Diary of a Shinjuku Thief

Diary of a Shinjuku Thief

1969. Japan. Directed by Nagisa Oshima. Screenplay by Masao Adachi, Mamoru Sasaki, Tsutomu Tamura, Oshima. With Tadanori Yokoo, Rie Yokoyama, Kei Sato. Restlessly chaotic storytelling prevails in Oshima’s brilliant homage to Tokyo’s city center of Shinjuku—ground zero for cultural experimentation and social protest. Famed graphic designer Tadanori Yokoo plays a young shoplifter who embarks on a flirtatious roundelay of gender bending with the beautiful Umeko. Juro Kara’s Situation Theatre is one of several counterculture hotspots making a location cameo. In Japanese; English subtitles. 94 min.