Movies like The Yakuza Principal (2007)
The best movies like The Yakuza Principal (2007) are Crayon Shinchan the Movie: Action Kamen VS Leotard Devil (1993), Adrift in Tokyo (2007) and First Love (2019). If The Yakuza Principal hooked you with its comedy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBoruto: Naruto the Movie (2015)7.5/10 from 1,680 votes
- NewestThe Wizard (2024)Released 2024
- In JapaneseCrayon Shinchan the Movie: Action Kamen VS Leotard Devil (1993)Also in Japanese
Crayon Shinchan the Movie: Action Kamen VS Leotard Devil (1993)
Everyone's favorite TV superhero Action Mask shows up in Kasukabe, and he's trying to get something from Shin-chan -- but what could it be?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisFirst Love (2019)
One night in Tokyo, Leo, a young boxer, meets his first love, Monica, an imprisoned sex worker. Caught up in a drug-smuggling scheme, they find themselves pursued by a corrupt cop, a yakuza, his nemesis, and a female assassin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCrayon Shinchan the Movie: The Legend Called: Dance! Amigo! (2006)
Something sinister's afoot in Kasukabe. Shin-chan doesn't know what it is, but he's pretty sure it involves samba-dancing doppelgängers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGolden Kamuy (2024)
On the Hokkaido frontier, a war veteran and Ainu girl race against misfits and military renegades to find treasure mapped out on tattooed outlaws.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Mole Song: Undercover Agent Reiji (2013)
Reiji Kikukawa, who has a strong sense of justice, graduated from the police academy with the lowest score ever. He becomes a police constable, but is suddenly fired by the Police Chief due to "disciplinary" issues. In actuality, the firing is part of a carefully orchestrated plan to set him up as an undercover cop in the Yakuza.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPsychic Kusuo (2017)
Born a powerful psychic, high schooler Kusuo Saiki craves the simple life. But the weirdos in his class make it difficult to conceal his abilities.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
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 · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisCrows Zero (2007)
The students of Suzuran High compete for the King of School title. An ex-graduate yakuza is sent to kill the son of a criminal group, but he can't make himself do it as he reminds him of his youth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBoruto: Naruto the Movie (2015)
The spirited Boruto Uzumaki, son of Seventh Hokage Naruto, is a skilled ninja who possesses the same brashness and passion his father once had. However, the constant absence of his father, who is busy with his Hokage duties, puts a damper on Boruto's fire. He ends up meeting his father's friend Sasuke, and requests to become... his apprentice!? The curtain on the story of the new generation rises!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
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 thisGirls und Panzer der Film (2015)
When the Ministry of Education goes back on its promise to keep Ooarai Girls Academy open, the task of saving the five-mile-long Academy Ship from the wreckers falls to Miho and her barely-seasoned tankery team. However, things go off track almost immediately. While the Oorai tank crew may have won the high school tournament, they’re now facing a larger and more experienced university team, and if they fail, their armored vehicles will be forfeit! Will they be swapping their tanks for the memories? It’s possible, but winning a tank battle is all about tactics and teamwork, and the fledgling Ooarai students have more friends and allies than anyone suspects.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDetroit Metal City (2008)
Soichi Negishi moved to Tokyo to chase his dream of becoming a musician playing stylish, Swedish-style pop. Instead, he finds himself leading the death metal band Detroit Metal City, or DMC, as the costumed and grotesquely made-up "demon emperor" Johannes Krauser II. Although he hates the role and the things he has to do as a member of the band, he has a definite talent for it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCity Hunter: .357 Magnum (1989)
A beautiful pianist comes to Tokyo for a charity concert - and City Hunter is there. But music isn't his forte. He wants lessons in the language of love. Desperation is the word as bodies start dropping. A foreign dignitary is assassinated in cold blood. Secret agents scour the streets for a missing microchip. And diplomatic infighting swirls around the upcoming concert until Nina the pianist and her grandfather Klaus are kidnapped. A maelstrom of exploding grenades, the rumble of Falcon's jeep, and the tinkling of the ivories all set the stage for City Hunter: . 357 Magnum. The show must go on!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRanma 1/2 the Movie 2: Nihao My Concubine (1992)
With the Tendos, the Saotomes, Ryoga, Shampoo and Ukyo misinterpreting Tatewake Kuno's invitation to his two loves, Akane and 'The Pig Tailed Girl', to try his new yacht, a whole new episode of chaos begins in the already unstable lives of the Saotome/Tendo clan. A mysterious shadow kidnaps first Akane's sister Kasumi, then continues on until all the girls disappear. All except everyone's favorite hydrotranssexual.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisKuroko's Basketball the Movie: Last Game (2017)
Kuroko reunites with the "Generation of Miracles" when former rivals are humiliated in an exhibition game against a notorious street basketball team.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRanma 1/2: Team Ranma vs. the Legendary Phoenix (1994)
