This review is part of Honi Soit’s continued coverage of the 71st Sydney Film Festival, 5-16 June. Read the rest of our reviews here.
Processing trauma is hard enough on its own, but to do so in a public arena is a much bigger challenge; one that director and journalist Shiori Itō faces in Black Box Diaries (2024). The documentary is an intensely raw reflection of Itō’s investigation into her rape at the hands of a more senior journalist. While fighting her own battle in Japan’s antiquated judicial system, Itō became the emblem of Japan’s #MeToo movement, holding to account a system which so often protects the abuser.
The film opens with a content warning set against a backdrop of cherry blossoms. This warning is necessary: the film can be unrelentingly tense and uncompromising in its search for the truth . The very first scene uses CCTV footage of the night of her rape, and what unfolds afterwards is a video diary of the process of dealing with this traumatic event.
Triggered by her instincts as a journalist, Itō meticulously documented on her iPhone each and every interaction she had with every institution, including police and the judicial system. In the film she states that “my work is the only way to not be crushed mentally”, but throughout the documentary the viewer is privy to glimpses of her internal struggles.
Her treatment at the hands of the police is an all too familiar tale. After reporting her rape, she was initially denied an investigation due to her inability to recount the assault or provide evidence — she was unconscious during the rape.
In accordance with a Japanese law that was over 110 years old, when reporting an assault to police “the absence of consent is not sufficient grounds for rape” and “some form of physical assault, intimidation, or inability to refuse is strictly required” for cases to be taken seriously.
While the laws failed Itō, her persistence meant that an investigation into the case was established. Within the investigation process, she was made to recreate her assault with a doll. The footage of Itō going through this process left audiences visibly reeling.
The reactions of the crowd were particularly palpable at several points throughout the film. When a warrant for her rapist Noriyuki Yamaguchi’s arrest is made, there is a collective sigh of relief. However, that feeling did not last: the head investigator transferred to another role because “he was good at his job.”
We discover the truth, captured by Itō on a hidden device when she manages to meet up with the original head investigator, when he informs her that he was kicked off the case in the final stages of arresting Yamaguchi.
Itō’s case was then dismissed.
It’s hard not to be skeptical about how all this played out; more so because of Yamaguchi’s close connections with then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
In 2017, two years after her assault, Itō went public with the story at a press conference. She viewed it as a necessary step for her case to be taken seriously and ultimately shed light on the injustices within the system. Then, as now, Itō placed herself at the mercy of the public.
The act of watching the documentary felt pervasive, granting the audience an incredibly intimate dissection of her life. She presents traumatising events in such a calm and clinical way through her internal monologue running through the film that you could almost forget she is investigating her own assault. And while viewing this process is expectedly difficult, Itō manages to alleviate tension throughout the film by making jokes about the absurdity of her own situation.
It was almost surreal after being so heavily immersed in this film to see Itō at the front of the cinema at the Dendy Newtown for the Q&A. I asked about her thoughts on Japan’s recently updated legislation that re-defined rape laws “as nonconsensual sexual intercourse — removing the provisions regarding use of force — and raise[d] the age of consent from 13 to 16.” I also asked whether the reporting of these cases had changed for the better since her own experience, and alluded to the Johnny Kitagawa sexual abuse scandal currently making waves in Japan.
She expressed that it was only due to overseas investigation and coverage that people started talking about the Johnny Kitagawa case, and as such she believed that it is still taboo within Japan. To this day, she has still found no distributors in Japan willing to circulate her documentary. She concluded that “I think it’s best to discuss outside for change to happen inside.”
And Itō’s story has begun, and will continue to do, just that.
