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Shinjuku dorobô nikki

  • 19691969
  • 1h 36m
IMDb RATING
6.2/10
781
YOUR RATING
Shinjuku dorobô nikki (1969)
ComedyDrama
Story of a bookstore thief named Birdey who is led through various adventures in Tokyo's Shinjuku district by salesgirl Umeko.Story of a bookstore thief named Birdey who is led through various adventures in Tokyo's Shinjuku district by salesgirl Umeko.Story of a bookstore thief named Birdey who is led through various adventures in Tokyo's Shinjuku district by salesgirl Umeko.
IMDb RATING
6.2/10
781
YOUR RATING
    • Nagisa Ôshima
  • Writers
    • Masao Adachi
    • Mamoru Sasaki
    • Tsutomu Tamura
  • Stars
    • Tadanori Yokoo
    • Rie Yokoyama
    • Moichi Tanabe
    • Nagisa Ôshima
  • Writers
    • Masao Adachi
    • Mamoru Sasaki
    • Tsutomu Tamura
  • Stars
    • Tadanori Yokoo
    • Rie Yokoyama
    • Moichi Tanabe
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 4User reviews
    • 13Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Photos

    Shinjuku dorobô nikki (1969)
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    Top cast

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    Tadanori Yokoo
    • Torio Okanoue
    Rie Yokoyama
    Rie Yokoyama
    • Umeko Suzuki
    Moichi Tanabe
    • Self
    Tetsu Takahashi
    • Self
    Kei Satô
    Kei Satô
    • Self
    Rokkô Toura
    Rokkô Toura
    • Self
    Fumio Watanabe
    Fumio Watanabe
    • Self
    Juro Kara
    Juro Kara
    • Self…
    Akaji Maro
    Akaji Maro
    • Actor
    Reisen Ri
    • Actress
    Taka Ôkubo
    • Actor
    Shimon Yotsuya
    • Actor
    Mansaku Fuwa
    • Actor
    Noboru Kuzu
    • Actor
    Maki Fujiwara
    • Actress
    Hôsei Komatsu
    Hôsei Komatsu
      Masao Matsuda
      Mihiro Wakabayashi
        • Nagisa Ôshima
      • Writers
        • Masao Adachi
        • Mamoru Sasaki
        • Tsutomu Tamura
      • All cast & crew
      • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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      Storyline

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      • Connections
        Featured in The Man Who Left His Soul on Film (1984)

      User reviews4

      Review
      Review
      Featured review
      6/10
      A Nutshell Review: Diary of a Shinjuku Thief
      I was wondering which of the films will prove to be the one big alternative, experimental experience, and to my surprise it had to be Nagisa Oshima's Diary of a Shinjuku Thief. As the festival director Gavin Liu had explained in the pre-screening introduction, this is a rare screening of the film, and the owner of Kinokuniya bookstores is actually the man playing the Kinokuniya store manager in the film, as are many of the performers playing themselves, being non-actors going their own real thing as captured on celluloid.

      It's a treat all right, but I suppose it's an acquired taste that I still haven't cultivated. One of the draws to this film is because I'm curious to see how Shinjuku, the hotbed area in Tokyo where ail things youth and underground take place, looked like in the swinging 60s, having been there in two consecutive years already. The film opens with a crazy introduction of a man forced by a group to strip down to his underwear (a rather flimsy one that barely protects his modesty), being accused of stealing some pipes, before the group start to cower when they see his tattoo. Then we're thrust into the narrative proper that deals with the titular bookstore thief Torio, cheekily nicknamed Birdtop (Tadanori Yokoo), as the camera follows behind him through the extremely packed Kino bookstore - where you can't help that people around just happen to gaze into the camera – until he gets nabbed by the eagle eyed salesgirl Umeko (Rie Yokoyama) for taking a book out without paying for it.

      In fact he does so twice, and besides to experience the high from pinching things, a challenge he throws to Umeko later on in the story, I suspect he does so because he's got quite the hots for Umeko, an attractive though complicated lady, that even the store manager probably sensed something brewing between them, and offering not to report Birdtop to the cops, but to gift him some books as well as cash for both Birdtop and Umeko to spend. That essentially launches them into having some time off if you will to visit everything else that Oshima's intended to put into his film, with 4 different writers that will inevitably lead to a kaleidoscope of ideas, bringing forth the massive melting pot of different folks with different strokes.

      Presented in sections split by intertitles that tell the time (worldwide to local, and other nuggets of trivia such as the weather condition at the time) the film is almost documentary in nature come this point, and interchanges between black and white and colour which I still have to figure out why, other than to not miss out in capturing the vibrant colours present in particular performances and scenes. There's a visit to a sexologist whose area of research may challenge Kinsey's, and a talking heads styled interview with a group that's focused predominantly on sex, where it gets expressed verbally, and later on, having numerous sex scenes which had to justify its R21 rating in Singapore.

      Like the earlier films, this one is also rich in music such as Juro Kara coming on at every opportunity with a guitar, though the tunes were not quite up my alley. It's like a musical of sorts at times when characters inexplicably appears and break out into music. And while the story becomes more perplexing, I gave up trying to piece the narrative together since it was clearly abandoned to showcase various performances available at that era in Shinjuku. In that respect this film will work relatively well in capturing things that will inevitably be lost as time goes by, and for the modern audience to experience what it was like then, especially those vaudeville theatre styled acts. The other scene I thought I enjoyed until it proved to be outstaying its welcome involved Umeko walking by shelves of books, and quotes from the literary masters call out to her through voiceovers.

      The film ends with a montage of scenes involving some protests with the police out in force. I suppose this would have echoed the feelings of those who did not agree with the film, some having to walk out before they get to the scene. A rare treat, but one that calls for an acquired taste to thoroughly enjoy.
      helpful•6
      3
      • DICK STEEL
      • Aug 21, 2010

      Details

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      • Release date
        • July 1973 (United States)
        • Japan
        • Japanese
      • Also known as
      • Production companies
        • Sozosha
        • Kinokuniya
      • See more company credits at IMDbPro

      Technical specs

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      • 1 hour 36 minutes
        • Black and White
        • Mono

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