Birdey takes the first step on the road to ruin when he steals an inconsequential item from a bookstore. Caught in the act by the salesgirl, the shoplifter is led through various adventures in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district and becomes the girl’s sexual partner and virtual slave.

Electrifying the Quinzaine, capturing the spirit of ’68 in a confrontational style, Diary of a Shinjuku Thief marries the experimental sex comedy with an insurgent ideological allegory. Filmmaking at its most liberated, and perhaps bad boy provocateur Nagisa Ôshima at his most transgressive.