Movies like Akagi the Gambler II (1997)
The best movies like Akagi the Gambler II (1997) are Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler (2009), Kaiji 2: The Ultimate Gambler (2011) and Yojimbo (1961). If Akagi the Gambler II hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks
- Highest ratedYojimbo (1961)8.1/10 from 1,791 votes
- NewestFinal Wager (2024)Released 2024
- In JapaneseKaiji: The Ultimate Gambler (2009)Also in Japanese
Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler (2009)
Kaiji Ito moves to Japan after graduating from high school. Unable to find a job and frustrated with society at large, Kaiji spends his days gambling, vandalizing cars, and drinking booze. Two years later and his life is no better. A debt collector named Endo arrives to collect money owed. The debt collector offers two choices to Kaiji: spend 10 years paying off his loan or board a gambling boat for one night to repay his debt & possibly make a boat load of money. Could the debt collector Endo actually be setting up Kaiji? One way or another, for Kaiji it's going to be the night of his life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKaiji 2: The Ultimate Gambler (2011)
3 years after the ultimate life-or-death game with Teiai Group, Kaiji was entrapped by Teiai and again back in the underground, forced to do hard labour. One day, Kaiji wins a bet to get out of the underground with 1 million yen, and promises the other workers that he will save them. But to do so, he only has 14 days and needs 200 million yen! Kaiji meets his former rival Tonegawa and learns that there is a chance to turn the tables in the game. It was a monster casino machine that will make 1 billion yen if you win...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisYojimbo (1961)
A nameless ronin, or samurai with no master, enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival businessmen are struggling for control of the local gambling trade. Taking the name Sanjuro Kuwabatake, the ronin convinces both silk merchant Tazaemon and sake merchant Tokuemon to hire him as a personal bodyguard, then artfully sets in motion a full-scale gang war between the two ambitious and unscrupulous men.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies 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 thisKaiji: Final Game (2020)
Kaiji is about to have his life changed. The thrill is beyond anything he, or most people, have experienced. The adventure is not without risk and danger however. He is given four games, which are challenges, and include life and death situations.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisFate/Grand Order the Movie: Divine Realm of the Round Table: Camelot 1 Wandering; Agateram (2020)
The wandering knight, Bedivere, reaches the end of his journey. It is A.D. 1273 in Jerusalem. The Holy Land has been transformed into a massive desert and its people have been forced out of their homes as three major powers wage war with each other in this wasteland. The Knights of the Round Table come together to protect the Holy City and their Lion King. With the whole of his kingdom summoned into a strange land, Ozymandias, the Sun King, quietly plots against the tyranny of this bizarre realm. The mountain people, protectors of those who were stripped of their land, await their chance at rebellion. In order to fulfill his mission, Bedivere heads for the Holy City where the Lion King rules. There he meets humanity’s final Master, Ritsuka Fujimaru, who has come to Jerusalem, accompanied by his Demi-Servant, Mash Kyrielight, in their quest to restore human history.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKakegurui: The Movie (2019)
Hyakkaou Private Academy. An institution for the privileged with a very peculiar curriculum. You see, when you're the sons and daughters of the wealthiest of the wealthy, it's not athletic prowess or book smarts that keep you ahead. It's reading your opponent, the art of the deal. What better way to hone those skills than with a rigorous curriculum of gambling? At Hyakkaou Private Academy, the winners live like kings, and the losers are put through the wringer. But when Yumeko Jabami enrols, she's gonna teach these kids what a high roller really looks like!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFireworks (1997)
Beleaguered police detective Nishi takes desperate measures to try and set things right in a world gone wrong. With those close to him suffering their own tribulations, Nishi's methods become increasingly extreme.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFate/Grand Order the Movie: Divine Realm of the Round Table: Camelot 2 Paladin; Agateram (2021)
The second part in a two-part anime film project adapting the "Sixth Singularity - Divine Realm of the Round Table: Camelot" story from the game.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSword of the Beast (1965)
Legendary swordplay filmmaker Hideo Gosha's Sword of the Beast chronicles the flight of the low-level swordsman Gennosuke, who kills one of his ministers as part of a reform plot. His former comrades then turn on him, and this betrayal so shakes his sense of honor that he decides to live in the wild, like an animal. There he joins up with a motley group who are illegally mining the shogun’s gold, and, with the aid of another swordsman, gets a chance not just at survival but to recover his name and honor.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisZatoichi the Outlaw (1967)
When a local gambling house kidnaps some peasants because they failed to pay their debts, a rival gambling house pays their debts and sets them free.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLupin the 3rd: Goemon's Blood Spray (2017)
A yakuza boss hires Goemon Ishikawa, a modern day samurai, to protect him aboard his cruise ship casino. Everything goes sideways when the famous thief, Lupin the Third, tries to rob the vessel. Lupin's being hunted by a powerful and mysterious man: the so called “Ghost of Bermuda.” With Goemon's employer dead in the ensuing chaos, his honor is at stake, and the only way to preserve it is with blood. But this opponent is like no other, and to make things right, Goemon may need to sharpen not only his sword, but himself as well!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIf Cats Disappeared from the World (2016)
A postman learns that he doesn't have much time left to live due to a terminal illness. A devil then appears in front of him and offers to extend his life if he picks something in the world that will disappear. The man thinks about his relationships with ex-friends, ex-lovers, relatives and colleagues who will be sincerely sad when he dies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFight, Zatoichi, Fight (1964)
Blind swordsman/masseuse Zatoichi befriends a young woman returning home with her baby. When gangsters mistake her for Zatoichi and kill her, Zatoichi determines to escort the baby to its father. He gains the reluctant help of a young pick pocket and together they travel to find the baby's father. But they do not reckon on the father's reaction to their arrival, nor on their own growing feelings for the child.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTokyo Decadence (1992)
