Movies like Song of Sado (1961)
The best movies like Song of Sado (1961) are Glory to the Filmmaker! (2007), Why Don't You Play in Hell? (2013) and Achilles and the Tortoise (2008). If Song of Sado hooked you with its drama and comedy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks
- Highest ratedWhy Don't You Play in Hell? (2013)7.3/10 from 338 votes
- NewestJuniper (2021)Released 2021
- In JapaneseGlory to the Filmmaker! (2007)Also in Japanese
Glory to the Filmmaker! (2007)
Takeshi Kitano plays a version of himself in which he's a struggling director cycling through a number of different genres in an effort to complete his latest project.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhy Don't You Play in Hell? (2013)
In Japan, gonzo filmmakers hatch a three-pronged plan to save an actress's career, end a yakuza war and make a hit movie.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAchilles and the Tortoise (2008)
Machisu is a painter. He never had the success he thinks he is entitled to. Regardless of this, he always remains trying to be successful. His wife Sachiko keeps supporting him, despite all setbacks.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFamily Weekend (2013)
A 16-year-old girl takes her parents hostage after they miss her big jump-roping competition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBetter Start Running (2018)
An eclectic band of misfits becomes an unlikely family as they take a wild journey in the name of love while on the run from an overzealous FBI duo who want them dead or alive - preferably dead.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisLady Windermere's Fan (1925)
A society woman believes her husband is having an affair, a misconception which may have dire personal consequences for all involved.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe House of Tomorrow (2019)
The film tells futurist, architect, and inventor R. Buckminster Fuller's incredible story through two teens hoping to get laid, become punk gods, and survive high school.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJuniper (2021)
When a self-destructive teenager is suspended from school and asked to look after his feisty alcoholic grandmother as a punishment, the crazy time they spend together turns his life around.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDead or Alive 2: Birds (2000)
Two contract killers cross paths in the middle of the same job and realize they are childhood friends. Together they take a break from killing and visit the small island they once called home. After reflecting on their past lives they decided to team up and use their talents in killing for good... much to the upset of the crime syndicates.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisYakuza: Like a Dragon (2007)
Former yakuza underling Kazuma Kiryū has recently been released from prison after a lengthy incarceration and is trying to piece his life together and distance himself from his yakuza past. Unfortunately, Kiryū's problems slowly escalate as he is pursued by a former associate, the baseball-bat-wielding psycho Gorō Majima, who has a grudge to settle with Kiryū.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBattles Without Honor and Humanity: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima (1973)
Repeatedly beat to a pulp by gamblers, cops, and gangsters, lone wolf Shoji Yamanaka finally finds a home as a Muraoka family hitman and falls in love with boss Muraoka's niece. Meanwhile, the ambitions of mad dog Katsutoshi Otomo draws our series' hero, Shozo Hirono, and the other yakuza into a new round of bloodshed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSympathy for the Underdog (1971)
A yakuza gang gets driven out of Yokohama by a big gang from Tokyo. They relocate to Okinawa to violently start over.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Outsider (2018)
A former American G.I. joins a yakuza family after his release from prison in post-World War II Osaka.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAdrift in Tokyo (2007)
A thug offers to pay a law student's gambling debt if the student will accompany him on a trip across Tokyo.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFemale Yakuza Tale (1973)
Ocho is accidentally captured by a drug trafficking cartel who use Chinese women to smuggle drugs into Japan by hiding it in their vaginas. She is tortured, and manages to escape, fighting both the male yakuzas and a gang of female thieves.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBleach the Movie: Fade to Black (2008)
A strange disturbance in the World of the Living sends Ichigo and Kon to the Soul Society, where the Seireitei has been devastated by an explosion of reishi and Rukia is missing. Stranger still, none of the Soul Reapers remember Ichigo, and they think he’s the one responsible for the destruction. Now on the run, Ichigo is forced into a lonely battle in order to find Rukia and stop the real culprits!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Fable (2019)
The Fable is a legendary yakuza hitman equal to none—but his boss orders him and his sultry associate to lay low and learn how to live a "normal life" in Osaka.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGraveyard of Honor (2002)
A barkeeper saves a yakuza boss' life and thus makes his way up in the organization. However, his fear of nothing soon causes problems.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both 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 drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKill! (1968)
