GoKawiilImamura's 1958 debut 'Stolen Desire' reveals early empathy for Japan's outcasts
Shohei Imamura's first feature, Nusumareta Yokujo (Stolen Desire, 1958), follows a struggling traveling theater troupe and their shifting fortunes, centering on stage manager Shinichi Kunida, a college graduate whose creative ideas are dismissed by the troupe's working-class performers. Made for Nikkatsu Studios, the film is an episodic, sensual comedy-drama notably more lighthearted than Imamura's later, darker work.