(Movie review)The third movie in the "Stray Cat Rock" series. And for whatever reason, apparently the only movie in this series that got a DVD release in the USA. (Unlike the first couple films in the series, there's plenty of English reviews about this film already on-line).
Why this was the only movie out of the 5 to get released in the US is a mystery. It certainly wasn't because it was the best movie in the series. If anything the production values on this movie are worse than the first two, although all these movies are so bad it gets difficult to compare. (And when I say these are bad movies, I mean that in the most affectionate way. These are great bad movies if you like cheesy old stuff).
Meiko Kaji and the many of the other same actors from the previous movies are back, but as I said in my review of Wild Jumbo I don't think there is any sort of continuity between the different movies in the series. Everyone is playing a different character with no reference to past movies. In fact it beats me why all 5 of these movies are even supposed to be part of the same series. They could easily just have been 5 different unrelated movies with the same actors made a couple months apart. But I guess that's not as catchy of a name.
Speaking of catchy names: you can't beat a name like "Sex Hunter", huh? With a name like that, you know exactly what you're getting into: a B-class 1970s explotation flick.
The fact that the title has nothing to do with the content of the movie is probably unimportant. I'm sure it was just a catchy title designed to sell box office tickets. In fact not only is there no sex hunter prowling around in this movie, but, the name aside, it's actually the most serious of all the movies in the series so far. This movie actually attempts to take on the issue of racism in Japanese society. How well it succeeds in this attempt, however, is another question altogether.
The film is about an ongoing street gang war between a gang of toughs known as "The Eagles" and another group composed of racially mixed Halfs. (Half Japanese, Half foreinger. Their referred to as "Half" (harufu) in Japanese, so with apologies to political correctness I'll just use that term here).
Because of the war and subsequent US occupation of Japan, there were a lot of half Japanese/ half American children born. And, these children were becoming young adults at about the time this movie was made (1970). So it is interesting to watch as a time piece. In fact the music group "The Golden Halves", a group of ethnically mixed girl singers who had a string of hits in the 1970s, appear in the background in several of the scenes.
As a serious piece on race-relations though, it's absolutely laughable. It starts out kind of like West Side Story, with various rumbles between the two groups. It ends in a big shoot-out that doesn't entirely make sense.
As with more recent Japanese films like "Go" and "Pacchigi", I'm slightly uncomfortable that these serious issues are treated in a film with comic-book style violence. Maybe somewhere out there, there is a Japanese movie that actually deals with the subject of racism in a serious way. I'll keep looking.
In the meantime: for cheesy retro music, fashion, and motorcycle gang rivalry, you can't beat this series.
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Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter: Movie Review (Scripted)
I suspect if all the "Stray Cat Rock" movies had the words "Sex Hunter" in their titles, you'd see the complete series available for US consumption.
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