20 best movies like Fireworks (1997)


List of the best movies like Fireworks (1997): Sonatine, Drunken Angel, State of Grace, Outrage Coda, The Yakuza, Heli, Cassandra's Dream, Gang Related, Carancho, Bonded by Blood.

Tags: movies similar to Fireworks (1997) - full list

Markimdb: 7.5
Genreaction, thriller, comedy, melodrama, drama, crime
CountryJapan
Duration01:34

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.

Markimdb: 7.7
Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, crime
CountryJapan

The chaotic worlds of the Yakuza and an alcoholic doctor collide in this film noir classic from Akira Kurosawa. Gangster Toshiro Mifune visits doctor Takashi Shimura, after an unfortunate incident with a bullet. The doctor, who despises the Yakuza, discovers the young man is suffering from tuberculosis, a disease symbolic of what is happening to the doctor and the community he serves. Facing his own anger and fear, the doctor aligns himself with the gangster's world.

Markimdb: 7.2
Genreaction, thriller, melodrama, drama, crime
CountryUnited Kingdom, USA
Duration02:09

Terry Noonan returns home to New York's Hells Kitchen after a ten year absence. He soon hooks up with childhood pal Jackie who is involved in the Irish mob run by his brother Frankie. Terry also rekindles an old flame with Jackie's sister Kathleen. Soon, however, Terry is torn between his loyalty to his friends and his loyalties to others.

Markimdb: 6.4
Genrethriller, drama, crime
CountryJapan
Duration01:14

Ôtomo gets involved with new Yakuza battles after he comes back the Yakuza society.

Markimdb: 7.2
Genreaction, thriller, drama, crime
CountryJapan, USA

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...

Markimdb: 6.8
Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, crime
CountryMexico, Netherlands, Germany, France
Duration01:45

Heli must try and protect his young family when his 12-year-old sister inadvertently involves them in the brutal drug world. He must battle against the drug cartel that have been angered as well as the corrupt police force.

Markimdb: 6.7
Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, crime
CountryUSA, United Kingdom, France
Duration01:48

The tale of two brothers with serious financial woes. When a third party proposes they turn to crime, things go bad and the two become enemies.

Markimdb: 6.4
Genreaction, thriller, melodrama, drama, crime
CountryUSA
Duration01:42

Two corrupt cops have a successful, seemingly perfect money making scheme- they sell drugs that they seize from dealers, kill the dealers, and blame the crimes on street gangs. Their scheme is going along smoothly until they kill an undercover DEA agent posing as a dealer, and then try to cover-up their crime.

Markimdb: 6.9
Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, crime
CountryArgentina, Chile, France, South Korea
Duration01:47

In Argentina over 8,000 people die in traffic accidents every year. Behind each of these tragedies is a flourishing industry founded on insurance payouts and legal loopholes. Sosa is a lawyer who tours the A&E Departments of the public hospitals and the police stations in search of potential clients. Luján is a young doctor recently arrived from the provinces. Their love story kicks off one night when Luján and Sosa meet in the street. She's trying to save a man's life; he wants him on his client portfolio

Markimdb: 5.5
Genrethriller, drama, crime
CountryUnited Kingdom

In 1995, drug suppliers and career criminals Tony Tucker, Patrick Tate and Craig Rolfe were blasted to death by a shot gun whilst waiting in a Range Rover in Rettendon, Essex. The film charts their rise to become the most prolific dealers and feared criminals in the south of England, maintaining the hold on their empire with fear and violence until their untimely death.

Markimdb: 4.3
Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, crime
CountryUSA
Duration01:30

A gritty coming of age thriller about a young girl sent to juvenile prison for the murder of her abusive step father. The film follows Anna Nix's journey into the dark world of an all girls jail where she discovers complex relationships, drugs, mental illness and her eventual search for redemption.

Markimdb: 7.9
Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, crime
CountryUSA, France
Duration02:01

Clarence marries hooker Alabama, steals cocaine from her pimp, and tries to sell it in Hollywood, while the owners of the coke try to reclaim it.

