20 best movies like For the Emperor (2014)

Popular TV anchorwoman & late night radio host Sun-Young prepares to work her final radio program. After this program she will prepare to take her ill daughter to America the following morning. During the radio show Ko Sun-Young receives a startling text message. At Ko Sun-Young’s apartment, her ill daughter is being watched by Sun-Young’s sister Ah-Young. Then, a man named Dong-Su breaks into the apartment with a large wrench. He knocks Ah-Young unconscious, but is unable to locate Sun-Young’s daughter – who is hiding in a closet. Dong-Su then sends the text message to Sun-Young instructing her to follow his directions and not to tell anyone.

A shady cop finds himself in over his head when he gets caught between Internal Affairs and the city’s corrupt mayor, in this scintillating crime drama from Korean maestro Kim Sung-soo (The Warrior).

Chief of the ‘Special Crime Unit’, OH Gu-tak, looks for the former gangster, PARK Woong-chul, whom he had worked with before, and recruits a con artist, KWAK No-soon, and a convicted cop, KO Yoo-sung in the new team. With new blood, the ‘Bad Guys’ have become stronger and tougher. As they dig deeper into the case, they sense that a much bigger crime organization is behind it all and they begin the hunt for bad guys…

After being kidnapped as a small child and raised by the five men who abducted him, a teenage boy is now forced to join their life in crime.

When raw gold is discovered deep in the woods, a group of gold hunters arrive to mine it. Several neighbors in the area witness the hunters by chance and find themselves in danger. Among the witnesses, hunter Ki-sung risks his life to protect the other witnesses and engages the gold hunters in a cat-and-mouse game of death.

HA Yoon-ju becomes the newest member to a unit within the Korean Police Forces Special Crime Department that specializes in surveillance activities on high profile criminals. She teams up with HWANG Sang-Jun, the veteran leader of the unit, and tries to track down James who is the cold-hearted leader of an armed criminal organization.

On the day the 15-year statute of limitations expired on a high profile serial murder case that claimed the lives of 10 women, a family member of the victim throws himself off the building in front of Choi Hyeong-goo, the detective in charge of the case. Two years later, a man called Lee Doo-seok publishes a book titled "I am the Murderer" claiming responsibility for the murders that took place 17 years ago. His book becomes a bestseller because of the author’s charming looks and his vivid depiction of the crime. The detective and the self-proclaimed murderer meet face to face on a television debate show. Believing that Lee is nothing but a con artist, Detective Choi renews his search for the ultimate truth. Then another man appears suddenly, claiming he is the real killer.

Kyung-chul is a dangerous psychopath who kills for pleasure. He has committed infernal serial murders in diabolic ways that one cannot even imagine and his victims range from young women to even children. The police have chased him for a long time, but were unable to catch him. One day, Joo-yeon, daughter of a retired police chief becomes his prey and is found dead in a horrific state. Her fiance Soo-hyun, a top secret agent, decides to track down the murderer himself. He promises himself that he will do everything in his power to take bloody vengeance against the killer, even if it means that he must become a monster himself to get this monstrous and inhumane killer.

An American mother searches for her daughter who was kidnapped by human traffickers in Central America.

His only friend called him 'the man from nowhere'... Taesik, a former special agent becomes a loner after losing his wife in a miserable accident and lives a bitter life running a pawnshop. He only has a few customers and a friend named Somi, a little girl next door. As Taesik spends more and more time with Somi, he gets attached to her. Then Somi is kidnapped by a gang, and as Taesik tries to save Somi by becoming deeply associated with the gang his mysterious past is revealed...

A son to a high-ranked official in North Korea commits a series of murders going across the countries around the world. The movie depicts the following events as South Korea, North Korea and Interpol start chasing down after him.

On the way to his mother’s funeral, a detective accidentally hits a person with his car. He takes the body with him and puts it into his mother’s coffin. The moment he feels relieved, he receives a call. This caller insists that he saw the detective’s hit-and-run, but instead of asking for money, he wants to know about the body’s whereabouts, leading to a do-or-die showdown of the witness and detective.

An ordinary family navigates the unpredictable circumstances caused by a mysterious phone call that puts them in a horrific situation.

