20 best movies like American Yakuza (1993)

A Chicago cop is caught in the middle of a gang war while his own comrades shun him because he wants to take an irresponsible cop down.

A young man searches for the "master" to obtain the final level of martial arts mastery known as the glow. Along the way he must fight an evil martial arts expert and rescue a beautiful singer from an obsessed music promoter.

An ex-mercenary known for finding missing children is hired by a mixed martial arts fighter whose daughter has been kidnapped.

Eight years after fleeing the Congo following his assassination of that country's minister of mining, former assassin Jim Terrier is back, suffering from PTSD and digging wells to atone for his violent past. After an attempt is made on his life, Terrier flies to London to find out who wants him dead -- and why. Terrier's search leads him to a reunion with Annie, a woman he once loved, who is now married to an oily businessman with dealings in Africa.

A father is without the means to pay for his daughter's medical treatment. As a last resort, he partners with a greedy co-worker to rob a casino. When things go awry they're forced to hijack a city bus.

Harry Kilmer returns to Japan after several years in order to rescue his friend George's kidnapped daughter - and ends up on the wrong side of the Yakuza, the notorious Japanese mafia...

Akira Saito, a Japanese businessman lives in Tokyo with his Japanese-American wife Aiko and their children, Takeshi and Tomoya. When the family has a chance to move to the United States so that Aiko can teach the children about their American heritage, they pack up and head for Houston, Texas and run a restaurant. This is where the trouble begins....

Los Angeles, June 21st, 2028. While the streets are being torn apart by riots, the Nurse, who runs a clandestine hospital for criminals in the penthouse of the Artemis, a closed old hotel, has a rough night dealing with troublemaker clients: thieves, assassins, someone from the past and the one who owns the place and the whole city.

In Los Angeles, an ex-con (White) takes the underground fighting world by storm in his quest to fulfill a promise to a dead friend.

Los Angeles, 1949. Ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, the guns, the prostitutes and — if he has his way — every wire bet placed west of Chicago. And he does it all with the protection of not only his own paid goons, but also the police and the politicians who are under his control. It’s enough to intimidate even the bravest, street-hardened cop… except, perhaps, for the small, secret crew of LAPD outsiders led by Sgt. John O’Mara and Jerry Wooters who come together to try to tear Cohen’s world apart.

One year after the events of "Kickboxer: Vengeance", Kurt Sloan has vowed never to return to Thailand. However, while gearing up for a MMA title shot, he finds himself sedated and forced back into Thailand, this time in prison. He is there because the ones responsible want him to face a 6'8" 400 lbs. beast named Mongkut and in return for the fight, Kurt will get two million dollars and his freedom back. Kurt at first refuses, in which a bounty is placed on his head as a way to force him to face Mongkut. Kurt soon learns he will have no other choice and will undergo his most rigorous training yet under some unexpected mentors in order to face Mongkut in hopes to regain his freedom.

A trucker (Lamas) has to come home to help fight mobsters after his brother who embezzled $5,000,000 from them.

A man must survive a prison where hardened criminals battle to the death for the warden's entertainment.

Just retired from the Drug Enforcement Agency, John Hatcher returns to his hometown and quickly discovers that drugs have infiltrated his old neighborhood. Determined to drive the dealers out, Hatcher crosses paths with a ferocious Jamaican drug lord who vows that Hatcher and his family are now marked for death.

Dr. Johnny Woo becomes involved in a global Mafia arms cartel when they kidnap his son Bobby. The cartel, made-up of underworld leaders from around the world, become aware that he stumbled onto valuable information on a computer disk he possesses. Louie and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Kruskev use every bit of their cunning to trap Johnny and retrieve the disk.

During a routine prison work detail, convict Piper is chained to Dodge, a cyberhacker, when gunfire breaks out. Apparently, the attack is related to stolen money that the Mafia is after, and some computer files that somebody wants desperately to bury. The pair, who don't exactly enjoy each other's company, escape and must work together if they are to reach Atlanta alive. Luckily, they meet a woman who may be willing to help them.

A young man washes ashore, his memory gone - but his past comes back to haunt him after he is nursed back to health and his killing ability is needed when he takes on a powerful drug lord.

After returning home from a traumatic tour of duty in Iraq, John finds himself struggling with PTSD. What little peace he had managed to build around him is shattered one fateful day when he rescues a local call girl from a group of violent Aryan Brotherhood pimps. Having killed several of the high-ranking brotherhood during the rescue, John and his family are now the prime targets of Hollis, the ruthless criminal leader of the group.

After a group of Irish mobsters in Hell's Kitchen are sentenced to jail, their wives take their place—and do as good of a job, if not better.