Markimdb: 6
Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, crime
CountryUSA

In the Philadelphia police department, Emmett Young is a hotshot, a workaholic newly promoted to homicide. He learns he has a disease that will soon kill him painfully, so he hires a stranger to arrange his own death. With one eye on the calendar (he's allowed a few days' grace before his murder), he pursues a final case, the serial killing of young women. Emmett develops a profile of the assailant. Meanwhile, his fixer hires an ex-cop to kill Emmett, a lonely security guard whom the fixer taunts and belittles. In this limited time, can Emmett sort out what's important? Written by

Markimdb: 6.2
Genrethriller, drama, crime
CountryUSA
Duration01:37

    Jackie Cogan is an enforcer hired to restore order after three dumb guys rob a Mob protected card game, causing the local criminal economy to collapse.

    Markimdb: 6.3
    Genreaction, thriller, comedy, melodrama, drama, crime
    CountryUSA, Romania
    Duration01:43

    While traveling abroad, a guy falls for a Romanian beauty whose unreachable heart has its origins in her violent, charismatic ex.

    Markimdb: 7.2
    Genrethriller, drama, crime
    CountryUSA
    Duration01:52

    A small-time hood must choose from among love, friendship and the chance to rise within the mob.

    Markimdb: 7.8
    Genrethriller, drama, crime, detective, film noir
    CountryJapan

    A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side.

    Markimdb: 6.6
    Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, crime
    CountryFrance
    Duration01:53

    Mangin, a police inspector in Paris, leans hard on informants to get evidence on three Tunisian brothers who traffic in drugs. He arrests one, Simon, and his girl-friend Noria. Simon's brothers go to their lawyer. He springs Noria, who promptly steals 2 million francs that belong to the Tunisians. They suspect her of the theft; her life as well as the lawyer's is in danger. Meanwhile, Noria is playing with both the lawyer and Mangin's affections. Mangin is mercurial anyway: intimidating and bloodying suspects, falling for a police commission trainee before flipping for Noria, wearing his emotions on his sleeve. Can he save the lawyer and Noria, and can he convince her to love?

    Markimdb: 7.1
    Genredrama, crime
    CountryUSA
    Duration01:51

    New York City English professor Axel Freed outwardly seems like an upstanding citizen. But privately Freed is in the clutches of a severe gambling addiction that threatens to destroy him.

    Markimdb: 6.5
    Genreaction, thriller, melodrama, drama, crime
    CountryThailand
    Duration01:45

    The movie is about a deaf-mute hitman and his partner. Trouble begins when he starts a relationship with a young woman.

    Markimdb: 6.1
    Genrethriller, drama, crime
    CountryUSA
    Duration01:51

    Literature professor Jim Bennett leads a secret life as a high-stakes gambler. Always a risk-taker, Bennett bets it all when he borrows from a gangster and offers his own life as collateral. Staying one step ahead, he pits his creditor against the operator of an illicit gambling ring while garnering the attention of Frank, a paternalistic loan shark. As his relationship with a student deepens, Bennett must risk everything for a second chance.

    Markimdb: 5.3
    Genreaction, thriller, comedy, melodrama, drama, crime
    CountryUSA
    Duration01:56

    A witness to a mob assassination flees for her life from town to town, switching identities, but cannot seem to elude Milo, the chief killer out to get her.

    Markimdb: 7
    Genreaction, thriller, drama, crime
    CountryUSA, United Arab Emirates
    Duration02:05

    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.

    Markimdb: 7.3
    Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, crime
    CountryFrance
    Duration01:55

    She is almost deaf and she lip-reads. He is an ex-convict. She wants to help him. He thinks no one can help except himself.

    Markimdb: 7.5
    Genrethriller, drama, crime
    CountryUSA
    Duration01:37

    Sobering and incisive, this cautionary drama centers on a street tough 18-year-old facing a moral quandary while trying to turn his life around.

    Markimdb: 7.6
    Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, crime
    CountryGermany
    Duration02:10

    A young Spanish woman who has newly moved to Berlin finds her flirtation with a local guy turn potentially deadly as their night out with his friends reveals a dangerous secret.

