Movies like Kim's War (1992)
The best movies like Kim's War (1992) are Fighter in the Wind (2004), Ninja (2009) and Smugglers (2023). If Kim's War hooked you, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Man from Nowhere (2010)7.7/10 from 1,592 votes
- NewestTrophy (2026)Released 2026
- In KoreanFighter in the Wind (2004)Also in Korean
Fighter in the Wind (2004)
An account of karate competitor Choi Yeung-Eui who went to Japan after World War II to become a fighter pilot but found a very different path instead. He changed his name to Masutatsu Oyama and went across the country, defeating martial artists one after another. This film concentrates on the period when he is still young, and developing his famous karate style, Kyokushin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNinja (2009)
A westerner named Casey, studying Ninjutsu in Japan, is asked by the Sensei to return to New York to protect the legendary Yoroi Bitsu, an armored chest that contains the weapons of the last Koga Ninja.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSmugglers (2023)
During the 1970s, in Kunchon, there were women divers who were able to dive without equipment, including two best friends Choon-ja and Jin-sook, Jin-sook's brother and Hammer. They always collected seafood under water for living. But, as fewer factories started to be built near the beach, the women divers started to have trouble with what they were doing for living. Without any choice, the ship crews decided to join the smuggling business in the water to seek a way for their living. But the smuggling business in their village got too big for Jin-sook's family to handle and the peaceful village was gradually broken.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKundo: Age of the Rampant (2014)
In 1862, amidst the rule of the late Joseon dynasty in Korea, a band of fighters named Kundo rise against the unjust authorities.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies 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
Popcorn FlickMovies 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDeliver Us from Evil (2020)
A retired contract killer goes on a bloody rampage when a young girl finds herself at the mercy of gangland human traffickers and only one man can come to her rescue, with an arsenal of weapons and years of experience in the art of killing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHouse 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
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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIn the Blood (2014)
When her husband goes missing during their Caribbean vacation, a woman sets off on her own to take down the men she thinks are responsible.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisBreathless (2009)
Sang-hoon is a lowlife gangster, a debt collector exercising thuggish ways to collect his money. The recipient of nothing but anger since his childhood, he expresses himself through violence. When he finally encounters someone who can stand up to him, feisty school-girl Yoon-hee they become unlikely friends.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Born Losers (1967)
A biker gang incites a reign of terror in a California coastal town that culminates in four teenage girls being raped. Vietnam veteran Billy Jack has had enough, however, and takes on the depraved bikers single-handedly. He rescues young Vicky Barrington from their clutches, but then has to contend with not only the thugs, but also the ineffectual and racist local lawmen, who have it out for the half-Native American Billy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNinja: Shadow of a Tear (2013)
Fight everyone and trust no one: it's the code of survival practiced by martial-arts master Casey Bowman after his life of domestic bliss is shattered by a savage act of violence. Vowing revenge, the fearless American stealthily tracks the killer from Osaka to Bangkok to Rangoon with the help of a wise and crafty sensei. His only clues: a series of victims whose necks bear the distinctive mark of strangulation by barbed wire. Fighting to avenge as well as to survive, Casey must sharpen his razor-like responses and take his battle skills to the next level, even using deep meditation to fake his own death. His target: the sinister drug lord Goro, who is flooding the streets with deadly meth cooked at his remote jungle factory. To prepare for his ultimate confrontation, Casey must finally become an invisible warrior worthy of the name Ninja. But just when his prey is cornered, an unexpected twist shows Casey that his battle is only beginning: he truly can trust no one.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMr. Baseball (1992)
Jack Elliot, a one-time MVP for the New York Yankees is now on the down side of his baseball career. With a falling batting average, does he have one good year left and can the manager of the Chunichi Dragons, a Japanese Central baseball league find it in him?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Battered Bastards of Baseball (2014)
Hollywood veteran Bing Russell creates the only independent baseball team in the country—alarming the baseball establishment and sparking the meteoric rise of the 1970s Portland Mavericks.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAssassination (2015)
In Japanese-occupied Korea, three freedom fighters are assigned a mission to assassinate a genocidal military leader and his top collaborator. But the plan goes completely awry amidst double-crossings, counter-assassinations, and a shocking revelation about one of the assassins' past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Protector (1985)
Billy Wong is a New York City cop whose partner is gunned down during a robbery. Billy and his new partner, Danny Garoni, are working security at a fashion show when a wealthy man's daughter, Laura Shapiro, is kidnapped. The Federal authorities suspect that Laura's father is involved with Mr. Ko, a Hong Kong drug kingpin, so the NYC police commissioner sends the two cops to Hong Kong to investigate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Man from Nowhere (2010)
