Diary of a Shinjuku Thief

Diary of a Shinjuku Thief is a 1969 Japanese New Wave film co-written and directed by Nagisa Ōshima.

Synopsis

The film centers around Birdie, a young Japanese book thief who is caught by a store clerk named Umeko. As their encounters grow increasingly fraught with tension and desire, the two become lovers and begin committing thefts together. They also take part in a kabuki play based on the lives of Yui Shōsetsu and Marubashi Chūya.

Cast

Tadanori Yokoo as Birdey Hilltop
Rie Yokoyama as Umeko Suzuki
Moichi Tanabe
Tetsu Takahashi
Kei Satō
Rokko Toura as himself
Fumio Watanabe as himself
Jūrō Kara as himself / singer
Reisen Ri

Reception

Roger Greenspun of The New York Times called most of the film dull "with an air of having been produced only for purposes of demonstration", concluding that "the result is a high-powered sterility in the midst of much energetic busyness." The film was described by Ronald Bergan, in his Guardian obituary of Oshima, as "an explosive agitprop movie equating sexual liberation with revolution, whose impact has cooled only marginally."