Movies like Cops vs. Thugs

If you like "Cops vs. Thugs" you are looking for crime drama and detective movies about / with yakuza, organized crime, tough guy, japanese mafia, cop, police and violence themes of Action and Crime genre shot in Japan.
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Cops vs. Thugs (1975)
 7.2
 927
Cops vs. Thugs (1975)
Original name: 県警対組織暴力
Genre: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 100 min.
Story: In at least 6 movies by director Kinji Fukasaku, Bunta Sugawara played a yakuza thug. This time, he carries a badge but his character hasn't lost his distaste for double-dealing bosses and authority figures who are out to cover their own butts. Detective Kuno is balanced between the law and pragmatism. Cops didn't enforce the law to the point of pushing gangsters over the edge. In return, the gangsters mostly stayed out of the public eye. Some of them even became friends with cops, sharing a mutual desire to keep-down trade unions and leftists. When that balance is upset, Kuno has to decide where his loyalties lie. In this gray world, cops aren't always good and gangsters are thoroughly bad.. although there's no reward for good men who drink from the cup of corruption. "Cops Versus Thugs" has that trademark Fukasaku camera-work.. constantly moving, zooming, and putting you right in the middle of the action, changing loyalties and political maneuvering between cops and criminals.
Style: crime drama, detective
Plot: yakuza, organized crime, tough guy, japanese mafia, cop, police, violence, female nudity, murder, male nudity, nightclub, corrupt cop, rough sex, interrogation, police corruption, police brutality, shootout, gangster, samurai, police officer, gunfight, beating
Keyword: gangsters

Movie in categories

Most similar movies to Cops vs. Thugs

The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out serious, realistic, crime drama and suspenseful films with plots about yakuza, gangster, violence, murder, mafia, organized crime and police mostly in Crime, Action and Drama genres. Some movies like Cops vs. Thugs: Street Mobster (1972), Graveyard of Honor (1975), Detective Doberman (1977), Violent Panic: The Big Crash (1976), Bad City (2022). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
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The Yakuza Papers, Vol. 4: Police Tactics (1974)
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 101 min.
Story: As Japan gears up for the 1964 Olympic games, the cops start to crack down under pressure from the public and the press, adding a new dimension in the war for power among the yakuza families of Hiroshima. Akira Kobayashi's Takeda tries to keep ...
Style: queer cinema
Plot: yakuza, battles, police, murder, gang war, assassination, mob boss, family relations, violence, arrest, gangster, shot to death
Time: 60s
Place: hiroshima japan
⇓ similarity ⇓
95%
Street Mobster (1972)
Genre: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 88 min.
Story: The Japanese yakuza films certainly have a well-earned reputation of being violent and chaotic. Some are more frenetic than others and Street Mobster is unbelievable high on savagery and energy. It dawned the re-birth of the genre, telling the story ...
Style: bloody, exciting, realistic, serious, stylized ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: yakuza, gang, female nudity, murder, prison, rape, japanese mafia, asian gangster, organized crime, mafia, sex, japanese man ...
Time: 70s
Place: japan, asia
⇓ similarity ⇓
74%
Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1973)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 99 min.
Story: In the teeming black markets of postwar Japan, Shozo Hirono and his buddies find themselves in a new war between factious and ambitious yakuza...
Style: grindhouse, captivating, exciting, realistic, serious ...
Plot: yakuza, organized crime, betrayal, mafia, gang, female nudity, samurai, mafioso, battles, tough guy, humanity, japanese mafia ...
Time: post world war two, 1940s, 20th century
Place: hiroshima japan, japan, tokyo, asia
⇓ similarity ⇓
73%
Graveyard of Honor (1975)
Genre: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 94 min.
Story: A look at the life of renegade yakuza, Rikio Ishikawa, particularly the years from 1946 to 1950 when his violent antics get him in trouble with his own clan, Kawada, and then with the clan of his protector, Kozaburo Imai. In these years, he can rely ...
Style: crime drama, stylized, realistic, suspenseful, bleak ...
Plot: yakuza, mafia, organized crime, drug addiction, prison, japanese mafia, city, exploitation, big city, samurai, gangster, cemetery ...
Time: 1940s, year 1975, 20th century, 50s
Place: japan, tokyo, asia
⇓ similarity ⇓
71%
Movie in collections
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The Yakuza Papers, Vol. 2: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima (1973)
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama, History
Country: Japan
Duration: 99 min.
