). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Wolves?
Start with House of Bamboo (1955), the closest match to The Wolves.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Wolves?
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), rated 8.0/10 by 19,702 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Wolves?
Detective Conan: The Bride of Halloween (2022) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like The Wolves?
Yes: Under the Open Sky (2021), Lupin the 3rd: Goemon's Blood Spray (2017) and Stray Dog (1949).
How are movies similar to The Wolves chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Wolves, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.