Trained KGB assassin, Edward Genn (code name ICARUS), worked years ago as a sleeper agent in America. But when the Soviet Union collapsed, he quickly found himself in a foreign country with no one to trust. Determined to escape his muddled existence, Edward tries to start over. He assumes a new identity, starts a family and tries to start his own legitimate business that could potentially pull him out of his world of being a hitman.

A group of Russian mobsters have stolen a huge supply of paper for printing U.S. currency, and are now flooding the market with conterfeit bills. When one of the mobsters decides to give herself in and hand over a data CD to the DA, she is shot and killed, but not before handing the disc to an unsuspecting Tommy Lee. Despite working with the police as a martial arts instructor, Lee doesn't go to the cops with the disc, but instead goes on the run, giving the mafia time to kidnap his daughter and hold as a hostage in exchange for return of the disc. Will Tommy ever see his daughter again?

The fast-paced action movie is again set in the criminal underworld in France, where Frank Martin is known as The Transporter, because he is the best driver and mercenary money can buy. In this installment, he meets Anna and they attempt to take down a group of ruthless Russian human traffickers who also have kidnapped Frank’s father.

On these streets everyone is fighting for a way out, but after a lifetime of hard knocks, a down-on-his-luck cage fighter gets the opportunity of a lifetime when he is chosen to compete against the MMA world champion during a massive competition. The stakes are high and the reward great...but should he lose, it will cost him his life.

A young man, Kazuya Mishima, wakes up alone in an unfamiliar hotel room without any recollection of who he is or how he got there. He is tormented by flashes of his past and by the face of an ominous stranger. The next thing he knows, Kazuya is ambushed and kidnapped by an underground crime organization and, soon after, turned into a ruthless assassin. During a mission to assassinate a man named Brian Fury, Kazuya finds that his target harbors clues to his true identity. With the help of Fury and a female assassin, Kazuya follows the clues, leading him to the lab of his reoccurring flashbacks. Here, he will finally confront his past and the ominous man of his nightmares - Heihachi Mishima, face the ultimate betrayal, and Ieam the truth about who, and what, he really is. TEKKEN 2: KAZUYA’S REVENGE is non-stop action from the first scene to the last.

Kham is the last in long line of guards who once watched over the King of Thailand's war elephants. Traditionally, only the perfect elephants could successfully help defend the throne, after his harrowing quest to retrieve the elephants, Kham returns to his village to live in peace. But for someone as good in martial arts as him, peace is but a wishful thought...

The origin story of younger, hungrier, former Green Beret Bryan Mills as he deals with a personal tragedy that shakes his world. As he fights to overcome the incident and exact revenge, Mills is pulled into a career as a deadly CIA operative, a job that awakens his very particular, and very dangerous, set of skills.

The story of America's most famous mobsters and their rise to power. Examine Al Capone's ascension through the eyes of his second in command, “Machine Gun” Jack McGurn.

Rusty Wittenburg is a Navy SEAL struggling to balance his family life and his job. He fights daily to maintain the line between reality and the nightmares his PTSD conjures up for him. Dedicated to his team and his mission, he is willing to give the ultimate sacrifice for his fellow brothers and teammates.

A mysterious stranger rolls into town on a unique motorcycle. All he carries is the bible and a desire for justice. Past vengeance collides as Ryder rights an injustice from his past and liberates the small town from a malicious oppressor.

A thriller set in New York City during the winter of 1981, statistically one of the most violent years in the city's history, and centered on a the lives of an immigrant and his family trying to expand their business and capitalize on opportunities as the rampant violence, decay, and corruption of the day drag them in and threaten to destroy all they have built.

Detective - turned - bodyguard Cynthia McKay (Cynthia Rothrock) is hired by a psychotic icy seductress, Nina Lindell (Lydie Denier), the same woman who killed Mckay's lover months earlier. With vendetta in her heart McKay accompanies the flamboyantly playful womanizer through the glamourous world of the super-rich as his protector. In a unique role reversal, it is the woman protecting the man from another woman, erupting into a deadly triangle of passion, suspense and action.

An unexpected inspector drops by a lavish party of a notable family in order to investigate the suicide of a pregnant girl. This breaks the joy and peace of the party which is meant to celebrate a couple's engagement. Every one claims that he does not know the girl. However, the inspector does find something suspicious there with the help of a diary book and a photo. Astonishing truth is gradually revealed - six of the noble family members are closely related to the girl’s death.

Reynolds plays an ex-soldier-of-fortunish character in Vegas, taking "Chaperone" jobs, fighting with the mob, and trying to get enough money together to move to Venice, Italy.

Quinn Forte had it all: power, money, a brother who idolized him, and a woman who loved him. He also had enemies. In the course of one night, he loses everything. Betrayed by someone in his inner circle, Quinn is set up and arrested. His father, the patriarch of the criminal empire is killed and his brother suspects that Quinn is behind it all. When he's released from jail he tries to escape the demons from his past, but that becomes an impossible task. Campbell, the ruthless new leader of "The Company" won't let him leave in peace. So instead of escaping them, Quinn fights back. He joins forces with his former henchman and friend, The Swede, and takes on his enemies head on.

