Black Box Diaries
Black Box Diaries
Black Box Diaries: Not every woman is the heroine of her own story and most of them never get a chance to fight for others as well. Shiori Ito, a 28-year-old Japanese journalist came out as a woman who was sexually assaulted by a journalist two years back and called out the perpetrator, Noriyuki Yamaguchi, during a press conference in Tokyo. (He has denied the allegation.)
Ito had chosen to go against the tide and tell the truth after all the pressure to stay quiet. “It is a crime and people cannot hide it. People need to talk about it because it impacts the life of the persons involved,” she said as she addressed a group of journalists in the room.
With great courage, Ito reveals in detail her memories throughout “Black Box Diaries” which is a very touching documentary albeit at times her version is also exasperating, of her journey to become a prominent face of the Japanese #Me too movement. This was a challenging moment for her with the police turned hostile, the prevailing sexist laws, abuse and threats coming her way. It was brave, and it was abnormal.
Regarding David McNeill, an editor of Asia Pacific Journal, he remarked, ‘One of the first things many Japanese women do while still shivering and bleeding at home is to read online about the experience of others –– and deciding it’s not worth the unbending.’ It was about drinking one’s own medicine that William Tong had said this to Ito in an interview with her after one of her press conferences.
Like myself, if one family member does not support her, she wouldn’t use her last name for instance Ito. However later, she completely stepped out with the battle and since then her name has been decorated in banners on the streets. So her name was always in the focus as she was continuously seeking the justice that was mission impossible then.
Ito persisted with friends and a law firm in America to change the perception and the laws surrounding sexual violence in Japan. (In 2023, Japan made it illegal to commit nonconsensual sexual acts; in 2019, the United Nations defined rape as the act of ‘absence of consent’.)
The film is adapted from the memoir of Ito she authored in 2017 titled “Black Box Diaries”, it focuses on the pain and fight of Ito. Ploiter, the title, comes from Ito’s battles – A feminist’s desire to confront violence, which she characterizes as a scandalously underreported issue.
Several reports state that a cruciate center inobusatsu also shelters and protects sexual assault victims, which is why the term’Sacred Black Box’ appears. The case is the primary focus of the documentary. It starts with fascinating opening lines presented as handwriting over the screen creating an illusion of water.
“Trigger warnings are necessary for this film,” it is stated as cherry trees lose their blossoms in the background. “As you wish, close your eyes and breathe deep.” As water and petals pour forth her words flow; “That has helped me many times.”
What follows could be best described as a drama that is rather action-packed and complex, which Ito no less can be described as a victim, chief investigator, dedicated prosecutor and an investigative journalist. In 2015, after the attack and after she lodged a complaint with the police department, Ito knew she could no longer sit back and let the system work for her.
She began documenting the entire process in form of encrypted audio tapes, written notes and video recordings. After the prosecutors discontinued the matter although there was secondary DNA evidence and a taxi driver who dropped her off at the hotel testified so, she decided to launch her private investigation.
One particularly sobering aspect of this documentary which cuts through any success and changes the overall outlook of it, is the personal urgency that has kept Ito pursuing this to the very end, as the film balances between her working and non-working life. To structure her narrative, she utilizes found materials and creates new ones such as her family’s VHS home videos, surveillance footage, clips from newscasters and even a lost segment of the chase.
Of course, it is on her cellphone where she, together with some collaborators, made the most strange and wonderful artwork during these dull times. For some reason, in many of them Ito looks right into the camera and prepares to talk to a close friend while sobbing, in others she does not move, eats or simply sleeps.
At times, the film’s intimacy may appear to be overwhelming as in the case of claustrophobia. More than anything else, this movie is a first person’s presentation of events, and while it is successful on those terms, it is actually more narratively involving than intellectually satisfying. For the most part, she allows her audience to understand her story in a more intricate manner by, for example, including details about the rape laws in Japan.
Just a month after her first press conference in July 2017, Japanese Parliament implemented the first changes in sex crimes laws after a century of stagnation in the country. But, even as Ito addresses other women, whom many of them share their women’s experiences, what is absent is any concrete understanding of the broader female struggle that such voices symbolize in the allegiance for freedom.
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- Genre: Documentary
- Country: United States, United Kingdom, Japan
- Director: Shiori Itô
- Cast: Shiori Itô
