Movies like Works of the Fish Man (1961)
The best movies like Works of the Fish Man (1961) are Beast (2026), 44 Minutes: The North Hollywood Shoot-Out (2003) and In Full Bloom (2019). If Works of the Fish Man 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 ratedBeast (2026)7.5/10 from 227 votes
- NewestBeast (2026)Released 2026
- In JapaneseKnuckle Girl (2023)Also in Japanese
Beast (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 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 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 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 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 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 thisKnuckle Girl (2023)
Following the story of Ran, who confronts a mysterious organization by participating in a no-rules deathmatch after discovering her missing younger sister Yuzuki is involved in a crime. With danger at every corner, Ran must trade in her boxing gloves for brass knuckles. Will she save her sister?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJawbone (2017)
A former youth boxing champion, Jimmy McCabe is a man in search of hope but looking in all the wrong places. When he hits rock bottom he turns to his childhood boxing club and the only family he has left: gym owner Bill corner man Eddie and promoter Joe. Back in training, years after anyone thought he was a contender, he risks his life, as he tries to stand tall and regain his place in the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHunting Season (2025)
When a reclusive survivalist and his daughter rescue a mysterious, wounded woman from a river, they become entangled in a deadly web of violence and revenge, forcing them to confront a brutal criminal to survive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisMan with No Past (2025)
Waking up in an unfamiliar city, a man with no memory must confront the mysteries of his own identity. However, his desperate search to uncover the past pits him against a powerful enemy, leading to a showdown that ultimately reveals the truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisBLAME! (2017)
In the distant technological future, civilization has reached its ultimate Net-based form. An "infection" in the past caused the automated systems to spiral out of order, resulting in a multi-leveled city structure that replicates itself infinitely in all directions. Now humanity has lost access to the city's controls, and is hunted down and purged by the defense system known as the Safeguard. In a tiny corner of the city, a little enclave known as the Electro-Fishers is facing eventual extinction, trapped between the threat of the Safeguard and dwindling food supplies. A girl named Zuru goes on a journey to find food for her village, only to inadvertently cause doom when an observation tower senses her and summons a Safeguard pack to eliminate the threat. With her companions dead and all escape routes blocked, the only thing that can save her now is the sudden arrival of Killy the Wanderer, on his quest for the Net Terminal Genes, the key to restoring order to the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWalkaway Joe (2020)
A young boy named Dallas goes on a search for his pool-hustling father after he abandons their family. Dallas is determined to bring his father home when he meets Joe Haley, a drifter wrestling with a past he'd rather forget, who feels responsible for Dallas' safety and reluctantly takes him in.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDirt (2018)
In search of a lifeline for his struggling off road racing team, a man takes on a young car thief looking for a second chance, but as their worlds collide, they must struggle to forge a successful alliance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & action
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 thisThe Truth About Emanuel (2013)
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTalhotBlond (2012)
Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIntroducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999)
An acclaimed stage performer, Dorothy still struggled with the challenge of her color, in a time that wouldn't let some stars in by the front door. Yet against the odds she beat out many more famous rivals for the role of "Carmen Jones", becoming the first black woman ever nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award. Marriages and affairs would break her heart, but her heart was strong. Seductive and easily seduced, she was born to be a star - with all the glory and all the pain of being loved, abused, cheated, glorified, undermined and undefeated. Here was a woman who wouldn't wait in the wings. Halle Berry stars as Dorothy Dandrige.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPoint Blank (2019)
A nurse is forced to spring a wounded murder suspect from the hospital when the man’s brother kidnaps his pregnant wife and wants to make a trade.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKodi (2016)
A young politician finds himself in a position where he has to contest against his girlfriend, who is ambitious. Circumstances force his look-alike twin to also get involved in this political battle.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSarvabhouma (2004)
Sarvabhouma is a 2004 Kannada action-drama film directed by Mahesh Sukhadhare, starring Shivarajkumar in a double role.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & drama
Attagasam (2004)
Twin brothers Jeeva and Guru are separated in childhood by tragedy and fate. When their paths cross years later—one a humble driving instructor, the other a feared gangster—their identities collide, leading to a tale of revenge, redemption, and the enduring bond of family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & drama
The Good American (TBA)
Ben, an Iranian refugee and rideshare driver in Los Angeles, becomes entangled in a criminal underground when a passenger asks him to help save her twin sister from a human trafficking ring run by Russian mobsters.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & drama
Vikramarkudu (2006)
A thief's life changes after he discovers a little girl who claims he is her father, and what follows is violence after a gang hunting for his lookalike closes in on him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRajathi Raja (1989)
A rich estate owner is killed by his second wife and her brother Aadimoolam. The estate owner's son Raja returns from USA and learns of this. In order to bring the culprits to book, he makes his friend Sethupati, a rickshaw puller, act as Raja.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & action
Sinners (2025)
Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisÖmrümce Unutamadım (1971)
The film tells the story of Doğan, who is forced to leave the woman he loves. Doğan is a factory worker. He and Selma, who has no one but her sick mother, love each other and want to get married. The owner of the factory where Doğan works offers him to marry his daughter Meral. Doğan initially refuses the offer. However, he is forced to accept it in order to cover the medical expenses for Selma's mother, who suddenly falls ill. Doğan and Meral marry. Selma's mother dies during surgery. Selma marries Doğan's closest friend, Murat. Twenty years later, Doğan and Selma's children will meet.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Büyük Yemin (1969)
Hamza, a powerful county landowner killed a hardworking villager named Ahmet. Soon after this incident, Ahmet's son, Ali, shot the landowner to death. Ali was imprisoned for 12 years before being released and then, in his turn, chased by the landowner's children...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Love is Lost (1956)
Based on the novel by Torahiko Tamiya.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Works of the Fish Man?
The closest matches to Works of the Fish Man are Beast (2026), 44 Minutes: The North Hollywood Shoot-Out (2003) and In Full Bloom (2019). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Works of the Fish Man?
Start with Beast (2026), the closest match to Works of the Fish Man.
What is the highest-rated movie like Works of the Fish Man?
Beast (2026), rated 7.5/10 by 227 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Works of the Fish Man?
Beast (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Works of the Fish Man?
Yes: Knuckle Girl (2023), Goyokin (1969) and Tokyo Fist (1995).
How are movies similar to Works of the Fish Man chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Works of the Fish Man, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.