    Markimdb: 5.7
    Genrethriller, drama, crime
    CountryUnited Kingdom, France

    Charts the headlong fall of Pinkie, a razor-wielding disadvantaged teenager with a religious death wish.

    Markimdb: 6.2
    Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, crime
    CountryAustralia

    Set in the Little Saigon district outside of Sydney, a woman trying to escape her past becomes embroiled in a drug deal.

    Markimdb: 7.5
    Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, crime
    CountryAustria
    Duration02:01

    Ex-con Alex plans to flee to the South with his girl after a robbery. But something terrible happens and revenge seems inevitable.

    Markimdb: 5.8
    Genrethriller, drama, crime
    CountryUSA
    Duration01:48

    Follows veteran police officer Dave Brown, the last of the renegade cops, as he struggles to take care of his family, and fights for his own survival.

    Markimdb: 5.8
    Genreaction, thriller, melodrama, drama, adventure, crime
    CountryUSA, Japan
    Duration01:55

    Doc McCoy is put in prison because his partners chickened out and flew off without him after exchanging a prisoner with a lot of money. Doc knows Jack Benyon, a rich "business"-man, is up to something big, so he tells his wife (Carol McCoy) to tell him that he's for sale if Benyon can get him out of prison. Benyon pulls some strings and Doc McCoy is released again. Unfortunately he has to cooperate with the same person that got him to prison.

    Markimdb: 6.2
    Genreaction, thriller, melodrama, drama, crime
    CountryIndia
    Duration02:35

    The story is about two Davids living in different parts of India whose lives eventually come together in a twist of events., who are about to take a step which is going to change their lives forever.

    Markimdb: 6.6
    Genremelodrama, drama, western, crime
    CountryBrazil

    An adaptation of the eponymous song by Renato Russo, a famous Brazilian singer and composer who in the style of Bob Dylan knew how to delight crowds by telling stories and singing with his lyrics. Focusing on the love story of outlaw João do Santo Cristo with Architecture major student Maria Lúcia, the movie takes place in Brasilia in the early 80s. In a clash of interest, drug dealers and the police conflict with one another,while the end of the military dictatorship in the Capital of Brazil, Brasilia takes place. The wanderings and tedium of a young rocker, who lived in a city still being built, are the backdrop for this story.

    Markimdb: 5.1
    Genrethriller, drama, crime
    CountryUSA
    Duration01:36

    Forced to work under slave-like conditions in a "prison for profit" program, the inmates of a mostly-African-American female prison, Whitehead Correctional, try to take over the institution. At the core of the story is Frances, who finds herself in prison after being falsely convicted of murder, and who is told that her baby has been murdered, sparking her to lead her fellow inmates in the protest

    Markimdb: 7.5
    Genrethriller, drama, crime
    CountryUSA, France
    Duration01:54

    Michael is a 12-year-old drug pusher who lives in a crowded house with his cousins and aunt. His father has become a street bum, but still meets with Fresh on occasion to play chess. Fresh is rather quiet in a crazy world. Fresh's sister is a junkie who sleeps with the dealers that Fresh sells for. As the story progresses Fresh realizes that he doesn't want to sell drugs anymore, he wants revenge.

    Markimdb: 6.8
    Genrethriller, drama, crime, biography
    CountryRepublic of Ireland, United Kingdom, USA
    Duration01:38

    In this true story, Veronica Guerin is an investigative reporter for an Irish newspaper. As the drug trade begins to bleed into the mainstream, Guerin decides to take on and expose those responsible. Beginning at the bottom with addicts, Guerin then gets in touch with John Traynor, a paranoid informant. Not without some prodding, Traynor leads her to John Gilligan, the ruthless head of the operation, who does not take kindly to Guerin's nosing.

    Markimdb: 8.4
    Genrethriller, drama, crime
    CountryUnited Kingdom

    A thrilling and raw crime drama following a gang of drug dealers in Hackney, London - an honest and gripping rendition of inner-city drug and gang culture.

