Shiori Ito (left) shares her heart-wrenching story in tense and gripping new documentary, Black Box Diaries
BLACK BOX DIARIES (Shiori Ito, 2024)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
Opens Friday, October 25
212-727-8110
filmforum.org
“All I want to do is talk about the truth,” journalist and rape survivor Shiori Ito says in her shocking, heart-wrenching documentary, Black Box Diaries.
Talking about the truth of sexual violence has become one of the most urgent themes in the twenty-first century. Whether in Hollywood’s “#metoo” movement, the outcry over highly publicized rapes in Indian cities, or stories from the battlefields, women in almost every culture have been driven to make their voices heard, and movies have been a big part of that communication to the world.
For example, in her 2018 film On Her Shoulders, director Alexandria Bombach follows twenty-one-year-old Nadia Murad, one of countless Yazidis who suffered sexual violence at the hands of ISIS in Northern Iraq. Refusing to remain silent, Murad traveled around the globe, sharing her story in order to effect change. “As a girl, I wish I didn’t have to tell the people this happened to me. I mean, I wish it hadn’t happened to me so I wouldn’t have to talk about it,” she explains. “I wish people knew me as an excellent seamstress, as an excellent athlete, as an excellent makeup artist, as an excellent farmer. I didn’t want people to know me as a victim of ISIS terrorism.”
In Black Box Diaries, Ito joins the ranks of women worldwide who take matters into her own hands, making public her claim of rape by Noriyuki Yamaguchi, a leading journalist with close ties to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Tokyo police and the Japanese government turn their back on her reports, but that doesn’t stop Ito.
“Many people already witnessed what kind of negative reaction I’ve got, and that’s not okay,” Ito says. “I have to be speaking up. I shouldn’t stop speaking, because I don’t want to let people know this made me shut up. No.”
On May 29, 2017, Ito held a press conference in which she boldly described having been sexually assaulted by Yamaguchi at a hotel in 2015 and how, despite DNA evidence, surveillance footage, and an arrest warrant, the case was eventually dropped by prosecutors. Ito, who initially had only limited recall of the details of the attack, went on a mission to expose Japan’s outdated laws concerning sexual violence and to make Yamaguchi pay for his crime, but she is thwarted — and threatened — again and again.
A police investigator believes her but is unwilling to risk his job and help her after he is removed from the case. When Ito points out to an official at the Office for Violence Against Women that only four percent of rape victims file police reports, he answers, “I think [the police] should act according to the appropriate guidelines in place.” Ito adds that there are guidelines that the police do not follow, but the official uncomfortably replies, “We need to continue making efforts to fill in the weak spots. Please excuse my abstract answer.” Representative Michiyoshi Yunoki tries to get Parliament to do something but is ignored by a wall of stone faces that rejects his efforts. And Ito’s own family want her to give up, fearful of the shame it brings them.
Ito records nearly all her interactions with the police, lawyers, government representatives, fellow journalists, and potential witnesses, sometimes secretly. She also makes deeply personal videos on her iPhone in which she discusses her plans and talks openly about how the horrific situation is impacting her daily life and her psyche. With elections coming up and Yamaguchi about to publish an authorized hagiography of his longtime friend Abe, Ito decides to write her own book, even if that results in legal action against her, although she does not want to put any of her supporters or her family in jeopardy. “Bring it on,” she declares as she initiates the #metoo movement in Japan.
Like Murad, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018, Ito was not a born activist; instead, she took what happened to her as an opportunity to fight the status quo, to let people know the truth, and to make things better for other girls and women, through the legal system, police enforcement, and public perception. For example, she is surprised when some women chastise her for telling her story.
As she pursues justice, it is clear how conflicted she is, that none of this comes easy for her as she slowly remembers more about what Yamaguchi did to her that night. Even when she rolls around playfully with her lawyer and a friend, trying to find bits of happiness, she is uncomfortable, knowing that each day leads to new challenges. In her videos, she stares down into the camera, both vulnerable and defiant, confessing what’s in her soul. In a particularly poignant and moving scene, a tear trickles down her cheek, resting on the tip of her nose; she calmly, almost unconsciously brushes it away, a simple but powerful gesture that captures the essence of who she is.
Ito also includes poetic interludes that feature shots of nature accompanied by handwritten text with pertinent facts and such messages as “I keep running, running, can’t stop. I don’t want to face myself.” and “Everyone has a monster in them, but mine didn’t kill me.” Mark degli Antoni’s beautiful piano-based score underlines the tense drama.
Meanwhile, the strength she exhibits in public is intoxicating and inspirational. Her dedication and determination amid all the risks turn the film — which she directed, produced, and partly photographed — into a gripping thriller that never provides any easy answers but displays what the human spirit is capable of.
“I pushed myself to the limit in shooting this documentary. Upon revisiting the hotel where I was raped, I felt the damage I was doing to myself might be too much. But at the same time, my desire to change society and tell this story kept me alive,” she writes in her director’s statement. “Now . . . I can with more objectivity watch the scenes of my breaking down, passing moments of joy and normalcy, and absurd comedy in my novice investigator techniques — and to conceive how they can come together to form our film.”
A must-see documentary whose impact should spread far beyond Japan, Black Box Diaries opens October 25 at Film Forum, with Ito participating in Q&As at the 7:00 screenings on Friday and Saturday.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]