In scrawled, neat handwriting, a title card encourages those who have experienced similar traumas that the director experienced to pause and take a breath. “This has helped me many times”, Shiori Itō admits, and while she clearly feels hers is an important story to tell, she knows it will not always be easy on her audience. Thus begins Black Box Diaries, a powerful film that documents her multi-year journey to bring attention to the systemic issues in the Japanese justice system, along with telling the story of her own assault. It’s a story that is intensely personal yet reaches the highest levels of Japanese politics, making for a bold and powerful narrative of one woman’s fight to share her story.

What Is ‘Black Box Diaries’ About?

In the spring of 2015, Shiori Itō was a young and aspiring journalist. With strong fluency in English, the Japanese native was schooled in New York and had returned to her home country to begin a promising career in journalism. In April 2015, she met up with an immensely prominent journalist, Noriyuki Yamaguchi, to discuss potential work opportunities. Yamaguchi, the Washington Bureau chief for the Tokyo Broadcasting System, was also the close friend and personal biographer of then-Japanese president Shinzo Abe, making Yamaguchi immensely connected within Japan’s notoriously closed system of influence.

As security footage from that night shows, following the dinner, Yamaguchi’s driver brought Itō back to his hotel, dragging a clearly intoxicated and reticent passenger past the doorman up through the lobby, and into his room. In Itō’s telling, she was blacked out for that entire journey, only waking up to find him on top of her, pressing down on her abdomen, engaged in sex when she was in no capacity to provide consent.

Shiori Itō Fights Against Japan’s Outdated Justice System
Image Via MTV Documentary Films

Thus began a multi-year process, whereby her original police complaints charging rape were initially dismissed, arrest warrants were overturned by heads of the police force (with close ties to Abe and others in power), as well as the confrontation from the century-old sexual assault laws in Japan. Itō took the very rare step of publicly discussing her case, against the advice of even her closest family members, and soon became a reluctant yet powerful spokeswoman for generations of women silenced after their own assaults.

Itō’s Black Box Diaries documents her journey into the spotlight and the writing of a book that shares the film’s title. The book outlines her own experience of assault but equally serves as a tool to elicit real change in Japan. Itō ties her own struggles to the #MeToo movement that emerged out of the Harvey Weinstein cases. Still, the additional social and political complexities in Japan’s highly stratified societymake the particularities of her case that much more complex and, in some ways, transformational. The film, then, is an extension of her book, and it unfolds very much as a memoir. We hear recordings of various participants in her case, from “Investigator A” who aided in the case, to various witnesses and others who helped corroborate her story and fill in relevant blanks from her blacked-out experience.

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One particularly impactful interview is with the driver of that night, admitting directly that he witnessed Itō asking to be dropped off at home, with Yamaguchi overruling the request. Some audiences will be shocked that the explicit request of the clearly intoxicated female passenger would be ignored in favor of another’s orders, but this is just one way among many that the more subtle complexities of Japan’s regimented class and working structure are illustrated; an intricate system that by design diminishes the like’s of Itō’s safety and concerns to the benefit of more powerful, almost exclusively male figures.

‘Black Box Diaries’ Is a Compelling and Emotionally Rich Story
Image Via MTV Documentary Films

Told in a visually poetic yet emotionally impactful way, this is unapologetically Itō’s story told from her own perspective. Yes, certain elements from the intricacies of the court cases are presented, and we hear from her legal team, her publishers, and others who are supporting her along the way. Still, at a fundamental level, the lens by which this film is framed is through Itō’s own thoughts and considerations.

Those looking for a more journalistically neutral examination of the nature of the allegations, the causes of countersuits, and the byzantine intricacies exemplified by the Japanese political class may be disappointed. The central thrust throughout the film is to allow Itō’s voice to be heard without compromise or censorship. Given the cultural obstacles meant to silence the likes of Itō when circumstances like this arise, it’s much more important that on an international scale, her voice is heard, and others can parse the more subtle intricacies of her and other cases.

That’s not to say that Itō’s film is little more than an exercise in self-centeredness; quite the opposite, as there’s a clear indication throughout that the desire isn’t simply to seek justice regarding her own case, but to make real and lasting changes for others as well. In a meeting with fellow female journalists, most from older generations, we hear hints of similar stories that went under-reported by the very people tasked with truth-telling, evidence of the strangulation of these stories by societal and cultural practices that, thanks to Itō and others, are finally shifting towards a better mode.

Black Box Diaries is not an easy watch, but it’s an immensely compelling and emotionally rich one. Itō isn’t simply courageous in her fight to tell her story, she’s also a gifted storyteller, making the film accessible to audiences but also unflinching in its gaze. There are moments of real vulnerability expressed by her, showing that Itō isn’t some stone-hearted hero unaffected by the trauma that she experienced. For beyond all the larger ramifications legally and politically, this is one woman’s story that’s fighting to be told, blessed with a teller who’s able to guide the complex story in a way that makes things accessible without ever succumbing to over-simplification. Thanks to Itō’s tenacity and focus, Black Box Diaries boldly tells her provocative and haunting story, resulting in a richly drawn portrait of one woman’s fight for justice that’s sure to inspire change in Japan and beyond.

Black Box Diaries is a powerful film about one woman’s fight for justice in Japan.ProsThe documentary takes a powerful, personal approach to lofty subjects such as sexual assault.It’s a an impressive directorial debut from Shiori It?.It’s a harrowing story told with firm determination and clear narrative focus. ConsThose wishing for a more neutral take may be disappointed, though perhaps missing the entire point of the project while doing so

Release Date October 25, 2024 Director Shiori Itō Cast Shiori Itō Runtime 103 Minutes Writers Shiori Itō Main Genre Documentary Expand

Black Box Diaries arrives in theaters on October 25.