While the lesser-known Imamura Shohei and Hani Susume are important figures in Japan’s new wave cinema, the most influential filmmaker and pivotal figure of this movement remains Nagisa Oshima. The Japanese new wave can in no way be compared to the French New wave or the British new wave, as each of this movement came into being in a specific societal constellation. In the case of the Japanese new wave, the movement was concerned with revealing the societal contradictions specific to Japan and, often, to underline the rise of materialistic values (Desser, 1988).

While much has already been written and said about the Japanese new wave cinema and Oshima Nagisa, there still remains more to be said about this movement. So, as a humble beginning, let’s take a closer look to one of Oshima Nagisa’s most well-known narratives, Diary of a Shinjuku Thief.

One day, Birdie Hilltop (Tadanori Yokoo) roams Shinjuku’s Kinokuniya for books. Choosing various books to steal, he is caught in the act by Umeko Suzuki (Rie Yokoyama), who seems to work at the bookshop. Seemingly attracted to each other, they end up having sex. But contrary to Birdie’s expectations, Umeko Suzuki feels nothing special about her defloration. No pain, no pleasure – she felt, in fact, nothing at all.

This impossibility of satisfying Umeko, instigates their quest for Umeko’s enjoyment – an enjoyment subtly associated to the question of Birdie’s phallic competence. Eventually, Moichi Tanabe (Moichi Tanabe), the owner of the famous Kinokuniya, decides to oversee their search for Umeko’s satisfaction. He refers them to Tetsu Takahashi (Tetsu Takahashi), a famous Freudian sexologist (Narrative-note 1).

The signifiers Oshima employs within Diary of a Shinjuku Thief to create his narrative concerns the two interlinked dimensions of the impossible sexual relationship: aggression and satisfaction. Oshima lets these two signifiers compose an associative backbone that structures an exploration of a variety of interrelated ‘sexual’ aspects, such as lesbianism, the illusion of becoming one in the act of coitus, desire, love, gender expectations in a paternal society, the (in-)possibility of sexual freedom, the source of sexual enjoyment, gender confusion and so on.

There is, however, another important dimension that crosses and elevates the aforementioned duality: the tension between tradition (stagnation) and modernism (evolution). This dimension is subtly made present by the narrative space of Shinjuku’s Kinokuniya bookstore. A less subtle signalling of this tension is given by one of books that Birdie tries to steal, Jean Genet’s “The Thief Journal”, which, as the resembling title implies, inspired this narrative (General-note 1). Oshima, moreover, utilizes this societal tension to underline the ‘sexual’ attraction that exists towards these kind of transgressive signifiers, the kind of knowledge that houses the potential to cause societal change.

The tension also structures another narrative moment: Umeko’s and Birdie’s counseling sessions with Tetsu Takahashi, the famous progressive Freudian sexologist. In his counseling, it is evident that Takahashi does not aim to understand anything about them – Umeko and Birdie are silenced. And even though Takahashi believed in the ubiquity of ‘sexual perversity’, he ignores the fundamental position of ‘gardez-de-vous-comprendre’, remains blind to the generational divide, and forces himself on the other as a master. This sequence, despite its transgressions concering psychoanalysis – his authoritarian fatherly work-method, is nevertheless enlightening as it reveals some of his liberal thoughts.

Ultimately, as the narrative’s themes and signifier associate, the associative line uncovers the true problematic dimension: the mysterious dimension of women’s enjoyment. If Oshima uses the then contemporary context of student upheaval, it is to associativily underline the problematic nature of that female enjoyment in relation to a paternal society. Diary of A Shinjuku Thief exposes the restricting effects of a paternal society on female subjectivity and enjoyment. At the same time, Oshima shows that the path of sexuality is the only way to attack the fatherly Other and escape its repressive effects – sexuality can be political. To put it differently, what Oshima seeks to show with his narrative – blending staged scenes with documentary footage of student-riots – is that every political act is in essence sexual, concerns the dimension of enjoyment.

If we look closer to the cinematography of Diary of a Shinjuku Thief, we encounter a creative and energetic mix of various techniques (Cine-note 1). What is most remarkable about the cinematography is Oshima’s use of close-ups, his integration of Juro Kara’s musical intermezzo’s – which always evoke the dimension of aggression and enjoyment – and his use of long temporal shots. Other aspects that stand out are Oshima’s fine sense of geometry in its compositions and his choice to apply, at certain moments, intertitles, which evoke pre-war Japanese cinema.

It is easy to sense that Oshima aims to exploit the image and realize its inherent expressive dimension – Oshima is not concerned with objectively framing the narrative space. This is, first of all, evident in the associative nature of the narrative development. Rather than rationally composing the structure of the narrative, scenes flow into each other based on the associative line mentioned above – revealing the fundamental symbolic axis of a cinematographical narrative as such. Even the seemingly random shifts from black and white to colour – for example the shifts with red as central colour – are meaningful in light of the associative stream and the symbolic contrast it creates.

Furthermore, one should not mistake the shakiness that characterizes many shots as solely focused on grounding the narrative in the certain framed reality. While the shaky shots referring to the student upheaval do ground the narrative in the then contemporary societal situation, others shaky shots are primarily concerned as to evoke the emotionality (e.g. excitement) of certain characters, most notably of Birdie Hilltop.

Diary of a Shinjuku Thief is the product of a director who does not merely utilize cinematography to frame a narrative as such, but gambles on the power of the image traverse a web of interrelated ideas to deliniate a political idea. Oshima offers the spectator a narrative of thematical evocations and assocations, an associative unfolding blending with a visual composition that respects the flow of the signifier. What Oshima exposes with his associative narrative play is nothing other that what what escapes and threatens the patriachal all: the not-all logic of the female subject and her extra-phallic enjoyment.

Notes:

Narrative note 1: In the end, Umeko comes to be able to enjoy as she, in a true subjective act, undresses herself. This undressing is not only in front of Birdie but also in front of the entire paternal society, the Other as evoked througout the narrative. In the act of undressing, she shows her radical acceptance of the fact that she enjoys, beyond the limiting impact of traditional society, as a woman. Female enjoyment is exposed as being disruptive, disturbing the equilibrium of phallic enjoyment as determined by the patriarchally structured societal field.

Umeko’s performative sexual act, however, is not simply an act of radical acceptance, but also a radical political attack on the patriarchal Other who refuses to acknowledge anything that goes beyond the phallic logic.

General Note 1: Jean Genet’s masterpiece The Thief’s Journal (1949) is based on his own experiences. The novel, a chronicle of his wandering through Europe in the ’30s, introduces the spectator to a subject living on the margins of society and engaging in various homosexual love affairs – acts of male prostitution – with various criminals, con-artists, pimps, … etc.

One important element within the novel – and is utilized within Oshima’s film with great effect, concerns the performative quality of many of the main character’s acts – the exposition of his subjectivity to the Other. The logic of transgression, normally equated with the criminality, is shown to be the prime field where a subject can assume and affirm his own subjectivity in front of the Other.

Cine-note 1: Oshima’s assocative collage-like narrative structure is, in our view, an attempt to visualize Genet’s literary style – lyrical, non-linear, and poetic.

References:

Desser, D. (1988). Eros Plus Massacre: An Introduction to the Japanese New Wave Cinema. Indiana University Press