Movies like Legend of Yoshitsune (1992)
The best movies like Legend of Yoshitsune (1992) are Taboo (1999), Come Sunday (2018) and My Brother the Devil (2012). If Legend of Yoshitsune hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Ballad of Narayama (1983)7.5/10 from 213 votes
- NewestBeast (2026)Released 2026
- In JapaneseTaboo (1999)Also in Japanese
Taboo (1999)
Set during Japan's Shogun era, this film looks at life in a samurai compound where young warriors are trained in swordfighting. A number of interpersonal conflicts are brewing in the training room, all centering on a handsome young samurai named Sozaburo Kano. The school's stern master can choose to intervene, or to let Kano decide his own path.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCome Sunday (2018)
Evangelist Carlton Pearson is ostracized by his church for preaching that there is no Hell.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisMy Brother the Devil (2012)
Fourteen-year-old Mo is a lonely, sensitive boy whose hunger for the rant and banter of buddies makes him prone to tread dangerous territories. He idolizes his handsome older brother, Rashid, a charismatic, well-respected member of a local gang, whose drug dealing enables “Rash” to provide for his family. Aching to be seen as a tough guy himself, Mo takes a job that unlocks a fateful turn of events and forces the brothers to confront their inner demons. It turns out that hate is easy. It is love and understanding that take real courage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInside I'm Dancing (2004)
Michael is a 24-year-old who has cerebral palsy and long-term resident of the Carrigmore Residential Home for the Disabled, run by the formidable Eileen. His life is transformed when the maverick Rory O'Shea moves in.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTokyo Family (2013)
An elderly couple journey to Tokyo to visit their grown children, only to find them preoccupied and self-involved.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHardball (2001)
An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIntentions of Murder (1964)
The neglected common-law wife of a Japanese librarian is repeatedly harassed by a young man with a heart condition who seduces her with the prospect of a better life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMammal (2016)
After Margaret, a divorcée living in Dublin, loses her teenage son, she develops an unorthodox relationship with Joe, a homeless youth. Their tentative trust is threatened by his involvement with a violent gang and the escalation of her ex-husband's grieving rage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisAll Day and a Night (2020)
While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCall Boy (2018)
Ryo Morinaka is a university student and works part-time at a bar. He is bored with his daily life and exists in a state of torpor. One day, his friend Shinya Tajima brings the owner of a host bar over to the place where Ryo Morinaka works. Shizuka Mido is the owner of the host bar. Soon, Ryo Morinaka begins to work for Shizuka Mido at the members only host bar. He feels embarrassment initially, but he fulfills the desires of women and develops a sense of purpose.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLike Someone in Love (2012)
An old man and a young woman meet in Tokyo. She knows nothing about him, he thinks he knows her. He welcomes her into his home, she offers him her body. But the web that is woven between them in the space of twenty four hours bears no relation to the circumstances of their encounter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCardboard Boxer (2016)
Gentle and broken, a homeless man fights others on video for money but soon finds comfort in an unlikely friend and the lost diary of a young girl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHands of Stone (2016)
The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIrezumi (1966)
Otsuya, the daughter of a rich merchant, elopes with her lover Shinsuke, an employee of her father's. During their flight, Otsuya's beauty attracts the gaze of Seikichi, a mysterious master tattooist who sees her pristine white skin as the perfect canvas for his art. The image of the large demonic spider that he emblazons across Otsuya's back marks her as the property of another man, radically altering her relationships with all around her as her personality seems to transform under its influence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOne Million Yen Girl (2008)
A 21-year-old girl is released from prison, only to deal with the neighborhood gossip about her and family conflicts. She decides to save one million yen, move to where no one knows her and keep repeating the process.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Ballad of Narayama (1983)
In a small village in a valley everyone who reaches the age of 70 must leave the village and go to a certain mountain top to die. If anyone should refuse they would disgrace their family. Old Orin is 69. This winter it is her turn to go to the mountain. But first she must make sure that her eldest son Tatsuhei finds a wife.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeast (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 drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLorelei (2020)
A man is released from prison after 15 years. He reunites with his high school girlfriend, now a single mother of three. What follows is a lyrical take on love, regret and second chances.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Monk Farted (1993)
The story is about Nagatoshi, a handsome and sexy monk played by Kazuhiro Sano, who is struggling for the widow he loves. Foreshadowing the prophecy of the Great Kanto Earthquake, the film is a highly entertaining theatrical spectacle that depicts the human condition of a downtown area undergoing development and the efforts of men and women who rebel against it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Angel in September (1994)
One day, Hitomi observes her classmate Eriko stealing lipstick in a drugstore and follows her home. The two young women get to know and love each other. While the withdrawn Hitomi believes herself and Eriko to be reincarnations of angel warriors who once fought demon armies, her emancipated and apathetic friend wanders through life between sex contacts with older men and fear of falling into a boring bourgeois existence. The different futures of the two soon lead to tensions.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
End of the World (1995)
A fugitive man and woman (Kawase, Kawana) come to an island to retrieve their son (Iwasaki), who the woman has given to a foster family, but the son's foster parents are policemen (Ito)... The suspense surrounding the retrieval of the son is made unusual by the location shooting on the vast and desolate Miyakejima Island and leads to an allegorical drama about the essential desires of human beings. This was Kawase Yota's first appearance in a Zeze film, and he has since become a regular actor. The title of the film at the time of its first release was Sukebe Tenkomori.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
No Good Men (1995)
No Good Men follows Kumiko, a young and attractive woman that works at a travel agency, and moonlights as an insatiable, sex-hungry mistress.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Dead End (1978)
A man and woman meet when he pulls her out of an icy fountain that she has just jumped into. But their developing romance is marred by bad friends, money troubles and illegal sex work.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
New Molester Diary (1999)
The sexy female pickpocket and the army of perverts are in a gorgeous finger fight! A tranquil downtown of Tokyo. A town full of humanity. The residents of Hanakisou, a dilapidated apartment building, are all perverts. One day, they got off the train and were surprised to find their wallets had been slashed. But when they caught the pickpocket, they were even more surprised. It was a cute female office worker....
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Toyomaru's Pervert Clinic (1988)
Akemaru is the female director of Shumaru Clinic and a singer at a live spot at night. She treats perversions, but her treatment methods are unorthodox...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Chikan densha: Gusshori nurashite (1988)
In a crowded train, men and women are all over the place. In an era when there were no women-only cars, the men reach for the women's asses!
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Horo-yoi no jôji: Himegoto wa kamidanomi (2019)
An erotic drama in which the director Tetsuya Takehora, the scriptwriter Hiroko Fukazawa, and the starring Nanami Kawakami have reunited. Miwa, a communicative disorder, spends her days hiding behind the offering box at the shrine and soaking in sake while keeping a distance from the world. One day, she meets a middle-aged man who came to visit a shrine, and she is attracted to each other as she talks without showing up to the other person. Miwa began to feel confident in living through interaction with him ...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Legend of Yoshitsune?
The closest matches to Legend of Yoshitsune are Taboo (1999), Come Sunday (2018) and My Brother the Devil (2012). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Legend of Yoshitsune?
Start with Taboo (1999), the closest match to Legend of Yoshitsune.
What is the highest-rated movie like Legend of Yoshitsune?
The Ballad of Narayama (1983), rated 7.5/10 by 213 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Legend of Yoshitsune?
Beast (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Legend of Yoshitsune?
Yes: Taboo (1999), Tokyo Fist (1995) and Tokyo Family (2013).
How are movies similar to Legend of Yoshitsune chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Legend of Yoshitsune, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.