Set against the backdrop of San Francisco’s Chinatown, this cross-cultural biopic chronicles Bruce Lee’s emergence as a martial-arts superstar after his legendary secret showdown with fellow martial artist Wong Jack Man.

Kitano plays Murakawa, a Tokyo yakuza tiring of gangster life. Along with a few of his henchmen, he is sent by his boss to Okinawa to help end a gang war, supposedly to mediate between two warring clans. He finds that the dispute between the clans is insignificant and whilst wondering why he was sent to Okinawa at all, Murakawa's headquarters are bombed and he and his gang are ambushed in a bar.

Tang Lung arrives in Rome to help his cousins in the restaurant business. They are being pressured to sell their property to the syndicate, who will stop at nothing to get what they want. When Tang arrives he poses a new threat to the syndicate, and they are unable to defeat him. The syndicate boss hires the best Japanese and European martial artists to fight Tang, but he easily finishes them off.

Brooklyn mobster and prolific hit man Jimmy Conlon has seen better days. Longtime best friend of a mob boss, Jimmy is haunted by the sins of his past—as well as a dogged police detective who’s been one step behind Jimmy for 30 years. But when Jimmy’s estranged son becomes a target, Jimmy must make a choice between the crime family he chose and the real family he abandoned long ago. Now, with nowhere safe to turn, Jimmy has just one night to figure out exactly where his loyalties lie and to see if he can finally make things right.

An American with a Japanese upbringing, Chris Kenner is a police officer assigned to the Little Tokyo section of Los Angeles. Kenner is partnered with Johnny Murata, a Japanese-American who isn't in touch with his roots. Despite their differences, both men excel at martial arts, and utilize their formidable skills when they go up against Yoshida, a vicious yakuza drug dealer with ties to Kenner's past.

Spears, a private detective working in L.A. receives word from an old friend that the friend's sister (and Spears' ex-girlfriend), Kim, has been kidnapped by a criminal gang. At first, Spears doesn't want to get involved, especially when he finds out that his friend's family is mixed up with the Chinese Mafia, but the feelings he still has for Kim lead him to return to New York and try to rescue her. When he arrives, he learns that Kim is caught in the middle of a war with the Russian Mafia, and that her life now depends on him.

A courier for a local crime lord must deliver a mysterious package while being chased by a horde of unusual gangsters.

With friends like these, who needs enemies? That's the question bad guy Porter is left asking after his wife and partner steal his heist money and leave him for dead -- or so they think. Five months and an endless reservoir of bitterness later, Porter's partners and the crooked cops on his tail learn how bad payback can be.

After an illustrious special ops career ends in disaster, Alexander goes off the grid and attempts to lead a quiet life as a handyman at an apartment complex. But when one of his tenants and her family fall under the thumb of a Russian gangster, Alexander is dragged into an all-out war between rival Chinese and Russian gangs; forcing him to not only defend the family, but bringing him face to face with an old foe, and giving him one more chance to reconcile his past.

After a former elite agent rescues a 12-year-old Chinese girl who's been abducted, they find themselves in the middle of a standoff between Triads, the Russian Mafia and high-level corrupt New York City politicians and police.

Ray, an ex-cop, is starting a new life looking to stay out of trouble. One evening, on Ray's watch, the nightclub he works for is robbed and the owner's son is shot dead. As his criminal past is exposed Ray hunts for the person responsible for this crime in an effort to clear his own name. Ray must get to the bottom of this as both the mob and cops start to close in on him as their target suspect.

Gino Felino (Steven Seagal) is an NYPD detective from Brooklyn who knows everyone and everything in his neighborhood. Killing his Partner was someone's mistake, because he's now Out For Justice.

In order to release his kidnapped sister, sports car mechanic Jackie Chan has to beat a super-criminal street racer.

A former kick-boxing world champion discovers a young fighter, and believes together they can win back the world crown.

Military veteran and former mercenary, FRENCHY works as a taxi driver, and hiding in Bangkok, picks up a beautiful female passenger who will change his life forever. When he embarks on a journey to save her he has the fight of his life.

Based on the original 1941 movie from Japan, and from ancient Japan’s most enduring tale, the epic 3D fantasy-adventure 47 Ronin is born. Keanu Reeves leads the cast as Kai, an outcast who joins Oishi (Hiroyuki Sanada), the leader of the 47 outcast samurai. Together they seek vengeance upon the treacherous overlord who killed their master and banished their kind. To restore honor to their homeland, the warriors embark upon a quest that challenges them with a series of trials that would destroy ordinary warriors.