Movies like Tough Guy (1978)
The best movies like Tough Guy (1978) are Hand of Death (1976), Shootfighter: Fight to the Death (1993) and In the Blood (2014). If Tough Guy hooked you with its action, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedFist of Legend (1994)7.5/10 from 644 votes
- NewestEye for an Eye (2022)Released 2022
- In ChineseHand of Death (1976)Also in Chinese
Hand of Death (1976)
A young monk must face the Extended Iron Claw technique of a powerful warlord seeking to destroy Shaolin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShootfighter: Fight to the Death (1993)
Nick and Ruben are hoodwinked into a "shootfighter" (no-holds-barred, to the death) martial arts match by the evil Mr. Lee, who has a grudge against world shootfighter champ(and teacher of Nick and Ruben) Shingo.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 · both action
SnoozefestMovies like thisEye for an Eye (2022)
A highly trained and exceptionally deadly swordsman looks for revenge after being caught in the middle of a power struggle that results in the assassination of an innocent woman's family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCrippled Avengers (1978)
A group of martial artists seek revenge after being crippled by Tu Tin-To, a martial arts master, and his son.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIp Man: Kung Fu Master (2019)
Ip Man’s promising career as a Policeman is ruined after he is framed for murder and targeted by a mob boss’s daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisClan of the White Lotus (1980)
The Qing emperor releases all detained Shaolin disciples, but the vindictive White Lotus clan decides to exterminate all the disciples. One martial artist survives the onslaught, and constantly trains while in hiding for revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Five Venoms (1978)
A dying master sends his last student to check up on five former pupils, who each know a special style of kung-fu.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReturn of the One-Armed Swordsman (1969)
After the events of The One-Armed Swordsman (1967), a retired Fang Gang is drawn back into the jianghu to protect various young apprentices whose swordsmanship schools have been terrorized by 8 evil swordsmen seeking to rule the jianghu.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHuman Lanterns (1982)
A psychotic craftsman pits two rival Kung-Fu masters against each other while designing special lanterns from a disturbing source.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNo Retreat, No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers (1990)
Two feuding brothers of differing political views, one a policeman, the other a martial artist, join forces to avenge the death of their father, a retired agent who was brutally murdered by the mafia.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFist of Legend (1994)
Chen returns to his school when he finds out that his martial arts teacher has died. When he learns that his school students are harassed by some hooligans, he gears himself up to save them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Chinese Boxer (1970)
Lei Ming, a noble young martial arts student who doesn't know the meaning of giving up. He faces a treacherous, blood-thirsty Japanese karate expert, which leads to many memorable battles as well as several unforgettable training sequences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMaster of the Flying Guillotine (1976)
A one-armed martial arts master is being stalked by an Imperial assassin, the master of two fighters killed in the previous film. When the One-Armed Boxer is invited to attend a martial arts tournament, his efforts to lay low are unsuccessful, and the assassin soon tracks him down with the help of his three subordinates: a Thai boxer, a yoga master, and a kobojutsu user.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKung Fu Jungle (2014)
A martial arts instructor working at a police academy gets imprisoned after killing a man by accident. But when a vicious killer starts targeting martial arts masters, the instructor offers to help the police in return for his freedom.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Four 3 (2014)
The reputation of the Four constables survives, but since Emotionless’s departure, there have been changes at the Divine Constabulary. The four Coldblood, Iron Hands, Life Snatcher, rescue Zhuge Zhengwo from An Yunshan’s mountain fortress, then with the Emperor and Di armies, they attack. But An Yunshan absorbs their power, which means the constables and their allies now face their most lethal opponent yet, a nearly invincible kung fu master who won’t stop until he has absolute power...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNew Fist of Fury (1976)
A brother and sister escape from Japanese-occupied Shanghai to Japanese-occupied Taiwan, to stay with their grandfather who runs a Kung-Fu school there. However, the master of a Japanese Kung- Fu school in Taiwan has plans to bringing all other schools on the island under his domination, and part of his plan involves the murder of the grandfather.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFemale Fight Squad (2017)
A former fighter reluctantly returns to the life she abandoned in order to help her sister survive the sadistic world of illegal fighting and the maniac who runs it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJourney to the West: The Demons Strike Back (2017)
