20 best movies like Zatoichi (1989)


List of the best movies like Zatoichi (1989): Sword for Hire, Samurai Assassin, Flags of Our Fathers, GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka, The Last Princess, Goyokin, Black Butler, 13 Assassins, The Getaway, Space Battleship Yamato.

Tags: movies similar to Zatoichi (1989) - full list

Markimdb: 6.9
Genreaction, drama, adventure
CountryJapan

Soldiers Hayate and Yaheiji secretly escape from their besieged castle. Hayate has left behind his lover, Kano. On his way, Hayate is wounded and cared for by O’Ryo, who falls in love with him. But when Hayate accidentally kills her caretaker, he flees, with O’Ryo in pursuit. Subsequently, Hayate's comrade Yaheiji falls in love with Oryo. Kano, the lover left behind by Hayate, believes him dead, and becomes involved with another soldier, Jurota. When Jurota defects to the opposing army, he takes Kano with him. A double set of love triangles has developed, wherein each man and each woman loves one and is loved by another. Finally only combat and self-sacrifice can untangle the weave.

Markimdb: 7.4
Genreaction, drama, adventure, history
CountryJapan

Japan, 1860. The men of the Mito clan, victims of the Ansei purge, anxiously prowl around the Sakurada Gate of Edo Castle with the intention of assassinating Naosuke Ii of Hikone, tairō of the Tokugawa shogunate and responsible for their misfortune.

Markimdb: 7.1
Genreaction, drama, adventure, military, history
CountryUSA, Japan
Duration02:15

There were five Marines and one Navy Corpsman photographed raising the U.S. flag on Mt. Suribachi by Joe Rosenthal on February 23, 1945. This is the story of three of the six surviving servicemen – John 'Doc' Bradley, Pvt. Rene Gagnon and Pvt. Ira Hayes, who fought in the battle to take Iwo Jima from the Japanese.

Markimdb: 6.6
Genreaction, comedy, drama, adventure
CountryJapan
Duration01:48

Tohru Fujisawa's popular manga about a wildly irreverent high school teacher comes to the screen in this live-action comedy drama. Eikichi Onizuka (Takashi Sorimachi), who barely earned his teaching degree at a second-rate college, rolls into Horobonai, a small rural town in Northern Japan on his motorcycle to take a job as a substitute instructor. Ever since the closing of the local theme park, Horobonai has fallen into an economic tailspin, and many of the town's teenagers have sunk into a deep depression. Onizuka, however, isn't the sort of person who respects the town's newly somber personality; willing to mouth off to both his students and his superiors, Onizuka isn't much of a teacher, but he knows how to get people interested, and soon his brash style (and willingness to kick a few butts) brings new life to Horobonai.

Markimdb: 6
Genreaction, drama, adventure
CountryJapan

After the Akizuku clan fall in defeat to rival clan Yamana, Princess Yuki (Nagasawa Masami) and general Rokurota (Hiroshi Abe), take cover in a hidden fortress, along with their clan and gold treasury. Fortuitously stumbling into the hideaways, brash young miner Takezo (Matsumoto Jun) and his bumbling sidekick Shinhachi (Miyagawa Daiuske) hatch a daring plan to help transport the gold out of enemy terrain - in exchange for a share of the stash, of course. With assassins hot in pursuit, Yuki disguises as a male and ventures into the real world with Rukurota and her peasant companions, getting her first taste of danger, toil, and budding romance with the strong-minded and willful Takezo.

Markimdb: 7.6
Genreaction, drama, adventure
CountryJapan

A guilt-haunted samurai warrior attempts to stop a massacre taking place.

Markimdb: 6.1
Genrehorror, action, thriller, fantasy, drama, adventure, family, crime, detective
CountryJapan
Duration01:59

In Victorian-era London, on the night of Ciel Phantomhive's tenth birthday a fire destroyed his manor and killed both of his parents. In a moment of death Ceil strikes a deal with a demon, his soul in exchange for revenge. This demon becomes his butler and calls himself by name of Sebastian Michaelis, to protect and serve Ciel until the deal has been completed. One month after the fire Ciel returns from being missing, with his new butler Sebastian. Ceil is now the head of the Phantomhive corporation, handling all business affairs as well as the work as the Queen of England’s guard dog and looking for his parents murders.

Markimdb: 7.5
Genreaction, drama, adventure
CountryJapan, United Kingdom
Duration02:21

A bravado period action film set at the end of Japan's feudal era in which a group of unemployed samurai are enlisted to bring down a sadistic lord and prevent him from ascending to the throne and plunging the country into a war-torn future.

