Movies like The Yellow Sea (2010)
The best movies like The Yellow Sea (2010) are New World (2013), Memories of Murder (2003) and One Night in Bangkok (2020). If The Yellow Sea hooked you with its drama and thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedMemories of Murder (2003)8.1/10 from 4,939 votes
- NewestThe Roundup: No Way Out (2023)Released 2023
- In KoreanNew World (2013)Also in Korean
New 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMemories of Murder (2003)
A sadistic serial rapist and murderer of young women terrorizes a small province in 1980s South Korea. To prevent further crimes, three increasingly desperate detectives with conflicting methods race against time to unravel the violent mind of the killer in a futile effort to solve the case.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisOne Night in Bangkok (2020)
A hit man named Kai flies into Bangkok, gets a gun, and orders a cab. He offers a professional female driver big money to be his all-night driver. But when she realizes Kai is committing brutal murders at each stop, it's too late to walk away. Meanwhile, an offbeat police detective races to decode the string of slayings before more blood is spilled.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDrive (2011)
Driver is a skilled Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver for criminals. Though he projects an icy exterior, lately he's been warming up to a pretty neighbor named Irene and her young son, Benicio. When Irene's husband gets out of jail, he enlists Driver's help in a million-dollar heist. The job goes horribly wrong, and Driver must risk his life to protect Irene and Benicio from the vengeful masterminds behind the robbery.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRun (1991)
When a law student accidentally kills the son of a mob boss in a fight, he finds himself relentlessly pursued by the mob and the police.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisColombiana (2011)
After witnessing her parents’ murder as a child in Bogota, Cataleya Restrepo grows up to be a stone-cold assassin. She works for her uncle as a hitman by day, but her personal time is spent engaging in vigilante murders that she hopes will lead her to her ultimate target: the mobster responsible for her parents' death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCollateral (2004)
Cab driver Max picks up a man who offers him $600 to drive him around. But the promise of easy money sours when Max realizes his fare is an assassin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAnother Day in Paradise (1998)
In the hope of a big score, two junkie couples team up to commit various drug robberies which go disastrously wrong, leading to dissent, violence, and murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Outlaws (2017)
In Chinatown, law and order is turned upside down when a trio of feral Chinese gangsters arrive, start terrorizing civilians, and usurping territory. The beleaguered local gangsters team up with the police, lead by the badass loose cannon Ma Seok-do, to bring them down. Based on a true story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Roundup (2022)
The 'Beast Cop' Ma Seok-do heads to a foreign country to extradite a suspect, but soon after his arrival, he discovers additional murder cases and hears about a vicious killer who has been committing crimes against tourists for several years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGangnam 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Chaser (2008)
Joong-ho is a dirty detective turned pimp, who's in financial trouble as several of his girls have recently disappeared without clearing their debts. While trying to track them down, he finds a clue that the vanished girls were all called up by the same client, whom one of his girls is meeting with right now.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Roundup: No Way Out (2023)
Detective Ma Seok-do changes his affiliation from the Geumcheon Police Station to the Metropolitan Investigation Team, in order to eradicate Japanese gangsters who enter Korea to commit heinous crimes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Better Tomorrow (2010)
An idealistic policeman must bring down his estranged older brother, now a powerful gangster in a South Korean port city.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Replacement Killers (1998)
Hired assassin John Lee is asked by Chinatown crime boss Terence Wei to murder the young son of policeman Stan Zedkov. Lee has the boy in his sights, but his conscience gets the better of him, and he spares the child's life. Afraid that Wei will take revenge on his family in China, Lee seeks out expert forger Meg Coburn to obtain the passport he needs to get out of the country, but a band of replacement killers is soon on his trail.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCoin Locker Girl (2015)
Il-young tries to get away from her adoptive mother because she does not want to get involved in her mother's criminal activities.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNowhere to Hide (1999)
Detective Woo is on the trail of the mysterious gangster Sungmin, a master of disguise who always manages to elude his pursuers. Eventually, the cop tracks down and confronts the master-criminal in the suburbs of a coal-mining town.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Gangster, the Cop, the Devil (2019)
After barely surviving a brutal attack by a sadistic serial killer, crime boss Jang Dong-su is left humiliated. Determined to catch the killer known as K, he forms an uneasy alliance with Jung Tae-seok, a relentless and incorruptible detective who often disrupts his illegal business. However, while Jang Dong-su wants K dead, Jung Tae-suk is determined to bring him to justice. With a deal in place—whoever finds K first will decide his fate—the hunt begins, blurring the lines between crime and law.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & thriller
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisDoor Lock (2018)
Kyung-min lives alone in a one-room apartment. One day, she finds traces of a stranger breaking into her room and soon a mysterious murder case begins to unravel.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & crime
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 & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShaft (1971)
Cool Black private eye John Shaft is hired by a crime lord to find and retrieve his kidnapped daughter.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFargo (1996)
Jerry Lundegaard is a small-town Minnesota car salesman deeply in debt and willing to do almost anything to get out. Police chief Marge Gunderson discovers a string of violent crimes as Jerry's schemes spiral out of control.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMiller's Crossing (1990)
Set in 1929, a political boss and his advisor have a parting of the ways when they both fall for the same woman.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShaft (2000)
New York police detective John Shaft arrests Walter Wade Jr. for a racially motivated slaying. But the only eyewitness disappears, and Wade jumps bail for Switzerland. Two years later Wade returns to face trial, confident his money and influence will get him acquitted -- especially since he's paid a drug kingpin to kill the witness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like this7 Virgins (2005)
It is summertime in a blue-collar, marginal district of a city in the South of Spain. Tano, a teenager currently serving a sentence in a juvenile reform center, is given a 48-hour leave to attend his brother’s wedding.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWild at Heart (1990)
Young lovers Sailor and Lula hit the road to start a new life together away from the wrath of Lula’s deranged, disapproving mother, who has hired a team of hitmen to cut the lovers’ surreal honeymoon short.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShort Sharp Shock (1998)
Gabriel, Bobby and Costa are old friends from Altona, a multicultural hood in Hamburg. Just out of prison, Gabriel wants to turn his back on crime, but the others continue to operate as petty criminals. Friendships are tested as the trio navigate a dark world of mafia bosses and deals gone wrong.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCube Zero (2004)
A young programmer whose job is to watch over the reality-warping Cube defies orders to rescue an innocent mother trapped in one of its rooms.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisDistant Lights (2003)
Two countries, two towns, one river. The Oder River separates not only Frankfurt in Germany from Slubice in Poland, but entire worlds. People, whether rich or poor, come here in search of happiness—and often find themselves pushed to their limits. A film about people who, by a twist of fate, are inextricably linked for two days—stealing and cheating, loving and helping, hoping and despairing.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Yellow Sea?
The closest matches to The Yellow Sea are New World (2013), Memories of Murder (2003) and One Night in Bangkok (2020). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Yellow Sea?
Start with New World (2013), the closest match to The Yellow Sea.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Yellow Sea?
Memories of Murder (2003), rated 8.1/10 by 4,939 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Yellow Sea?
The Roundup: No Way Out (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Korean movies like The Yellow Sea?
Yes: New World (2013), Memories of Murder (2003) and The Outlaws (2017).
How are movies similar to The Yellow Sea chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Yellow Sea, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.