Story: Repeatedly beat to a pulp by gamblers, cops, and gangsters, lone wolf Shoji Yamanaka (Kinya Kitaoji) finally finds a home as a Muraoka family hit man and falls in love with boss Muraoka's niece. Meanwhile, the ambitions of mad dog Katsutoshi ...
Audience: manly
Plot: yakuza, hitman, female nudity, sex, mafioso, battles, mafia, samurai, revenge, psychopath, violence, prison ...
Time: 1950s
⇓ similarity ⇓
67%
Detective Doberman (1977)
Genre: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 90 min.
Story: The burned remains of a young woman discovered in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The police comes to the conclusion that its the work of a pyromaniacal serial murderer. The murder victim is identified as Mayumi Tamaki, a native of Ishigaki, Okinawa. As the ...
Style: crime drama, humorous, semi serious, realistic, offbeat ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: yakuza, martial arts, tough guy, cop, murder, gangster, rescue, urban, danger, fish out of water, disorder, rivalry ...
Time: 70s, 20th century
Place: asia, japan, tokyo
⇓ similarity ⇓
67%
The Yakuza Papers, Vol. 3: Proxy War (1973)
Genre: Action, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 119 min.
Story: The film is set in 1960, fifteen years after the end of the end of World War II. Shozo Hirono (Bunta Sugawara), the protagonist of the first film in the series, has managed to separate from the Yamamori family, create his own small family, and ...
Plot: yakuza, battles, gang war, hitman, betrayal, voice over narration, female nudity, foreplay, violence, murder, police officer, blood ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
61%
Violent Panic: The Big Crash (1976)
Genre: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 85 min.
Story: Like its title, this crazy Toei film from 1976 falls neatly into two parts. The first details the exploits of two bank robbers who specialize in "smash and grab" style heists. Evidently, Japanese banks of the period left huge piles of cash ...
Style: poliziottesco
Plot: police, woman, cop, police officer, bank, female nudity, robbery, violence, car, panic, gang, yakuza ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
51%
Movie in collections
 5.8
 459
Bad City (2022)
Genre: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 118 min.
Story: Kensuke Sonomura directs the legendary Hitoshi Ozawa in this ultimate V-Cinema actioner. Kaiko City is plagued with poverty and crime. When a corrupt businessman decides to run for mayor and starts eliminating opponents from the rival mafia, a ...
Style: suspenseful, detective, captivating, tense
Plot: yakuza, murderer, corrupt cop, criminal, mob hit, corrupt official, political conspiracy, murder, secret mission, government corruption, mafia, corruption ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
49%
 7.0
 542
Massacre Gun (1967)
Genre: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 89 min.
Story: Kuroda (Jô Shishido) is a mob hitman who turns on his employers after being forced to execute his lover. Joining forces with his similarly wronged brothers, hot-headed Eiji (Tatsuya Fuji) and aspiring boxer Saburô (Jirô Okazaki), the trio ...
Plot: yakuza, mobster, hitman, shootout, violence, gangster, female stockinged legs, woman slaps man, pantyhose, man slaps a woman
⇓ similarity ⇓
48%
 6.4
 3K
Outrage Coda (2017)
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 104 min.
Story: Ôtomo gets involved with new Yakuza battles after he comes back the Yakuza society.
Style: exciting, captivating, tense, suspense, disturbing ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: yakuza, gangster, organized crime, survival, danger, violence, mafia, gunfight, murder, hitman, brutality, gang ...
Time: 2010s
Place: japan, jeju island
⇓ similarity ⇓
45%
 4.1
 149
Hard As Nails (2001)
Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min.
Story: After being punished for disobedience and arranging an arms deal with Russian mobsters, young member Takura violently takes over control of his Japanese mafia family. Takura takes advantage of his new position and is proceeding his deal with the ...
Style: crime drama, neo noir, detective, independent film
Plot: yakuza, martial arts, ak 47, female nudity, prostitute, gangster, sexploitation, undercover cop, arms deal, stripper, attempted rape, strip club ...
Time: 2000s
Place: los angeles
⇓ similarity ⇓
44%
Beyond Outrage (2012)
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 110 min.
Story: As the police launch a full-scale crackdown on organized crime, it ignites a national yakuza struggle between the Sanno of the East and Hanabishi of the West. What started as an internal strife in Outrage has now become a nationwide war in Outrage ...
