Movies like Empire of Passion (1978)
The best movies like Empire of Passion (1978) are Kuroneko (1968), Ghost Story of Yotsuya (1959) and Kwaidan (1965). If Empire of Passion hooked you with its drama and romance, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWoman in the Dunes (1964)8.2/10 from 558 votes
- NewestThe Little House (2014)Released 2014
- In JapaneseKuroneko (1968)Also in Japanese
Kuroneko (1968)
In the Sengoku period, a woman and her daughter are raped and murdered by soldiers during a time of civil war. Afterwards, a series of samurai returning from the war through that area are found mysteriously dead with their throats torn out. The governor calls in a wild and fierce young hero to quell what is evidently an Onryō ghost.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGhost Story of Yotsuya (1959)
This horror tale adapts the Japanese legend about a man who faces the consequences of betraying his wife in order to acquire wealth and power.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKwaidan (1965)
Taking its title from an archaic Japanese word meaning "ghost story," this anthology adapts four folk tales. A penniless samurai marries for money with tragic results. A man stranded in a blizzard is saved by Yuki the Snow Maiden, but his rescue comes at a cost. Blind musician Hoichi is forced to perform for an audience of ghosts. An author relates the story of a samurai who sees another warrior's reflection in his teacup.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUgetsu (1953)
In 16th century Japan, peasants Genjuro and Tobei sell their earthenware pots to a group of soldiers in a nearby village, in defiance of a local sage's warning against seeking to profit from warfare. Genjuro's pursuit of both riches and the mysterious Lady Wakasa, as well as Tobei's desire to become a samurai, run the risk of destroying both themselves and their wives, Miyagi and Ohama.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisOnibaba (1964)
While her son, Kichi, is away at war, a woman and her daughter-in-law survive by killing samurai who stray into their swamp, then selling whatever valuables they find. Both are devastated when they learn that Kichi has died, but his wife soon begins an affair with a neighbor who survived the war, Hachi. The mother disapproves and, when she can't steal Hachi for herself, tries to scare her daughter-in-law with a mysterious mask from a dead samurai.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDemons (1971)
Gengobe Satsuma, an exiled samurai cast out as an Asano clan retainer, is given a second chance to join his brothers in arms to become the 48th Ronin against the Shogunate. His faithful servant gathers the 100 ryo required for his acceptance. Gengobe is also in love with a greedy geisha named Koman. About to be sold to another man, Gengobe learns that in order to keep her, her debt is exactly 100 ryo.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKagero-za (1981)
A 1920s playwright meets a beautiful woman who may be the ghost of his patron's deceased wife.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
The Little House (2014)
Following the death of the unmarried and childless Taki, Takeshi, a young relative of hers, discovers several pages of closely written lines in which the old lady has recorded her memories. This is how he learns the truth about her youth working as a housemaid and nanny for the Hirai family in a little house in Tokyo with a red gabled roof.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKaidan (2007)
Japan, 250 years ago. Soetsu is a moneylender who is killed by the cruel samurai Shinzaemon. His body is dumped in the Kasenega-Fuchi river. According to legend, all who drown in the river will never surface again. 20 Years later, Shinkichi, the handsome son of Shinzaemon, coincidentally meets Toyoshiga, the daughter of Soetsu. They fall in love. It is a doomed love, as the spirit of Soetsu is far from dead
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & horror
Siren XXX: Magical Pleasure (2010)
In a rural port town, Kenji Ishikawa runs a barber shop together with his new wife, who speaks very little and has mysterious eyes to match her amorous presence. Running the shop isn’t easy as hardly any customers come… One evening, a man comes to the shop, as if lured by the faint hum of the wife. As the man takes a seat, Kenji exits his shop. The wife then gently fingers the man’s neck…
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & horror
Wife to Be Sacrificed (1974)
A former husband with a dark obsession returns to his ex-wife’s life, ready to unleash a torrent of cruel, perverse devotion.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Vegetarian (2010)
An ordinary housewife, Yeong-hye, who has nightmares every night, finally becomes a vegetarian, throwing away all the meats in her refrigerator. Her husband Kil-soo starts to complain about her actions. Her family also worries about her health. During a family lunch, Yeong-hye tries to kill herself due to her father's abrupt violence. Observing all the happenings, Yeong-hye's brother-in-law, Min-ho, a videoartist, hears from his wife that Yeong-hye has a Mongolian spot on her hips. Min-ho gets inspiration from this and starts to sketch.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Lady Snowblood (1973)
A strikingly beautiful young woman is trained from birth to be a deadly instrument of revenge against the swindlers who destroyed her family.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisZigeunerweisen (1980)
A surreal period film following a university professor and his eerie nomad friend as they go through loose romantic triangles and face death in peculiar ways.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPoem (1972)
A rigidly devoted young servant lives in a decaying aristocratic household as its members drift toward modernity, hedonism, and financial collapse. While the family quarrels over the fate of their estate, he clings to tradition and ritual, becoming a quiet witness to the social change and emotional unrest around him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Woman in the Dunes (1964)
