Morita’s early feature marked his foray into the pink film and is a coming-of-age tale suffused with anarchic energy and a rebellious touch all his own. Yoichi (Kensuke Miyawaki) falls hard for exotic dancer Gloria (Kaori Okamoto) and visits the local club where she works each day, her beauty dominating his every waking thought. This boyish fixation sets the stage for a host of disappointments and triumphs, and Morita chronicles Yoichi’s journey to adulthood as a clumsy, faltering process fueled by the sheer force of young love. Among the most visually inventive films of its genre, Top Stripper is both a delirious sex parable and a sneakily profound meditation on the boundaries between performer and spectator.