Style: tense, realistic, serious, rough, noir ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: yakuza, gangster, criminal heroes, law enforcement, rivalry, gang, danger, elimination, japanese mafia, power struggle, police, organized crime ...
Time: 2010s, 21st century
Place: japan, asia
⇓ similarity ⇓
42%
 5.5
 298
Family (2001)
Genre: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 111 min.
Story: When the mobster Iwaida Nishikawi is executed by the hit man Takeshi, his family chases the killer. Takeshi's brothers Takashi and Hideshi Miwa try to find Takeshi, who is hidden with the nurse Rie Ishibashi, to protect him and Hideshi ...
Style: suspenseful, exciting, rough, serious, crime drama ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: yakuza, gang, rivalry, gangster, dishonesty, master criminal, betrayal, organized crime, mafia, rape, assassin, nurse ...
Time: 21st century
Place: japan, asia
⇓ similarity ⇓
42%
Cruel Gun Story (1964)
Genre: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 87 min.
Story: Businessmen arrange the early release from prison of Togawa, serving time for taking revenge on the truck driver whose carelessness confined Togawa's sister, Rei, to a wheelchair. They want Togawa to hijack an armored truck loaded with 120 ...
Style: neo noir
Plot: yakuza, heist, shootout, armored truck, ex convict, heist gone wrong, car, woman in a wheelchair, brother sister relationship, horse race, boxer, airport ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
41%
 6.1
 238
Score (1995)
Genre: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 88 min.
Story: A small time Yakuza thug is thrown into a bloody battle after a bank robbery he was forced into goes wrong when all the men begin to turn on each other a hitch-hiking serial killing couple decide to steal their loot.
Style: crime drama
Plot: yakuza, couples, released from prison, violence, gangster, caper, ex convict, heist gone wrong, bank robbery, petty criminal, heist, debt
⇓ similarity ⇓
40%
The Yakuza Papers, Vol. 5: Final Episode (1974)
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 100 min.
Story: Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Final Episode is part five and the final installation of a series of yakuza films directed by Kinji Fukasaku. In the wake of a big police crackdown, Akira Kobayashi's icily sun- glassed Takeda attempts to ...
Plot: yakuza, prison, sex, battles, murder, mafia, mob hit, mob boss, political party, corruption, arrest, gang war ...
Place: japan
⇓ similarity ⇓
39%
 7.1
 13K
Violent Cop (1989)
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 103 min.
Story: Detective Azuma is a Dirty-Harry style rogue cop who often uses violence and unethical methods to get results.
Style: neo noir, bloody, detective, bleak, witty ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: police, police corruption, violence, yakuza, drug dealer, police officer, mafia, gangster, vigilante, drug, corrupt cop, criminal ...
Time: year 1989, 80s
Place: japan, east asia, tokyo
⇓ similarity ⇓
39%
Movie in collections
Wolves, Pigs & Men (1964)
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 95 min.
Story: Sabu and his pals hold a pauper's funeral for Sabu's mother. His brother Jiro arrives home, fresh out of jail, and Sabu pointedly states that Jiro is not invited. Jiro meanwhile is planning a big job - steal 40 million in cash and drugs, ...
Plot: yakuza, success, torture, robbery, sibling relationship, drug, shootout, rat, surveillance, released from prison, angry mob, slum ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
38%
Graveyard of Honor (2002)
Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 131 min.
Story: A barkeeper saves a Yakuza boss' life and thus makes his way up in the organization. However, his fear of nothing soon causes problems.
Style: serious, rough, realistic, bleak, crime drama ...
Plot: yakuza, gangster, life is a bitch, criminal's revenge, criminal heroes, rivalry, drug abuse, addiction, psychopath, violence, attempted murder, organized crime ...
Place: japan, asia
⇓ similarity ⇓
37%
 7.1
 10K
Tokyo Drifter (1966)
Genre: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 89 min.
Story: After yakuza boss Kurata dissolves his own criminal empire, a rival kingpin offers a position to Kurata's top operative, Tetsuya "Phoenix Tetsu" Hondo. When the fiercely loyal Tetsu declines, Otsuka taps unstoppable Tatsuzo the ...
Style: surreal, avant garde, neo noir, aesthetic, colorful ...
Audience: manly
Plot: yakuza, hitman, gangster, betrayal, drifter, surrealism, gang, bar fight, mafia, killer, japanese mafia, assassin ...