Kuno purchases a strange egg, believing that the mysterious powers of the legendary Phoenix will help him defeat Ranma. But when the egg hatches on his head, the bird goes out of control and wreaks havoc all over Tokyo. Ranma and the gang must use any means necessary to get the Phoenix to leave Kuno's head and fly away.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Paper Tigers (2020)
Three middle aged men polish their martial arts skills to avenge their fallen master.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
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 thisKamikaze Girls (2004)
Momoko, a strange and seemingly emotionless girl obsessed with 18th century France, befriends a Yanki biker and the two experience the ups and downs of their unusual lives in a rural Japanese town.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeautiful Wrestler: Down for the Count (1984)
Two good friends entering different women's colleges, joining the wrestling club, and fighting as rivals.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
The Wizard (2024)
Igami would have wanted to be a manga artist, but he become an exorcist. And in this, he excels. When a yakuza boss asks for his help in dealing with a grave curse, he realizes that a supernatural insect master is active behind the scenes. Furthermore, a great master of the supernatural is putting Tokyo in danger. Igami decides to delve into his arsenal of tricks and spells to thwart these plans.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Gozu (2003)
Minami mistakenly kills a gangster associate of his named Brother. Almost as soon as the murder takes place, the body of the deceased man is gone, prompting Minami to conduct a search. While looking, he finds a mysterious isolated hotel where he decides to take a rest. Not only are the front desk clerks a bit strange, but even the ambiance feels unusual. Minami soon realizes he may have gotten more than he bargained for.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSamurai Cat: The Movie (2014)
The ever versatile Kazuki Kitamura stars as masterless samurai Kyutaro Madarame, a feared swordsman who has fallen on hard times in old Edo. Caught between two warring gangs in an epic battle of cat lovers and dog lovers, he begrudgingly accepts the canine faction's offer to assassinate the opposite leader's beloved pet: an adorable white cat. Yet upon raising his lethal sword, he cannot bring himself to go through with the act, and the cat melts his ronin heart. But before finding peace as a newly minted cat person, the still fearsome Madarame will have to take on both gangs in a classic samurai street brawl.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Always - Sunset on Third Street (2005)
In 1958 postwar Tokyo, the residents of a humble Third Street neighbourhood struggle, dream, and grow together as rapid modernisation transforms their lives beneath the shadow of the newly rising Tokyo Tower.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Taste of Tea (2004)
A spell of time in the life of the five-piece Haruno family in rural Tochigi Prefecture. Yoshiko is not an ordinary housewife, instead working on an animated film project. Uncle Ayano, a successful music producer, is looking to get his head together after living in Tokyo. Meanwhile, Sachiko is concerned with why she seems to be followed by a giant version of herself. As the lazy days pass by, each member of the family is followed in a series of episodic vignettes.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisExte: Hair Extensions (2007)
An aspiring hairdresser becomes the infatuation of a tricophilic man who sells hair extensions to nearby salons. The source is the corpse of a girl whose corpse continues to grow beautiful, voluminous, black hair that comes alive, either driving the extension user insane or killing them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisMy Wife is a Gangster (2001)
Eun-jin who is a living legend among the gangsters dominates the male-centered underworld wielding only a pair of her trademark blades. One day, Eun-jin finds her sister from whom she was separated at an orphanage during childhood, and her sister tells Eun-jin that her last dying wish is to see that Eun-jin gets married.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisSPEC: Close Reincarnation (2013)
Mysteries are revealed like the words "Simple Plan," "Third Secret of Fatima" and also the mysterious white man which are all mentioned in the movie "SPEC: Heaven".
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
SPEC: Close~Incarnation (2013)
Mysteries are revealed like the words "Simple Plan," "Third Secret of Fatima" and also the mysterious white man which are all mentioned in the movie "SPEC: Heaven".
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy
Like The Yakuza Principal and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Yakuza Principal?
The closest matches to The Yakuza Principal are Crayon Shinchan the Movie: Action Kamen VS Leotard Devil (1993), Adrift in Tokyo (2007) and First Love (2019). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Yakuza Principal?
Start with Crayon Shinchan the Movie: Action Kamen VS Leotard Devil (1993), the closest match to The Yakuza Principal.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Yakuza Principal?
Boruto: Naruto the Movie (2015), rated 7.5/10 by 1,680 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Yakuza Principal?
The Wizard (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like The Yakuza Principal?
Yes: Crayon Shinchan the Movie: Action Kamen VS Leotard Devil (1993), Adrift in Tokyo (2007) and First Love (2019).
How are movies similar to The Yakuza Principal chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Yakuza Principal, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.