Movies like Desire & A Knife (2010)
The best movies like Desire & A Knife (2010) are Antiporno (2017), Tokyo Decadence (1992) and A Thousand and One Nights (1969). If Desire & A Knife hooked you, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedShogun Assassin (1980)6.9/10 from 200 votes
- NewestLady Next Door Who Made an Affair Contract (2022)Released 2022
- In JapaneseAntiporno (2017)Also in Japanese
Antiporno (2017)
Kyôko, a traumatized young Japanese girl, finds herself struggling with her self-confidence in her adult life. Growing up in a family without her mother and her sister, she constantly questions the rationale of sex and the notion of liberty in modern Japanese society.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTokyo Decadence (1992)
A submissive hooker goes about her trade, suffering abuse at the hands of Japanese salarymen and Yakuza types. She's unhappy about her work, and is apparently trying to find some sort of appeasement for the fact that her lover has married.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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
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
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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlower & 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShogun Assassin (1980)
A Shogun who grew paranoid as he became senile sent his ninjas to kill his samurai. They failed but did kill the samurai’s wife. The samurai swore to avenge the death of his wife and roams the countryside with his toddler son in search of vengeance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOriginal Sin (2001)
A young man is plunged into a life of subterfuge, deceit and mistaken identity in pursuit of a femme fatale whose heart is never quite within his grasp.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Garden of Sinners: A Study in Murder - Part 2 (2009)
In February 1999, a string of murders has Shiki Ryougi and Mikiya Kokutou on edge. These crimes share a disturbing resemblance to a similar set of homicides from 1995, when Shiki and Mikiya first met, and awaken a dark, murderous desire that has laid dormant within Shiki's soul ever since then.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisXiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998)
Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIn the Realm of the Senses (1976)
A passionate telling of the story of Sada Abe, a woman whose affair with her master led to an obsessive and ultimately destructive sexual relationship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHard to Die (1990)
While doing the inventory for a lingerie outlet in a high rise office building, five attractive women are terrorized by a series of bizarre killings. They suspect that the strange janitor, who witnessed another series of killings six months previously, is at the bottom of the whole thing. Little do they know the real horror that they face in the end.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Garden of Sinners: Oblivion Recording (2008)
January 1999: Apprentice mage Azaka Kokutou, Mikiya's younger sister, has been ordered by her mentor, Touko Aozaki, to investigate a certain incident in which fairies steal the memories of students at Azaka's school, Reien Academy. Azaka launches an investigation with the help of Shiki.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStill the Water (2014)
On the Japanese island of Amami, despite lacking parental guidance, Kaito and his girlfriend Kyoko try to find their place in the world. While Kaito suffers from the absence of his father, who moved to Tokyo after his birth, Kyoko must come to grips with her mother’s terminal illness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBelow Her Mouth (2017)
An unexpected affair quickly escalates into a heart-stopping reality for two women whose passionate connection changes their lives forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove & Sex (2000)
When her rather explicit copy is rejected, magazine journalist Kate is asked by her editor to come up with an article on loving relationships instead, and to do so by the end of the day. This gets Kate thinking back over her own various experiences, and to wondering if she is in much of a position to write on the subject.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRape Zombie: Lust of the Dead (2012)
After a nuclear attack in Tokyo, the female population is attacked by infected males who have become sex-crazed zombies, hungry for human flesh. Officeworker Momoko and nurse Nozomi seek shelter in a Shinto Shrine, where they meet housewife Kanae and school girl Tamae. With no choices left to them, the group of girls decides to take a stand and arm themselves with assault rifles and explosives to fight off hordes of horny zombies. What is the secret to killing the zombies for good?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHeavy Traffic (1973)
A white dropout struggles to become a cartoonist and filmmaker, drawing inspiration from the harsh, gritty world around him. Still sharing his rundown apartment with his middle-aged parents, an oafish slob of an Italian father and a ditzy nutcase of a Jewish mother, he's ridiculed and looked down upon by his friends, hypocrites who run with violent gangs and the Italian Mafia, and a shallow Black girl who makes her living downtown with the pimps and pushers. The cartoonist gets a chance to pitch a film idea to a movie mogul, but the story proves too outrageous: a far-future Earth, depleted by war and pollution, where a mutant antihero challenges and kills God.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJust Before I Go (2015)