Time: 60s, year 1966, 20th century
Place: japan, tokyo, asia
⇓ similarity ⇓
36%
 6.7
 2K
HELL DOGS (2022)
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 138 min.
Story: Adapted from the manga Hell Dogs by Fukamachi Akio.
Style: suspenseful, captivating, tense, serious, hood
Plot: yakuza, gang, gangster, police, undercover cop, japanese mafia, criminal gang, criminal underworld, mafia, ex-cop, ex cop, criminal ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
36%
Gamblers in Okinawa (1971)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 93 min.
Story: A yakuza gang gets driven out of Yokohama by a big gang from Tokyo. They relocate to Okinawa to violently start over.
Style: crime drama, grindhouse
Plot: yakuza, organized crime, exploitation, city, japanese man, mafia, mobster, gangster, gang war, hitman, murder, blood ...
Place: okinawa, okinawa japan
⇓ similarity ⇓
34%
Movie in collections
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Chuck Norris vs. the Karate Cop (1974)
Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong, USA
Duration: 88 min.
Story: A Chinese-American cop, skilled in martial arts, battles the most powerful criminal gang in San Francisco that is responsible for the death of his partner.
Style: independent film, detective, poliziottesco
Plot: martial arts, cop, criminal gang, police officer, frame up, police corruption, weapons, heroes, showdown, police partner, duel, hitman ...
Place: san francisco
⇓ similarity ⇓
33%
 4.3
 255
New York Cop (1993)
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Japan, USA
Duration: 93 min.
Story: Allegedly based on a true story, this film follows the life of Toshi, a Japanese man living in America and working with the New York City police. After being recommended for undercover work, Toshi decides to go after a gang lead by Hawk. Hawk and ...
Style: independent film, serious, realistic, exciting, suspenseful ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: woman with a gun, cop, yakuza, police detective, friends, betrayal, gang, rivalry, undercover, law enforcement, vengeance, fighting crime ...
Time: 90s
Place: new york, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
33%
The Roundup: No Way Out (2023)
Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: South Korea
Duration: 105 min.
Story: Detective Ma Seok-do changes his affiliation from the Geumcheon Police Station to the Metropolitan Investigation Team, in order to eradicate Japanese gangsters who enter Korea to commit heinous crimes.
Style: detective, serious, captivating, tense, bleak ...
Plot: yakuza, corrupt cop, police, drug crime, drug, bandit, criminal gang, drug traffic, organized crime, illegal drugs, gang, war on drugs ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
33%
 7.5
 14K
Pokkiri (2007)
Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller
Country: India
Duration: 161 min.
Story: Tamil is a killer for hire, and will accept any contract provided the amount is right. The Police want him for questioning, while the underworld needs him to silence their opponents. No one really knows this assassin's background. It is only ...
Style: entertaining, feel good
Plot: police, exploitation, killer, gang war, cop, love, father, disguise, job, shootout, harassment, woman in jeopardy ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
32%
Bloody Territories (1969)
Genre: Action, Crime
Country: Japan
Duration: 87 min.
Story: A once-powerful yakuza clan disbands as a result of a police crackdown, but one small group refuses to bow to police pressure, and launches a campaign to take over Tokyo's drug, prostitution, and gambling rackets. Someone wants to stop them. Is ...
Plot: yakuza, lesbian sex, revenge, syndicate, bloodbath, betrayal, self sacrifice, lesbian, infidelity, loan shark, lesbianism, violence ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
32%
Youth of the Beast (1963)
Genre: Action, Crime, Mystery
Country: Japan
Duration: 92 min.
Story: To infiltrate a criminal organization responsible for the death of one of his colleagues, the Detective Tajima adopts the behavior of of a brutal thug and plays opposing yakuza bosses against each other.
Style: neo noir, grindhouse, bloody, crime drama, realistic ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: yakuza, female nudity, mafia, murder, police detective, organized crime, gang war, violence, working undercover, pimp, tough heroes, hitman ...
Time: year 1963, 60s
Place: japan
⇓ similarity ⇓
30%
Yakuza Torture History - Lynching (1969)
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Japan
Duration: 96 min.
Story: The film is divided into three parts - the first two taking place in feudal Japan, the last segment being more "modern" and set in the late 1960's. All three deal with those that have broken the Yakuza code, and their subsequent ...
Style: anthology, grindhouse, banned
Plot: yakuza, violent, police officer, ancient, violence, sadism, shooting, damage, criminal organization, driving, female yakuza, released from prison ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
30%
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