Black Box Diaries
Journalist Shiori Ito embarks on an investigation of her own sexual assault in a personal #MeToo movement story.
Image courtesy of Dogwoof Releasing.
On 3rd April 2015 the graduate journalist Shiori Itō, an intern at Thomson Reuters, found herself in a situation which constrained many Japanese women before her. She wanted to take action in the courts asserting that she had been raped, the man in this instance being Noriyuki Yamaguchi who was at that time a leading figure in the Tokyo Broadcasting System. Shiori had been invited to meet him at a restaurant for a job interview but once there suddenly found herself feeling ill - after which she only came to the next morning in a hotel room to find Yamaguchi raping her. But in Japan at that time the law relating to rape had not been updated since 1907 and it was well known that to succeed in court a victim had to prove that the attack on them had caused actual physical injury. Furthermore, in Japanese society it was widely believed that, however innocent, one dishonoured one’s family by acting in such a way that it became public knowledge that one had been a victim of rape. 25-year-old Shiori immediately found herself facing hostility on this score and in this particular case yet another factor suggested that justice might be difficult to achieve: Yamaguchi was not only a well-known figure but a friend of the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, who was also his biographer and could therefore be considered somebody with friends in high places.
The period between 2015 and the present evidences the strength of Shiori Itō’s determination to persist encouraged by the fact that her case would underline the need for changes in the law (a hope that would prove justified when in 2023 the age of consent was raised from thirteen to sixteen and the definition of rape was adjusted from forcible sexual intercourse to non-consensual sexual intercourse). Initially Shiori had hoped that a criminal prosecution could be brought but a warrant for Yamaguchi’s arrest was dropped and she had to rely on setting up a civil action. That started in February 2018 but it would be December 2019 before a verdict was obtained. It suggested victory but Yamaguchi was ready to appeal.
Meanwhile, rather than let the legal proceedings set the timescale in which to make an impact, Shiori wrote a memoir, Black Box, in which she disclosed her experiences. That was published in 2017 and now, although her only previous experience in film appears to be as photographer of a short work in 2021, we have this feature documentary made by her. As its title indicates, the film is a record of what has happened to her since April 2015 akin to a diary of her endeavours, including the positive developments that have occurred since the memoir was completed.
The response to the film has been exceedingly positive and it has won awards in festivals in such countries as Brazil, Canada, China, New Zealand and Switzerland and at several places in the USA too. Given the nature of Shiori Itō’s story and her bravery in not holding back from telling it, it is no surprise that the film should have won so much admiration and the fact that her stance has encouraged the #MeToo movement in Japan confirms the value of what she has done.
Even so, as a critic, I have to say that while the film is undoubtedly worthwhile it does have drawbacks when considered as filmmaking. Just recently I praised another Dogwoof release entitled Every Little Thing. That documentary about L.A.’s Terry Masear and her devotion to providing healing care for hummingbirds led me to say that the film with its wonderful images surely took a more apt form than the book that she had written on the same subject. However, with Black Box Diaries, I have to say the opposite: that the material is probably more at home in book form. To tell the earlier stages of her story, Shiori Itō frequently has to rely on audio recordings, tapes and the like and then to find images that will to some extent fit in with them. Cell phone footage features too. Later developments can be filmed as they unfolded, but again one encounters instances that offer restricted coverage such as a phone conversation with an unexpected witness whose evidence might be crucial. One would like to see him, but he is never shown and indeed, with no photographers allowed in, what passes in the courtroom remains an aspect that cannot be represented here. That's why I feel that the story told in this film would flow more naturally on the printed page. But that’s not to deny the power of this story which in its film form is dedicated to all survivors.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Featuring: Shiori Ito.
Dir Shiori Itō, Pro Eric Nyari, Hanna Aqvilin and Shiori Itō, Ph Hanna Aqvilin, Yuta Okamura, Shiori Itō and Yuichiro Otsuza, Ed Ema Ryan Yamazaki, Music Mark Degli Antoni.
Hanashi Films/Cineric Creative/Spark Features/Star Sands-Dogwoof Releasing.
103 mins. Japan/USA/Sweden/UK. 2023. UK and US Rel: 25 October 2024. Cert. 15.