A submissive hooker goes about her trade, suffering abuse at the hands of Japanese salarymen and Yakuza types. She's unhappy about her work, and is apparently trying to find some sort of appeasement for the fact that her lover has married.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOutrage (2010)
When a tough yakuza gangster is betrayed by his bosses, it means all out war. Bodies pile up as he takes out everyone in his way to the top in a brutal quest for revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlack Rain (1989)
Two New York cops get involved in a gang war between members of the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia. They arrest one of their killers and are ordered to escort him back to Japan. However, in Japan he manages to escape, and as they try to track him down, they get deeper and deeper into the Japanese Mafia scene and they have to learn that they can only win by playing the game—the Japanese way.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnimal Crossing: The Movie (2006)
Ai, a self-reliant girl who moves to Animal Village and works at Nook's Cranny, gradually becomes part of the community with guidance from its residents and embarks on a quest to plant pine trees for a Winter Festival miracle after finding a message in a bottle.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRainy Dog (1997)
A Japanese assassin stranded in Taiwan must take work from a local crime boss to make ends meet when suddenly a woman from his past delivers a son to him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHaikyu!! The Movie: Talent and Sense (2017)
A compilation film depicting the match against Aoba Johsai High School in the second season of the anime series. It will also include new scenes portraying what happened after the match.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Haikyu!! The Movie: Battle of Concepts (2017)
A recap film depicting the match against Shiratorizawa Academy in the third season of the anime series.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThanks for the Tears (1965)
A film about two men who join the fight against a gang selling weapons.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Code Between Brothers: All New (1970)
When the boss of the Nakano Family decides to retire and makes a loyal follower the new boss instead of his own son, it causes strife in the family. Sides are taken and lines are drawn. Meanwhile, a rival family with a land dispute with the Nakano starts pulling strings behind the scenes...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
High School Family (2027)
Kotaro Ietani, a young boy whose heart is filled with anticipation for his new high school life. On the morning of the entrance ceremony, what awaited him was an unbelievable sight—. "Starting today, your dad is a high school student, too!" Appearing in a school uniform is his 45-year-old father, Ichiro. What's more, his mother Shizuka, his younger sister Haruka, and even his beloved cat Gomez have all become his classmates at the same school! The unprecedented school life of the Ietani family, where every single member has become a high school student, now begins.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Coming SoonMovies like thisFate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya: Vow in the Snow (2017)
Despite his adoptive father's warnings that the girl found in the remnants of a destroyed city is too dangerous to be considered anything other than a tool or weapon, Shirou Emiya comes to treat Miyu as a younger sister. But when Shirou relaxes his guard and Miyu starts normal school, the Ainsworth family and their agents swoop in, kidnapping the girl with the goal of sacrificing her! Faced with the realization that Miyu's ability to do good will always be equaled by her capacity for destruction, Shirou must attempt to both rescue his adopted sister, and decide how to confront the threat that her powers will always pose.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Love Stage!! (2020)
With a mother and father that are actors, and a rockstar brother, anyone would expect Sena Izumi to eventually enter showbiz himself. However, aside from a commercial for a wedding magazine when he was a child, Izumi has never been in the spotlight; instead, he aims to become a manga artist. But a decade after the shoot, the magazine calls for a 10th anniversary ad, requesting the original child actors for the project. This reunites Izumi with Ryouma Ichijou, now a popular actor who, much to Izumi's shock, has been in love with him ever since their first meeting! However, due to Izumi's feminine appearance, and unisex name, Ryouma believed the boy to be a girl and continues to do so to this day. Izumi's troubles are only just beginning. Based on the hit comedy romance manga Love Stage!! It began serialization in the July 2010. Seven tankōbon volumes was published from May 27, 2011 to November 1, 2016. An anime television series adaptation produced by J.C.Staff aired in 2014.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Final Wager (2024)
Former sports gambling addict Chance needs $60,000 to save his mother from nursing home eviction. So he falls back into his old habits, only to learn he's never lost a bet on Christmas. Is this the Christmas miracle he's been waiting for? Or just an addict who can't control himself?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Play! (2015)
What do Bingo and Sponge Bob have in common? Dusan, an eight year old boy trapped in limbo between two polar opposite worlds, spends his time amongst gambling adults in a casino while his imagination is captivated by children's television series. When does one grow up? Let's play and find out!
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A River Runs Through It (1992)
The Maclean brothers, Paul and Norman, live a relatively idyllic life in rural Montana, spending much of their time fly fishing. The sons of a minister, the boys eventually part company when Norman moves east to attend college, leaving his rebellious brother to find trouble back home. When Norman finally returns, the siblings resume their fishing outings, and assess where they've been and where they're going.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Akagi the Gambler II?
The closest matches to Akagi the Gambler II are Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler (2009), Kaiji 2: The Ultimate Gambler (2011) and Yojimbo (1961). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Akagi the Gambler II?
Start with Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler (2009), the closest match to Akagi the Gambler II.
What is the highest-rated movie like Akagi the Gambler II?
Yojimbo (1961), rated 8.1/10 by 1,791 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Akagi the Gambler II?
Final Wager (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Akagi the Gambler II?
Yes: Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler (2009), Kaiji 2: The Ultimate Gambler (2011) and Yojimbo (1961).
How are movies similar to Akagi the Gambler II chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Akagi the Gambler II, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.





























