Hasebe Yasuhara directed three of the five entries in Nora Neko Rock series (1970-71).
Although all five featured Kaji Meiko as a kick-ass bad girl and Fuji Tatsuya as equally delinquent guy, they did not have a continuing story. Also, Hasebe brought a distinctive flash and dynamism to his three entries, set to a rock beat.
In the third in the series, Sex Hunter, Kaji bosses a clique of girls who feud and flirt with a gang of speed-and-thrill-crazy bikers, the Eagles, who hang out around a go-go club near the US military base in Tachikawa. The two leaders, Mako (Kaji) and Baron (Fuji Tatsuya), are an item, until Baron starts bullying mixed race youths who are part of the scene.
Though the title makes it sound like campy exploitation, Sex Hunter explores conflicted Japanese attitudes toward the Americans in their midst - and their hafu ("half" or racially mixed) offspring, with more than then usual honesty and nuance.
Baron, it turns out, is reacting to a black American soldier’s rape of his sister. Instead of striking back at the obvious target, however, he becomes the sworn enemy of anyone, male or female, with "impure" blood. Meanwhile, Mako becomes the protector of Baron’s victims - a mini-skirted fury whom even Baron finds dangerous to cross. Baron decides to get back by inviting Mako’s gang to a ritzy party - and offering the girls as sexual favors to the foreign guests. Chaos ensues - but a rough sort of justice eventually prevails.
Kaji, as always, is a commanding presence, sexually and otherwise, while Fuji exudes a dangerous, unbalanced Dennis Hopper-ish charisma. The two stars, however, are more part of a wild, raucous ensemble than was usual in older Nikkatsu Action films - a sign of the more groupist Now Generation times, as well as Nikkatsu’s amp-up-the-volume strategy to revive its sagging box office fortunes.