Movies like Za yobai (1985)
The best movies like Za yobai (1985) are Tokyo Decadence (1992), Antiporno (2017) and Hounddog (2008). If Za yobai hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedFuneral Parade of Roses (1969)7.6/10 from 260 votes
- NewestSister Swapping (2023)Released 2023
- In JapaneseTokyo Decadence (1992)Also in Japanese
Tokyo 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 thisAntiporno (2017)
Kyôko, a traumatized young Japanese girl, finds herself struggling with her self-confidence in her adult life. Growing up in a family without her mother and her sister, she constantly questions the rationale of sex and the notion of liberty in modern Japanese society.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
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 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 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 thisXiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998)
Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIron Jawed Angels (2004)
Defiant young activists take the women's suffrage movement by storm, putting their lives at risk to help American women win the right to vote.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSuburbia (1984)
When household tensions and a sense of worthlessness overcome Evan, he finds escape when he clings with the orphans of a throw-away society. The runaways hold on to each other like a family until a tragedy tears them apart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFuneral Parade of Roses (1969)
In 1960s Tokyo, Gonda owns a bar in which the gay, cross-dresser, and trans scenes meet. Gonda is in a relationship with the madam of the bar, Leda. As the younger Eddie starts a passionate affair with Gonda, she ignites the jealousy of Leda, unaware of another kind of history between them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPastoral: To Die in the Country (1974)
A director faces creative block while working on his latest film – a reimagination of his adolescence growing up in a mountain village in rural Japan.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBLAME! (2017)
In the distant technological future, civilization has reached its ultimate Net-based form. An "infection" in the past caused the automated systems to spiral out of order, resulting in a multi-leveled city structure that replicates itself infinitely in all directions. Now humanity has lost access to the city's controls, and is hunted down and purged by the defense system known as the Safeguard. In a tiny corner of the city, a little enclave known as the Electro-Fishers is facing eventual extinction, trapped between the threat of the Safeguard and dwindling food supplies. A girl named Zuru goes on a journey to find food for her village, only to inadvertently cause doom when an observation tower senses her and summons a Safeguard pack to eliminate the threat. With her companions dead and all escape routes blocked, the only thing that can save her now is the sudden arrival of Killy the Wanderer, on his quest for the Net Terminal Genes, the key to restoring order to the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThrow Away Your Books, Rally in the Streets (1971)
An experimental, psychedelic odyssey through Japanese subculture experienced via the eyes of a disillusioned young man, who must contend with intense familial dysfunction, psychosexual alienation, and existentialist malaise.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisSakuran (2006)
Kiyoha rises from the lowly courtesan ranks to the high class position of Oiran in the steamy red-light district of Yoshiwara. She is determined to stand on her own two feet and live life as she pleased.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Believe in Unicorns (2015)
Feeling awkward and isolated, an imaginative and strong-willed teenage girl runs away from home with an older punk rock drifter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisCall Me Crazy: A Five Film (2013)
A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHoly Lands (2019)
When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisExchange Wife 2 (2023)
Kyeong-soo, an art dealer who specializes in painting, goes to evaluate the requested painting and accidentally damages it. Chang-in, the owner of the painting, suggests one thing from Kyung-soo, who was at a loss.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Purpose of Tutoring (2023)
Yeong-tak and Ha-na are stepsiblings who live with the support of their divorced adoptive parents. The two begin taking individual private lessons for their respective careers. Yeong-tak secretly gives his acting teacher Na-ri sleeping pills to covet her body, while Ha-na is busy seducing her physical education teacher Han-cheol. Meanwhile, Na-ri and Han-cheol run into each other at the stepsiblings' house, fall in love at first sight, and seek revenge on the two who offended them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Sister Swapping (2023)
Sisters Ji-soo and Ji-yeong decided to sell their used underwear due to financial difficulties. Perverted men offer to buy them at a higher price by asking these two sisters for shots of them wearing the underwear. Other men offer to pay even higher prices by demanding sex out of greater desire. As the sisters earn more money than expected, their service becomes more and more popular.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Secret Desires of a Housewife (2004)
Cindy, a newlywed who's determined to do her part to contribute to the household income, together with her ultra-hot friend Heather, set up a web cam site in Heather's front room. As Heather tests the site, Cindy watches the hot action from her house. When Cindy's husband returns, things really get steamy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Wife Collector (1985)
A taxi driving, punk rock listening, serial rapist with a bad attitude picks up female fares, sedates them with gas and takes them to his grungy lair where he video tapes his sexual abuse.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Dalaga na si Sabel (1997)
Sabel (played by Izza Ignacio) is used by her mother to pay for a longstanding debt they have from the proprietor of a fishery.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
My Young Master (2019)
Seon-yeong's husband cheats on her, which she endures until her younger brother-in-law comes to stay. After a series of events, she seduces him and decides to divorce her cheating husband and runaway with his brother.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Beautiful Mystery (1983)
Shinohara, a young bodybuilder, joins a para-military sect in northern Japan. His instructor, Takizawa, takes a liking to the new recruit. After an early “special” training session the two develop a lasting and loving relationship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Isla: The Young Version (1996)
A story of an innocent young lass desperate to leave her homeland to escape her adoptive father's lustful desires.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Ticket Coffee Shop (2017)
A ticket war between sexy girls! There is a ticket coffee shop in a small town. Kang Cherry is the most popular girl here. The town men are desperate to get their tickets with Cherry everyday. However, Cherry doesn't easily give into them and she's haughty. One day, Moon-sik moves into the town to live a quiet life. Cherry recognizes a man with money right away and tries to seduce him. Moon-sik who visits the coffee shop out of curiosity falls for Cherry right away and can't seem to get enough of her...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Za yobai?
The closest matches to Za yobai are Tokyo Decadence (1992), Antiporno (2017) and Hounddog (2008). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Za yobai?
Start with Tokyo Decadence (1992), the closest match to Za yobai.
What is the highest-rated movie like Za yobai?
Funeral Parade of Roses (1969), rated 7.6/10 by 260 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Za yobai?
Sister Swapping (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Za yobai?
Yes: Tokyo Decadence (1992), Antiporno (2017) and Intentions of Murder (1964).
How are movies similar to Za yobai chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Za yobai, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.