    Markimdb: 6.7
    Genreaction, thriller, drama, crime
    CountryUSA
    Duration01:53

      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.

      Markimdb: 6.9
      Genreaction, thriller, crime
      CountryJapan

      A barkeeper saves a Yakuza boss' life and thus makes his way up in the organization. However, his fear of nothing soon causes problems.

      Markimdb: 7.2
      Genrethriller, drama, crime, film noir
      CountryUSA
      Duration01:36

      One night in the New Orleans slums, vicious hoodlum Blackie and his friends kill an illegal immigrant who won too much in a card game. Next morning, Dr. Clint Reed of the Public Health Service confirms the dead man had pneumonic plague. To prevent a catastrophic epidemic, Clint must find and inoculate the killers and their associates, with the reluctant aid of police captain Tom Warren, despite official skepticism, and in total secrecy, lest panic empty the city. Can a doctor turn detective? He has 48 hours to try...

      Markimdb: 5.8
      Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, crime
      CountryUSA

      Young lovers Billy and Sarah journey from L.A. to Texas with plans to make a false claim to the valuable assets left behind by a dead friend. But when their voyage brings them to Tremo, Texas, they find a bizarre and sinister world awaiting them.

      Markimdb: 5.5
      Genrethriller, drama, crime
      CountryUSA
      Duration01:31

      Three teenage friends get in way over their head when they cross a down-home crime syndicate. They hope to make a break for it and escape their dead-end existence in a cotton-mill town but get sucked into the seedy underbelly of organized crime when one of them steals from the wrong man.

      Markimdb: 6.7
      Genreaction, thriller, melodrama, drama, crime
      CountryUSA
      Duration02:00

      A confident young cop is shown the ropes by a veteran partner in the dangerous gang-controlled barrios of Los Angeles, where the gang culture is enforced by the colors the members wear.

      Markimdb: 4.6
      Genreaction, thriller, drama, crime
      CountryJapan, USA

      A hit man looks to protect the daughter of one of his victims against CIA assassins.

      Markimdb: 7.6
      Genreaction, thriller, drama, crime
      CountryUSA
      Duration01:49

        Two young officers are marked for death after confiscating a small cache of money and firearms from the members of a notorious cartel during a routine traffic stop.

        Markimdb: 6.8
        Genrethriller, drama, crime
        CountryUSA, Mexico
        Duration01:35

        A drama based on an ancient Chinese proverb that breaks life down into four emotional cornerstones: happiness, pleasure, sorrow and love. A businessman bets his life on a horse race; a gangster sees the future; a pop star (Gellar) falls prey to a crime boss; a doctor must save the love of his life.

        Markimdb: 7.2
        Genreaction, thriller, melodrama, drama, crime
        CountryIndia
        Duration01:56

        An alcoholic barmaid is distraught when her former lover, a notorious gangster, re-enters her life. She is forced to relive painful past experiences and choose between the gangster and a pleasant singer she has found comfort in.

        Markimdb: 6.4
        Genrethriller, melodrama, drama, crime
        CountryUSA
        Duration02:26

        The story of Jody, a misguided, 20-year-old African-American who is really just a baby boy finally forced-kicking and screaming to face the commitments of real life. Streetwise and jobless, he has not only fathered two children by two different women-Yvette and Peanut but still lives with his own mother. He can't seem to strike a balance or find direction in his chaotic life.

        Markimdb: 6.7
        Genrethriller, drama, crime, biography
        CountryNetherlands

        Amsterdam, 1970s. A wealthy grammar school student Klaas and his friend start trafficking hash and become entangled in the brutal criminal scene.

        Markimdb: 7.2
        Genremelodrama, drama, crime, film noir
        CountryUSA
        Duration01:28

        In a quiet Connecticut town, a kindly priest is murdered while waiting at a street corner. The citizens are horrified and demand action from the police. All of the witnesses identify John Waldron, a nervous out-of-towner, as the killer. Although Waldron vehemently denies the crime, no one will believe him. District Attorney Henry Harvey is then put on the case and faces political opposition in his attempt to prove Waldron's innocence. Based on a true story.




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