Ted Morgan has been treading water for most of his life. After his wife leaves him, Ted realizes he has nothing left to live for. Summoning the courage for one last act, Ted decides to go home and face the people he feels are responsible for creating the shell of a person he has become. But life is tricky. The more determined Ted is to confront his demons, to get closure, and to withdraw from his family, the more Ted is yanked into the chaos of their lives. So, when Ted Morgan decides to kill himself, he finds a reason to live.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLady Next Door Who Made an Affair Contract (2022)
Jeong-hye and Ji-hwan are a couple who have been living a wandering life due to debt. Ji-hwan makes a secret deal with Man-soo, the new owner of their previous house. The couple can stay at Man-soo's house, but in exchange, Ji-hwan must have sex with Man-soo's wife, Tae-hee. Man-soo also ends up taunting Jeong-hye secretly, using her unemployed husband as bait. Later, Jeong-hye and Ji-hwan eventually find out that they have been secretly played by the couple and get frustrated. In the end, Man-soo and Tae-hee propose a new offer to the couple.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Married Woman and Mistress Affair Peeping (1998)
A sensual drama depicting the friendship between a woman who continues to have an affair and a man who provokes her by secretly filming her. Satomi Yoko, who has just made her debut, received high praise for her passionate performance as a woman who drowns her loneliness with infidelity and is also attracted to an unknown voyeur. Maki (Yoko Satomi), who lives alone, invites Yuji (Akira Yokozuka) to her room and they get close to each other, and the act is revealed to the detective hired by his wife (Keiko Seto), but he is caught on camera from the apartment across the street. The presence of Toshiaki (Atsushi Toyama), who spies on Maki and calls Maki every time they have an affair, causes ripples in their muddy relationship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Payment for Adultery (1963)
A married woman has an affair. She soon must deal with a menacing voice on the phone...
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Painful Bliss: Final Twist (1977)
A young executive has a really bad night after an encounter with a crazed bisexual wannabe yakuza and his horny girlfriend.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
My Favorite Wife is Addicted to Sex (1997)
Hinako, a married woman, feels unsatisfied with her married life with her husband, Takashi, so she suddenly declares a domestic separation and indulges in an affair with Shima, her senior from high school. Meanwhile, Hinako was confused when Yuri, whom she met at her favorite snack bar, asked her out.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
B.E.D (2012)
The stories of three characters whose joy, passion and despair overflow in one bed are tangled like a puzzle. Tantalizing but heartbreaking, stimulating but sad, this movie explores human desires without hesitation and fear. B (Bed for Werther), E (Erotic desire of Aphrodite) and D (Dream about comfortable slumber) talk about the same bed with different languages and different gestures.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Moments with Johan (1996)
The beautiful gay erotic superstar Johan Paulik is enthusiastically celebrated in this jam-packed compendium of Johan's greatest on-screen performances, plus an exclusive interview with the charming boy himself and previously unseen out-takes which reveal the charm and humor of this much admired adult model.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Sex Angel: From the Underground Videos, with Love (1988)
A fantasy erotic work in which a woman who appears in an adult video actually appears in front of various people who watch the video and fulfills their desires. Omori stops by a video rental store on his way home from work and casually picks up a video in a black package. When he plays it at home, it's just boring. Disappointed, Omori tries to turn off the video, but a woman calls out to him from inside the TV, saying, "Don't turn it off. I love you."
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Like Desire & A Knife and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Desire & A Knife?
The closest matches to Desire & A Knife are Antiporno (2017), Tokyo Decadence (1992) and A Thousand and One Nights (1969). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Desire & A Knife?
Start with Antiporno (2017), the closest match to Desire & A Knife.
What is the highest-rated movie like Desire & A Knife?
Shogun Assassin (1980), rated 6.9/10 by 200 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Desire & A Knife?
Lady Next Door Who Made an Affair Contract (2022) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Desire & A Knife?
Yes: Antiporno (2017), Tokyo Decadence (1992) and A Thousand and One Nights (1969).
How are movies similar to Desire & A Knife chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Desire & A Knife, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.