A pair of down-on-their-luck swordsmen arrive in a dusty, windblown town, where they become involved in a local clan dispute. One, previously a farmer, longs to become a noble samurai. The other, a former samurai haunted by his past, prefers living anonymously with gangsters. But when both men discover the wrongdoings of the nefarious clan leader, they side with a band of rebels who are under siege at a remote mountain cabin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFlowers of Chivalry (1961)
Kayama Ichinoshin (Raizo Ichikawa) has been traveling for ten years in search of revenge for his father. One day, Ichinoshin reunites with his younger brother Shinjiro (Yukio Hashi), who has completely changed. Shinjiro abandoned the quiet samurai life and began to lead a Yakuza lifestyle. The older brother is angry at the younger one for his depravity, and the younger one laughs at him for being tied to old-fashioned traditions. As a result, they quarrel. Ichinoshin hears that the person he has to take revenge on has become a Yakuza, and in order to get a hint, he takes care of the Otsu family, to which Shinjiro owes, but later discovers that the boss of Otsu Kanemon is the one he is looking for.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
The Club (1980)
The club buys a talented young player, Geoff, for a record sum of money. The team members do not like their new star and friction develops immediately. Game after game is lost until Geoff begins to realize that there is more at stake than just his own career.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
Fatso (1980)
Dominick DiNapoli is a man who loves food and is overweight as a result. After an obese cousin dies due to health problems, Dominick's sister Antoinette sets out to help him lose weight. Although he has a hard time trying to slim down, Dominick finds inspiration when he meets and falls for shop owner Lydia. Can he get up the courage to ask her out, or will he go back to the comfort of overeating?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Lords of Flatbush (1974)
Set in 1958, the coming of age story follows four lower middle-class Brooklyn teenagers known as The Lords of Flatbush. The Lords chase girls, steal cars, shoot pool, get into street fights, and hang out at a local malt shop.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisStraw Hat of Itako (1961)
A film about young wandering Yakuza. Yukio Hashi's first film role.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Awakening (2008)
Carsten is dating Melissa, who introduces him to her parents. On a camping trip with Melissa's family, Carsten finds that he shares a secret with Melissa's father.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)
Boxer Joe Pendleton, flying to his next fight, crashes...because a Heavenly Messenger, new on the job, snatched Joe's spirit prematurely from his body. Before the matter can be rectified, Joe's body is cremated; so the celestial Mr. Jordan grants him the use of the body of wealthy Bruce Farnsworth, who's just been murdered by his wife. Joe tries to remake Farnsworth's unworthy life in his own clean-cut image, but then falls in love; and what about that murderous wife?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisModern Girls (1986)
Margo, Kelly, and CeCe have three things in common: they're roommates, they're gorgeous, and they're hooked on the glamour and excitement of L.A.'s rock and roll nightlife. When they get mixed up with a rock star, an arrogant ex-boyfriend, a pseudo-sadist, and the nicest nerd in the City of Angels, it's a full night to say the least!
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisKiss me Kismet (2006)
Götz, the owner of an record shop in Berlin, Kreuzberg, is in love with Aylin.But Aylin is espoused to an turkey doctor named Tarkan. Götz and Aylin are fallin in love and they want to get married. Their Plans first get strong restistance from the turkish parents-in-law and also from the mother of Götz named Helena. Götz converting to the Islam and tries to get a true turk to marry Aylin at the end. After serveral problems and twists they get finally married.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Don's Party (1976)
On the night of the 1969 federal election, Don Henderson invites a group of friends to celebrate a predicted Labor Party victory, much to the dismay of his wife, Kath. The Hendersons and their nine guests drink, joke, make love, and fight, all while coming to terms with their individual struggles in life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Like Song of Sado and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Song of Sado?
The closest matches to Song of Sado are Glory to the Filmmaker! (2007), Why Don't You Play in Hell? (2013) and Achilles and the Tortoise (2008). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Song of Sado?
Start with Glory to the Filmmaker! (2007), the closest match to Song of Sado.
What is the highest-rated movie like Song of Sado?
Why Don't You Play in Hell? (2013), rated 7.3/10 by 338 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Song of Sado?
Juniper (2021) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Song of Sado?
Yes: Glory to the Filmmaker! (2007), Why Don't You Play in Hell? (2013) and Achilles and the Tortoise (2008).
How are movies similar to Song of Sado chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Song of Sado, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.





