Bok-Soon runs a street stall while taking care of her younger sister. Bok-Soon may not be the brightest girl but what she lacks in intelligence, she makes up for in uncontrollable rage. She’s infamously known as the “psycho bitch” in her neighborhood. Bok-Soon’s relatively peaceful life with her sister is disrupted when they cross paths with a serial killer named Tae-Soo. Tae-Soo kills Bok-Soon’s sister because she may have stumbled upon the truth of his murderous lifestyle. Bok-Soon’s rage consumes her completely, leading her to plot her revenge on Tae-Soo.

Kang Tae-sik is a private detective who would do anything for money. One day, he gets framed for a murder by a ruthless boss of the criminal underworld and a mysterious caller watches and controls his every move. He must use a wide array of techno-gadgetry at his disposal to clear himself and exact revenge within 24 hours given to him.

After a traumatic event, a drug trafficker turns sides and conspires with a dangerously ambitious undercover police officer to bring down the mysterious kingpin of a major drug cartel. (Remake of the Chinese film “Drug War,” 2012.)

Professional baduk (go) player Tae-seok loses a high-stakes game to infamous underground gambler Sal-soo, and ends up framed for the murder of his own brother and locked up in prison. He vows revenge and trains ferociously. After serving his seven-year sentence, he gets in touch with his brother's former associate "Tricks," hermit and blind master player "The Lord," and skillful junkyard owner Mok-su; together, they begin formulating a plan to get back at Sal-soo and his men. Tae-seok slowly penetrates Sal-soo's inner circle and his gambling joint, and eliminates Sal-soo's men one by one. But Sal-soo discovers Tae-seok's true identity and engages him in one final game that will seal the fates of the two men involved.

Stuntman Cha Dal-geon gets involved in a tragic airplane crash and ends up discovering a national corruption scandal in the process. Go Hae-ri, the oldest daughter of a deceased marine, decides to work for the National Intelligence Service as a secret ops agent in order to support her mom and younger siblings, although all she wanted to do is to become a civil servant.

The region where the borders of North Korea, China, and Russia come together, forms a sort of modern day wild west, where more than half of the population relies on illegal activity in order to survive. In Yanbian, on the Chinese side of the border, Gu-nam wiles away his days driving a cab and spends his nights getting drunk and gambling. His wife went to Seoul to work and send back money, but it’s been months since he has heard from her. When local crime lord Myun offers to erase Gu-nam’s debts in exchange for a contract killing in Seoul, Gu-nam reluctantly accepts.

On the run from a dogged internal affairs agent, a corrupt cop reluctantly teams up with a defiant teen to unravel a conspiracy -- before it's too late.

Jong-Woo (played by Sin Ha-gyoon) is a poor, beleagured taxi driver with a bad attitude, understandable given the kind of clients he has to deal with. So when one night, a polite, well-dressed man offers an outrageous sum of money to rent the taxi for an extended period, Jong Woo doesn't ask any questions, though he does make rather cheerful and inappropriate conversation with his uninterested charge. It's difficult to blame Jong-Woo for this, given that it takes him some time to realize that he is not the protagonist of a low-brow comedy, but of an action-packed thriller.

A gang of South Korean thieves team up with a Hong Kong crew to steal a diamond necklace from a heavily-guarded casino safe in Macau. As the cops close in, old betrayals — and misunderstandings — resurface.

Two rival detectives with different methods try to solve the murder of a missing girl after discovering her mutilated body in the tidelands of Incheon.

Baek Shi-Yoon is an ex-secret agent. He is a well-trained human weapon. Hiding his past, he buys the bar "Neighborhood" and runs it is as the owner. He gets close to the neighborhood regulars at his bar and sympathizes with their pain. Baek Shi-Yoon meets a young man who works as a temporary employee. The young wants to become a police officer. Baek Shi-Yoon trains the young man as a secret agent and they fight together against evil.

A young girl is raised as a killer in the Yanbian province of China. She hides her identity and travels to South Korea where she hopes to lead a quiet life but becomes involved with two mysterious men.

At the same time as murder suspect Yeo-hoon is brought unconscious to the emergency room following a shooting incident, an assailant breaks into the house of Tae-jun, the emergency room's doctor in charge, and kidnaps his wife. The kidnapper calls the doctor and tells him to bring Yeo-hoon to him. To retrieve his wife, Tae-jun has no option but to save the patient and sneak him away before the police can notice.

After getting mixed up with a dangerous crime syndicate, an undercover cop wakes up to discover he is missing his partner, his wife, and three days of his life.

