Diary of a Shinjuku Thief

is a 1969 Japanese New Wave film 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 Kei Satō Jūrō Kara as himself / Singer Moichi Tanabe Tetsu Takahashi Rokko Toura as himself Fumio Watanabe as himself 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."