A reclusive pawnshop owner goes on a brutal rampage to rescue a young girl kidnapped by a criminal organization.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEden (2013)
After a night out with friends, Hyun Jae accepts a late night ride home from a young fire fighter. What begins as a night of promise quickly turns into a nightmare when she is abducted and imprisoned outside Las Vegas as a sex slave.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Killer (2022)
While his girlfriend is away on a trip, retired assassin Bang Ui-kang is tasked with looking after her friend's 17-year-old daughter. After a street attack, Bang Ui-kang becomes embroiled in a murder investigation and dangerous trafficking gang.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDiscrimination (2023)
Since 2013, Japan has implemented the free high school policy. However, only 10 Chongryon Korean high schools are excluded from this policy. The reason is that there are suspicions that the grant for free education will be misused by Chochongryon and others. Five of these schools protested about this measure and filed a claim for damages against the government in 2013. After four years of hearings, the first trial decision was made on July 19, 2017, starting with the case of Hiroshima Chongryon Korean high school.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Death by Hanging (1968)
A Korean man is sentenced to death in Japan but somehow survives his execution, sending the authorities into a panic about what to do next.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Worth the HypeMovies like thisYakiniku Dragon (2018)
Set in the 1970's in the Kansai region of Japan.. Yong-Gil is Korean, but he moved to Japan and settled down. He runs a small restaurant named Yakiniku Dragon. He is married and has three daughters: oldest daughter Jung-Hwa, middle daughter Yi-Hwa and youngest daughter Mi-Hwa. Oldest daughter Jung-Hwa is dating Tetsuo, but they break up. Middle daughter Yi-Hwa loves Tetsuo and marries him, but Tetsuo still loves her older sister and they divorce. Youngest daughter Mi-Hwa wants to become a singer, but she is in love with a married man.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
I Am From Chosun (2021)
After 15 years of knowing Chosun people in Japan I met on Mt. Geumgang in 2002, I face the history of colonization and division that I had not known before. They’ve been to North Korea many times, but never to South Korea. They tell us why they want to live as Chosun people despite the discrimination in Japanese society.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Trophy (2026)
The story follows So-hee, a 14-year-old Zainichi Korean girl. She goes to a Korean school and devotes herself to Korean traditional dance as her school club activities. One day, at an exchange event with a Japanese school, she befriends Mirai, a Japanese girl who shares her love of K-pop. Through this encounter, So-hee gradually begins to connect with the world beyond her own. As their friendship deepens, the two decide to sell unused items from So-hee's home on a flea market app to earn money for their favorite K-pop idols live tickets. One item fetches an unexpectedly high price-a North Korean CD, which is So-hee's father's. Sanju, the father, is the principal of a Korean elementary school. Emboldened by this success, So-hee and Mirai take it a step further, eventually selling even the medal that Sanju had been awarded by his homeland, North Korea.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Worst by Chance (2003)
Hidenori is a Japanese-Korean man with no sense of belonging, destination or education. He drifts around and meanders through life until a death reminds him of his heritage and so begins a journey to South Korea.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Blue – Chong (2000)
A spirited and brave fiction debut by Lee Sang-il, a Korean-Japanese filmmaker, that explores the taboo subject of the relations between Korean immigrants and Japanese in Japan.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
One for All, All for One (2014)
Osaka Korean High School has provided education for the past six decades to the children of pro-North Korean residents in Japan. This school is located only about 20 minutes away from Hanazono Stadium, the mecca of Japan’s high school rugby, but it was not until 1994, 18 years after the foundation of a rugby team at the high school, that the Japanese education ministry approved the team’s entry into the official league. Since then, the team has run in the national league as a representative of the Osaka area and been considered a front-runner ever since. The team has strong players and passionate supporters, but it faces difficulties just before winning the league.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Blood and Bones (2004)
In 1923, teenager Kim Shun-Pei moves from Cheju Island, in South Korea, to Osaka, in Japan. Along the years, he becomes a cruel, greedy and violent man and builds a factory of kamaboko, processed seafood products, in his poor Korean-Japanese community exploiting his employees.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisArirang Rhapsody (2024)
The protagonists of the film are the Zainichi Korean women living in Kawasaki. They were tossed about by the war, and after many trips to and fro across the sea in search of a place to live, they finally arrived in Kawasaki, where they have lived modestly and vigorously.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Like Kim's War and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Kim's War?
The closest matches to Kim's War are Fighter in the Wind (2004), Ninja (2009) and Smugglers (2023). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Kim's War?
Start with Fighter in the Wind (2004), the closest match to Kim's War.
What is the highest-rated movie like Kim's War?
The Man from Nowhere (2010), rated 7.7/10 by 1,592 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Kim's War?
Trophy (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Korean movies like Kim's War?
Yes: Fighter in the Wind (2004), Smugglers (2023) and Kundo: Age of the Rampant (2014).
How are movies similar to Kim's War chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Kim's War, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.