A former mob enforcer who is released from prison after serving 22 years for a crime he didn't commit sets out on a path for revenge against the people who wronged him.

Whilst vacationing in Greece, Beckett, becomes the target of a manhunt after a devastating car accident forces him to run for his life across the country to clear his name but tensions escalate as the authorities close in and political unrest mounts which makes Beckett fall even deeper into a dangerous web of conspiracy.

An assassin goes to Thailand in order to solve a kidnapping case linked to him, and finds himself chased by a man whose brother he killed.

A drama that unfolds between two rival mafia gangs on a single day when a bag of cocaine gets stolen by two innocent people.

Infamous London gangster cousins, Micky Mannock and Ray Collishaw, are at the top of the food chain, when their world is turned upside down as they lose a shipment of the Russian Mafia's cocaine in rough seas. Set in London, Amsterdam and Berlin, the story races across Europe at breakneck speed as Micky and Ray attempt to stay one step ahead of the Police. Can they pull off a daring diamond heist in time to put things right and retire to a "legitimate" way of life.

Vitoria-Gasteiz, Basque Country, Spain, 2016. Two corpses appear in the crypt of the Old Cathedral. Police officer Unai López de Ayala, an expert in criminal profiling, must hunt down the ritual murderer who has been terrorizing the city for two decades…

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.

After a bloody invasion of the BOPE in the High-Security Penitentiary Bangu 1 in Rio de Janeiro to control a rebellion of interns, the Lieutenant-Colonel Roberto Nascimento and the second in command Captain André Matias are accused by the Human Right Aids member Diogo Fraga of execution of prisoners. Matias is transferred to the corrupted Military Police and Nascimento is exonerated from the BOPE by the Governor.

A fireman takes an unexpected course of action when a man whom he's been ordered to testify against—after being held up at a local convenience store—threatens him.

After 3 years have passed since the end of the events of the first part, the four brothers are trying in various ways to preserve the covenant they made to themselves to stay away from a life of theft and crime, but one event in their lives changes all that, and introduces them to new worlds for them, and puts them in very dangerous confrontations with A number of professional criminals.

ACP Yashvardhan teams up RAW Agent KK to bring down the master mind terrorist, Shiv.

Thieves attempt a massive heist against the U.S. Treasury as a Category 5 hurricane approaches one of its Mint facilities.

After his best friend dies in an unexpected accident, black market dealer Young-gyu decides to wash his hands off his illegal activities and start a new life with his girlfriend Yu-ri. But his dream stalls when he learns that Yu-ri needs money for her father's surgery. To help her out, Young-gyu decides to do the job one last time. His smuggling ring operates out of a boat that runs between Korea and China, picking victims from its voyager pool and harvesting their organs. Meanwhile, a married couple, Sang-ho and Chae-hee, boards Young-gyu's passenger boat heading to Weihai, China. That very evening, just when the boat enters international sea waters where countries' laws cannot be enforced, Chae-hee goes missing and all her pictures and belongings vanishes without a trace. Young-gyu finds Yu-ri on the same ship, and she claims to be the only witness to Chae-hee's disappearance.

Shahid Khan is exiled after impersonating the legendary Sultana Daku in order to rob British trains. Now outcast, Shahid becomes a worker at Ramadhir Singh's colliery, only to spur a revenge battle that passes on to generations. At the turn of the decade, Shahid's son, the philandering Sardar Khan vows to get his father's honor back, becoming the most feared man of Wasseypur.

Lockdown Follows a police officer who returns to duty after recovering from a gun shot wound to discover incriminating evidence of illegal activities against those closest to him. He quickly finds himself trapped inside his own precinct, hunted and in search of the truth, as the crooked cops stop at nothing to recover the evidence.

Zaid is a successful heart surgeon with an expensive apartment and pregnant girlfriend. One night he gets a visit from his brother Yasin, who is desperate for money, but he refuses. Soon after, Yasin is found beaten to death and Zaid is overcome with guilt. As guilt gives way to anger, Zaid becomes a masked avenger and takes on Copenhagen's criminal underworld in his quest for justice.

Carlos, a bank executive, begins his morning routine by taking his kids to school. As he starts the car he receives an anonymous phone call informing him that there's a bomb under his seat. A stranger's voice tells him that he only has a few hours to gather together a large amount of cash: if he doesn't, his car will blow up.