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Movies that feel like The Yellow Sea (2010)

If you loved The Yellow Sea, the closest films we have are The Silence (2010), Hyena (2015) and Neighboring Sounds (2012). All three share The Yellow Sea's contemplative and tense feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 7 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Hulu, Sundance Now and Midnight Pulp and others, checked against today's data.

A Korean man in China takes an assassination job in South Korea to make money and find his missing wife. But when the job is botched, he is forced to go on the run from the police and the gangsters who paid him.

πŸ… 88% Rotten Tomatoesβ˜… 7.3 IMDb β†—TMDB β†—dir. Na Hong-jincontemplativetensegritty

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If The Yellow Sea hit the spot, these will too

The Silence poster
The Silence
2010 Β· dir. Baran bo Odar
πŸ… 87%β˜… 7crime Β· thriller Β· drama

Both land stillness and tension at once

13-year-old Sinikka vanishes on a hot summer night. Her bicycle is found in the exact place where a girl was killed 23 years ago. The dramatic present forces those involved in the original case to face their past.

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Hyena poster
Hyena
2015 Β· dir. Gerard Johnson
πŸ… 78%β˜… 6.2crime Β· drama Β· thriller

Common ground: murder

Good policing doesn't necessarily mean doing everything by the book. But as the business of crime in London turns to favour the Albanians and Turks, how does a "good" policeman survive?

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Neighboring Sounds poster
Neighboring Sounds
2012 Β· dir. Kleber MendonΓ§a Filho
πŸ… 91%β˜… 7.1thriller Β· drama Β· crime

Drama built on grit, twice over

An independent private security firm arrives at a middle-class neighborhood in Recife, Brazil.

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Easy Money poster
Easy Money
2010 Β· dir. Daniel Espinosa
πŸ… 85%β˜… 6.7drama Β· thriller Β· crime

Contemplative thriller, and it commits to that

When JW becomes a drug runner in order to maintain his double life, his fate becomes tied to two other men: Jorge, a fugitive on the run from both the Serbian mafia and the police, and mafia enforcer Mrado, who is on the hunt for Jorge.

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36th Precinct poster
36th Precinct
2004 Β· dir. Olivier Marchal
πŸ… 100%β˜… 7.1crime Β· drama Β· thriller

Crime with a pulse of tension, in both cases

In Paris, two cops are competing for the vacant job of chief of police, in the middle of the search for a gang of violent thieves. The movie is directed by Olivier Marchal, a former police officer who spent 12 years with the French police before creating this story, taken in part from real events of the 1980s.

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The Secret Agent poster
The Secret Agent
2025 Β· dir. Kleber MendonΓ§a Filho
β˜… 7.2thriller Β· drama Β· crime

Both keep coming back to the same thing: police

Brazil, 1977. Marcelo, a technology expert in his early 40s, is on the run. Hoping to reunite with his son, he travels to Recife during Carnival but soon realizes that the city is not the safe haven he was expecting.

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Red Rock West poster
Red Rock West
1993 Β· dir. John Dahl
πŸ… 95%β˜… 7crime Β· drama Β· thriller

Both are built on the same subject: murder

When a promised job for Texan Michael fails to materialize in Wyoming, Mike is mistaken by Wayne to be the hitman he hired to kill his unfaithful wife, Suzanne. Mike takes full advantage of the situation, collects the money, and runs. During his getaway, things go wrong, and soon get worse when he runs into the real hitman, Lyle.

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Holy Spider poster
Holy Spider
2022 Β· dir. Ali Abbasi
πŸ… 82%β˜… 7.3thriller Β· drama Β· crime

Both lean on grit more than on drama

A journalist descends into the dark underbelly of the Iranian holy city of Mashhad as she investigates the serial killings of sex workers by the so called "Spider Killer", who believes he is cleansing the streets of sinners.

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The Wild Goose Lake poster
The Wild Goose Lake
2019 Β· dir. Diao Yinan
πŸ… 91%β˜… 6.7crime Β· drama Β· thriller

Contemplative thriller in both cases

A gangster ends up making a mistake that causes every gun on both sides of the law to point at him. While on the run, he comes across a mysterious woman who might get him out of trouble or make things worse.

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We Own the Night poster
We Own the Night
2007 Β· dir. James Gray
πŸ… 57%β˜… 6.8drama Β· crime Β· thriller

Crime built on tension, twice over

The difference: Critics were much harder on this one

A New York nightclub manager tries to save his brother and father from Russian mafia hitmen.

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The Outlaws poster
The Outlaws
2017 Β· dir. Kang Yun-sung
πŸ… 92%β˜… 7.2action Β· crime Β· thriller

The same preoccupation in both: korean chinese

The difference: Not nearly as contemplative as The Yellow Sea

In Chinatown, law and order is turned upside down when a trio of feral Chinese gangsters arrive, start terrorizing civilians, and usurping territory. The beleaguered local gangsters team up with the police, lead by the badass loose cannon Ma Seok-do, to bring them down. Based on a true story.

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Suburra poster
Suburra
2015 Β· dir. Stefano Sollima
πŸ… 90%β˜… 7.4crime Β· drama Β· thriller

Same instincts, 5 years apart

A gangster known as "Samurai" wants to turn the waterfront of Rome into a new Las Vegas. All the local mob bosses have agreed to work for this common goal. But peace is not to last long.

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In the mood for more contemplative?

all contemplative movies β†’

The best-reviewed films that share The Yellow Sea’s defining feeling.