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: 6.1
Genrefantastic, action, drama, adventure
CountryJapan
Duration02:18

In 2199, five years after the Gamilons began an invasion of Earth, the planet has been ravaged by the aliens' bombs. The remnants of humanity have fled underground to escape the irradiated surface. One day, former pilot Susumu Kodai discovers a capsule sent from the planet Iscandar that tells of a device that can remove the radiation from the Earth's surface. The Earth Defense Force rebuilds the battleship Yamato with a new type of propulsion system to make the 148,000 light year trip to Iscandar in hopes of saving the Earth. Within one year, the radiation will drive the rest of humanity to extinction.

Markimdb: 5.2
Genreaction, thriller, drama, adventure, western
CountryUnited Kingdom, Germany, United Arab Emirates, New Zealand
Duration01:55

The story of a woman who must find her kidnapped son, navigating a world she doesn't know, on the edge of danger with every heartbeat.

Markimdb: 6.2
Genreaction, drama, adventure, military, history
CountryJapan
Duration02:10

A look at Genghis Khan's life, from his birth to conquests in Asia.

Markimdb: 6.1
Genreaction, drama, adventure
CountryChina
Duration01:38

Chinese steampunk martial arts blockbuster about the early years of Tai chi master Yang Luchan, the man who founded in the 19th century what has now become the most popular Tai Chi style in the world. The second instalment of the "Tai Chi" trilogy continues the journey of Yang Luchan, a gifted child with a fleshy growth on his forehead who helped save a village from a frightening army of steampunk soldiers bearing strange machines with the knowledge of Tai Chi that they entrusted him with.

Markimdb: 6.6
Genreaction, drama, adventure, crime, detective
CountryUnited Kingdom, USA

While searching for her missing mother, intrepid teen Enola Holmes uses her sleuthing skills to outsmart big brother Sherlock and help a runaway lord.

Markimdb: 6.1
Genreaction, drama, adventure, family, military
CountryAustralia

This dramatic adventure series tells the story of a group of teenagers who are separated from their families following an invasion of their country, a conflict they never saw coming.

Markimdb: 5.5
Genreaction, thriller, drama, adventure, military
CountryUnited Kingdom
Duration01:30

The true story of the formation of Ian Fleming's 30 Commando unit, a precursor for the elite forces in the U.K.

Markimdb: 6.6
Genreaction, drama, adventure, crime
CountryHong Kong, China

Set in Shanghais Gangster era of the early 1900s, THE LAST TYCOON tells the tale of CHENG (Chow Yun-Fat), a young man who is set up by the chief of police (Sammo Hung) and must leave the life he knows and QIU (Monica Mok), the woman he loves, to start again. After escaping prison CHENG quickly and violently moves his way up the ladder of Shanghais criminal underworld to become on the most powerful mob bosses in Shanghais history. But fame and notoriety take their toll when CHENG finds himself stuck between the looming Japanese army and the scheming local secret service. Matters are only made worse when he bumps into the love of his life QIU, along with her writer husband. Will love re-kindle in the dusk of an era?

Markimdb: 4.6
Genrehorror, fantastic, action, thriller, drama, adventure, detective
CountryUSA
Duration01:22

When plans for a weekend vacation hit a dead end, a group of close-knit friends find themselves stranded in unfamiliar territory, pursued by a menacing predator. Holed up in an isolated cabin, tensions mount as long-buried secrets are revealed. As the body count rises, the group must put their differences aside and fight for survival.

Markimdb: 4.6
Genrehorror, fantastic, action, thriller, drama, adventure
CountrySouth Africa, United Kingdom
Duration01:23

Found footage of an expedition into the Congo jungle where a team of explorers stumbles upon a colony of Dinosaurs.

Markimdb: 6.8
Genreaction, thriller, drama, adventure
CountryUSA, United Kingdom, Germany
Duration01:51

A 16-year-old girl raised by her father to be the perfect assassin is dispatched on a mission across Europe. Tracked by a ruthless operatives, she faces startling revelations about her existence and questions about her humanity.

Markimdb: 7.5
Genreaction, drama, adventure, military, biography, history
CountryChina, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea
Duration02:16

The battle of Red Cliff continues and the alliance between Xu and East Wu is fracturing. With Cao Cao's massive forces on their doorstep, will the kingdoms of Xu and East Wu survive?

Markimdb: 7.1
Genreaction, comedy, drama, adventure, crime
CountryUSA
Duration01:45

Charlie Cranehill, an animal liberator wanted for domestic terrorism, emerges from the underground to coordinate a nationwide action as his estranged CEO father tries to find him before the FBI does.




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