Movies like The Ako Retainers (1961)
The best movies like The Ako Retainers (1961) are Chûshingura (1962), 44 Minutes: The North Hollywood Shoot-Out (2003) and Kamui (2009). If The Ako Retainers hooked you with its action and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedSamurai Rebellion (1967)8.2/10 from 283 votes
- NewestBeast (2026)Released 2026
- In JapaneseChûshingura (1962)Also in Japanese
Chûshingura (1962)
After their lord is tricked into committing ritual suicide, forty-seven samurai warriors await the chance to avenge their master and reclaim their honor.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & action
Worth the HypeMovies like this44 Minutes: The North Hollywood Shoot-Out (2003)
After a failed bank robbery, two heavily armed men hold the Los Angeles Police Department at bay for 44 minutes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
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 & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMexicali (2026)
A former special forces contractor is forced out of retirement as an avocado farmer in Mexico when local gangsters try to force him and his family off their farm.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIn Full Bloom (2019)
Set shortly after the end of World War II, a philosophical boxing drama of two fighters from opposite worlds (USA and Japan) who are pulled together for a questionable fight arranged by their unscrupulous managers and the Yakuza.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGoyokin (1969)
A guilt-haunted samurai warrior attempts to stop a massacre taking place.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEmbattled (2020)
The eldest son of a ruthlessly tough MMA champion must fight his way out of the abusive cycle his father has continued.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeast (2026)
MMA legend Patton James, now a commercial fisherman, is pulled back into the cage when his brother is in danger. Reuniting with his old coach Sammy, he commits to one final fight in one championship against the brutal champion Xavier Grau.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisZatoichi: Darkness Is His Ally (1989)
Older, wiser but still a wandering loner, the blind, peace-loving masseur Ichi seeks a peaceful life in a rural village. When he's caught in the middle of a power struggle between two rival Yakuza clans, his reputation as a deadly defender of the innocent is put to the ultimate test in a series of sword-slashing showdowns.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
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 & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWelcome to Sudden Death (2020)
Jesse Freeman is a former special forces officer and explosives expert now working a regular job as a security guard in a state-of-the-art basketball arena. Trouble erupts when a tech-savvy cadre of terrorists kidnap the team's owner and Jesse's daughter during opening night. Facing a ticking clock and impossible odds, it's up to Jesse to not only save them but also a full house of fans in this highly charged action thriller.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSamurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple (1955)
After years on the road establishing his reputation as Japan's greatest fencer, Takezo returns to Kyoto. Otsu waits for him, yet he has come not for her but to challenge the leader of the region's finest school of fencing. To prove his valor and skill, he walks deliberately into ambushes set up by the school's followers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTokyo Fist (1995)
A businessman, Tsuda, runs into a childhood friend, Kojima, on the subway. Kojima is working as a semiprofessional boxer. Tsuda soon begins to suspect that Kojima might be having an affair with his fiancée Hizuru. After an altercation, Tsuda begins training rigorously himself, leading to an extremely bloody, violent confrontation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell (1974)
With most of his family already dead at Ogami Itto's hands, Retsudo launches one final plot to destroy him, and when that fails, unleashes the fury of every remaining member of the Yagyu clan.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail (1952)
A fugitive lord and his six retainers disguise themselves as monks to bluff their way through a hostile checkpoint.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisK-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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril (1972)
Ogami Itto is hired to kill a tattooed female assassin and battles Retsudo, head of the Yagyu clan, and his son Gunbei.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Warrior (2001)
In feudal India, a warrior who renounces his role as the longtime enforcer to a local lord becomes the prey in a murderous hunt through the Himalayan mountains.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Black Book (2023)
After his son is wrongly accused of kidnapping, a deacon who has just lost his wife takes matters into his own hands and fights a crooked police gang to clear him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSamurai Rebellion (1967)
The mother of a feudal lord's only heir is kidnapped by the lord. Her husband and his samurai father must decide whether to accept the unjust decision, or risk death to rescue her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisKagemusha (1980)
A feudal epic presenting the tale of a petty thief who is recruited to impersonate Shingen, an aging warlord, in order to avoid attacks by competing clans. The impostor becomes comfortable living his life among nobility, but his responsibilities to his station grow more demanding the longer he occupies it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStray Nightingale (2017)
Japan, 1785. Jūzaburō, a famous thief who refuses to kill innocent people, is betrayed, ambushed, and left for dead.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & action
Ran (1985)
Shakespeare's King Lear is reimagined as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan where an aging warlord divides his kingdom between his three sons.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisOnihei Crime Files: The Final Zenpen - Gonenme no Kyaku (2016)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & drama
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 & drama
Deadly Professional 2023 (2023)
An epidemic is spreading through the towns of Edo – it spreads via people, and if you get the fever, your face will turn red like a demon, and then you will die. There is no cure in sight, and people’s anxiety is increasing.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & action
Bring Me the Head of Shichiemon! (1993)
During the Sengoku period, an army relentlessly lays siege to a castle, but they will need the head of the opposing lord to declare victory.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & action
Onihei Crime Files: Sutegoro Takahagi (2010)
Takahagi Sutegoro is highly skilled at casing locations for thieves so that he can sell detailed floor plans to them. He suffers an injury to his leg while trying to help a parent and a child being threatened by samurai. Heizo jumps in and chases the samurai away. Feeling indebted to Heizo, Sutegoro decides to become his spy. Now, together they will try to stop scheming Myogi Danemon’s gang of merciless thieves...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & drama
Throne of Blood (1957)
Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu and Miki are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit's prophecy comes true, Washizu's scheming wife, Asaji, presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit's prophecy by murdering his lord and usurping his place. Director Akira Kurosawa's resetting of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in feudal Japan is one of his most acclaimed films.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisRed Beard (1965)
Aspiring to an easy job as personal physician to a wealthy family, Noboru Yasumoto is disappointed when his first post after medical school takes him to a small country clinic under the gruff doctor Red Beard. Yasumoto rebels in numerous ways, but Red Beard proves a wise and patient teacher. He gradually introduces his student to the unglamorous side of the profession, ultimately assigning him to care for a prostitute rescued from a local brothel.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Ako Retainers?
The closest matches to The Ako Retainers are Chûshingura (1962), 44 Minutes: The North Hollywood Shoot-Out (2003) and Kamui (2009). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Ako Retainers?
Start with Chûshingura (1962), the closest match to The Ako Retainers.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Ako Retainers?
Samurai Rebellion (1967), rated 8.2/10 by 283 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Ako Retainers?
Beast (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like The Ako Retainers?
Yes: Chûshingura (1962), Kamui (2009) and Goyokin (1969).
How are movies similar to The Ako Retainers chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Ako Retainers, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.