Tang Monk brings three disciples on a journey to the West. On the outside, everything seems harmonious. However, tension is present beneath the surface, and their hearts and minds are not in agreement. After a series of demon-capturing events, the monk and his disciples gain mutual understanding of each others' hardships and unease. Finally, they resolve their inner conflict and work together to become an all-conquering, demon-exorcising team.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both action
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTwins of Kung Fu (1981)
A humble village finds itself at the center of an ongoing blood feud. Innocent lives are sacrificed as the two warring factions duel to the death. Twins are taught the styles of Dragon and Phoenix to enable them to avenge their mother's murder.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
The Legend of Drunken Master (1994)
Returning home with his father after a shopping expedition, Wong Fei-hung is unwittingly caught up in the battle between foreigners who wish to export ancient Chinese artifacts and loyalists who don't want the pieces to leave the country. Fei-hung must fight against the foreigners using his Drunken Boxing style, and overcome his father's antagonism as well.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHighlander: Endgame (2000)
Immortals Connor and Duncan Macleod join forces against a man from Connor's distant past in the highlands of Scotland, Kell, an immensely powerful immortal who leads an army of equally powerful and deadly immortal swordsmen and assassins. No immortal alive has been able to defeat Kell yet, and neither Connor nor Duncan are skilled enough themselves to take him on and live. The two of them eventually come to one inevitable conclusion; one of them must die so that the combined power of both the Highlanders can bring down Kell for good. There can be only one... the question is, who will it be?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
SnoozefestMovies like thisRevengence Superlady (1986)
A woman seeks vengeance against the man who killed her entire family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Red Cliff (2008)
In 208 A.D., in the final days of the Han Dynasty, shrewd Prime Minster Cao convinced the fickle Emperor Han the only way to unite all of China was to declare war on the kingdoms of Xu in the west and East Wu in the south. Thus began a military campaign of unprecedented scale. Left with no other hope for survival, the kingdoms of Xu and East Wu formed an unlikely alliance.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFight Ring (2009)
After a nearly deadly encounter, a former artist finds himself down on his luck and failing to launch his martial arts business, when he receives a mysterious communique concerning a fight contest with a million dollar prize, he puts it all on the line to win.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Karate Bear Fighter (1975)
Masutatsu Oyama is recruited by his former Army friend to work for a crew of gangsters, but when they kill both his girlfriend and his best friend, Oyama flees away to a small town where he both learns lessons in martial arts philosophy from a wandering master and helps a young boy take on a challenge to fight a ferocious captured bear to win money for the boy's injured father.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
Shenmue: The Movie (2001)
Ryo Hazuki finds himself seeing his father Iwao die at the hands of a mysterious Chinese man named Lan Di, who also steals an item Iwao had called the "Dragon Mirror". Ryo makes it his mission to get revenge on Lan Di, but first he has to find out how to find him, with the warhouse docks & the Mad Angels gang being his best leads.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
China O'Brien (1990)
China O'Brien; big city police woman; martial arts trainer, is forced to hand in her badge and head home to her father and the small town where she grew up. The peaceful town she knew is now struggling against the clutches of organized crime. When her father, the town sheriff, is killed China decides to run for his position and clean up the town. The poll results spark a series of confrontations that finally decide who runs the town . . .
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
SnoozefestMovies like thisChina O'Brien II (1990)
This time China O'Brien has trouble with a dealer who puts a price on her head because she had spoiled an important drug deal of his. But all the world's criminals will not be enough to catch up with China O'Brian, one of the masters of the martial arts.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both action
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Tough Guy?
The closest matches to Tough Guy are Hand of Death (1976), Shootfighter: Fight to the Death (1993) and In the Blood (2014). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Tough Guy?
Start with Hand of Death (1976), the closest match to Tough Guy.
What is the highest-rated movie like Tough Guy?
Fist of Legend (1994), rated 7.5/10 by 644 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Tough Guy?
Eye for an Eye (2022) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Chinese movies like Tough Guy?
Yes: Hand of Death (1976), Eye for an Eye (2022) and Crippled Avengers (1978).
How are movies similar to Tough Guy chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Tough Guy, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.