BLACK BOX DIARIES - Mark Reviews Movies

Black Box Diaries, MTV Documentary Films

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Review by Mark Dujsik | October 24, 2024

Shiori Itō just wanted a meeting with a high-profile journalist about her career. She doesn't remember much of what happened after the two left the bar where they drank and talked, but while interviewing the driver who brought them back to his hotel near the start of Black Box Diaries, Itō does have some things confirmed. She wanted the car to bring her home—a request she made multiple times. The man insisted that the driver go to the hotel instead.

Everything about the incident at the hotel is fuzzy. That's not only because of Itō's memory, hampered by alcohol or, possibly, something else of which she wasn't aware. It's also because there was no criminal sexual assault or rape charge brought against Noriyuki Yamaguchi, despite Itō's story, the presence of bruises on her body, and the accused man's admission that sex did occur in that hotel room. Itō, who also directed this documentary, could be held civilly liable for defamation if she says or, possibly, suggests too much.

There's something fundamentally wrong here, and Itō's film, basically a behind-the-scenes account of raising sexual assault accusations in Japan, gets at just how much is wrong with the justice system in her native country, simply by showing us her personal experiences. Only a few people seem to want to help her because it's the right thing to do. Others may protest the system's failure, but they still only see Itō as "the girl who was raped." Others still may seem as if they want to help, such as one of the police investigators whom the journalist spoke to several times before the prosecutor decided not to bring up charges, but then, something happens that reveals even the most externally helpful might have ulterior motives.

Simply by the nature of its filming, Itō's documentary takes on a claustrophobic air, which must be what everyday life feels like her during the four-year period over which she kept this video diary. It's a film made up of semi-clandestine recordings of in-person meetings and phone conversations, as well as testimonials from Itō herself from within her small apartment or in the home of a friend.

She needs to live elsewhere for a while after holding a press conference detailing the incident with Yamaguchi, the failure of the police to really investigate her claim, and the seeming indifference of the justice system in pushing for more investigatory work. Only some really listen to what Itō has to say at that event. Many others, including the journalist's own parents, wonder why she was wearing a blouse with one or two many buttons undone.

The alleged assault happened in 2015. The press conference was held in 2017. Itō had to live with the attack, the apparent disinterest of the police and the courts, and the fear of what might happen to her if she went public with her story for two years, as she filed police reports and no one in any power listened. Claustrophobia feels like an understatement to describe how she must have felt.

At the time, Itō suspected that Yamaguchi's friendship with then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had something to do with the case coming to a standstill. After the press conference, that begins to seem like a stronger possibility.

There does seem to be some kind of campaign working against her throughout this account of her efforts to bring a civil suit against Yamaguchi. The man wrote a glowing biography of his politician friend. There's an election forthcoming, in which Abe's party could retain and gain more power in parliament. One doesn't like to become unnecessarily conspiratorial, but when a member of that legislative body indirectly mentions Itō's story on the floor, his speech is shut down immediately with some nonsense about not discussing private citizens in parliament. What else, the politician wonders aloud, are they supposed to talk about in government, if not the concerns of everyday citizens?

More potential evidence arises, especially when Itō decides she's going to write a book about how her case went nowhere. The publisher really wants to release it before the election, but things, mostly legal questions about what Itō can and cannot write without facing civil prosecution, keep emerging to stop even that from happening. Meanwhile, Itō does the work of a journalist, asking questions of those directly involved in her case who are willing to talk about it, interviewing government officials who are in charge of such matters, and listening to others who have similar experiences as her.

She does all of this while also juggling the writing and editing of her book, preparing for a civil trial in which there's still a worry that not enough evidence is available, and filming this documentary. The pressures must have been immense, and all the while, Itō still receives messages from people blaming her for what happened, accusing her of ruining a man's reputation, and going even further than that.

We're with her through it all, because Black Box Diaries is such a personal project, made with genuine curiosity about the failings of a system and passion for wanting it to change. It's just one story, though, and as Itō becomes the face and an almost accidental activist for a global movement about how sexual assault is so often overlooked or dismissed or diminished by society and the courts, we're left wondering how many women in Japan are in a similar situation and without Itō's platform. It's obvious she's aware of that, too.

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