A vacationing entomologist suffers extreme physical and psychological trauma after being taken captive by the residents of a poor seaside village and made to live with a woman whose life task is shoveling sand for them.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisWarm Water Under a Red Bridge (2001)
When a dying friend tells out-of-work salaryman Yosuke about a hidden treasure, he sets off in search of the only clue about its location: a house by a red bridge. What he finds instead is a woman who transcends all his fantasies.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Idiot (1951)
A gentle, war-shattered ex-soldier, Kinji Kameda, arrives in wintry Hokkaidō and is pulled into a volatile tangle of love and pity between the disgraced Taeko Nasu, the proud Ayako, and his possessive friend Akama. Kameda’s saintly compassion exposes everyone’s wounds, steering the quartet toward jealousy, violence, and inexorable tragedy. Adapted from Dostoevsky’s novel.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Transgressor (1974)
18 years after the mysterious death of her mother, Maya takes religious vows to find out what terrible things happened to her mother inside the Sacred Heart Convent. As soon as the door closes to the nunnery, the nuns start torturing her. She also has to deal with a lecherous archbishops and a lesbian mother superior.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTattooed Flower Vase (1976)
After losing her husband, a traditional puppet artisan has lived a life without love. However, her relationship with her daughter and the arrival of some dangerous acquaintances inevitably spark new curiosities in her mind and body.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
A Woman Called Sada Abe (1975)
A true-life tale of a broken woman whose hedonistic tryst with a high-class restaurateur resulted in a horrific crime of passion that littered Tokyo headlines in 1936.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Mourning Wife (2001)
Director Daisuke Goto, the master of the cinematic Pink Eiga, is back with this retelling of the classic film noir, The Postman Always Rings Twice. A married woman, tasked with running her handicapped husband’s failing printing business, meets a drifter and they fall in love. Soon a plan to murder the husband is put into motion and the forces of fate begin to show their hand. Featuring bravura filmmaking, fantastic performances and steamy sex, the Mourning Wife is a worthy follow up for any fan of Daisuke Goto’s masterpiece A Lonely Cow Weeps at Dawn.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Oxen Split Torturing (1976)
Two short stories set in Edo during the Shogun era. The first, during a time when Christians are persecuted vehemently, Iori falls in love with a young Christian girl. When she and her family are captured during a raid, his sadistic master takes her as his personal slave to torment Iori. The second follows Sutezo who, forced to serve the barbarous master of a brothel in order to repay his debts, befriends a young girl. Together, they both escape and struggle to get by on scams and petty theft.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror & drama
Imprint (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: Fans watch both · both horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Ballad of Narayama (1983)
In a small village in a valley everyone who reaches the age of 70 must leave the village and go to a certain mountain top to die. If anyone should refuse they would disgrace their family. Old Orin is 69. This winter it is her turn to go to the mountain. But first she must make sure that her eldest son Tatsuhei finds a wife.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Innocents (1961)
In a mid-19th century Essex country house, a young governess for two children becomes convinced that the house and grounds are haunted by ghosts and that the children are being possessed.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both horror
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEros + Massacre (1969)
Two interwoven stories. The first is a biography of anarchist Sakae Osugi which follows his relationship with three women in the 1920s. The second centers around two 1960s students researching Osugi's theories.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDracula (1974)
Dracula is searching for a woman who looks like his long dead wife.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & horror
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGhost Story (1981)
Four successful elderly gentlemen, members of the Chowder Society, share a gruesome, 50-year-old secret. When one of Edward Wanderley's twin sons dies in a bizarre accident, the group begins to see a pattern of frightening events developing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both horror & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
Like Empire of Passion and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Empire of Passion?
The closest matches to Empire of Passion are Kuroneko (1968), Ghost Story of Yotsuya (1959) and Kwaidan (1965). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Empire of Passion?
People who watched Empire of Passion most often go on to Kuroneko (1968), Ghost Story of Yotsuya (1959) and Kwaidan (1965).
What is the highest-rated movie like Empire of Passion?
Woman in the Dunes (1964), rated 8.2/10 by 558 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Empire of Passion?
The Little House (2014) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Empire of Passion?
Yes: Kuroneko (1968), Ghost Story of Yotsuya (1959) and Kwaidan (1965).
How are movies similar to Empire of Passion chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Empire of Passion, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.