Black Box Diaries (15)
Directed by Shiori Ito 

 
 
JAPANESE film-maker and journalist Shiori Ito is an astounding and exceedingly brave young woman who used her journalistic skills to investigate her own sexual assault to bring her well-connected, high-profile attacker to justice, while exposing Japan’s outdated judicial and patriarchal systems. 

Written and directed by Ito herself, this documentary follows her courageous and tumultuous journey through secret investigative recordings, verite shooting and emotional video diaries. Unfolding like a thriller, it is a powerful and heart-wrenching account as Ito is both victim and investigative reporter, and the vilification and persecution she underwent after going public in May 2017 about being raped was extraordinary.  

She was denied a criminal prosecution against her alleged offender, a leading television journalist who had close ties with Japan’s then-prime minister Shinzo Abe, due to supposed lack of evidence. Instead, she pursued a civil trial and also wrote a book about her experience in order to help other women. 

She met the veteran TV journalist on April 2015  to discuss the possibility of a job opportunity and then awoke in a hotel room being raped. CCTV footage shows how he carried her out of a taxi half-comatose and into a hotel lobby. In an interview with the cab driver, he states how she asked several times to be dropped off at the station and not the hotel. 

The film examines Japan’s antiquated sexual assault laws which state the age of consent as 13, and that non-consent isn’t enough to prove rape.

The subject is very much still taboo in Japanese society with only 4 per cent of women reporting being raped to police as it can lead to victims being stigmatised and ostracised.

The documentary shows how Ito received death threats, faced cyberbullying and received hate mail, and the triggering and stressful effects they had on her. Meanwhile her attacker, who denied any wrongdoing, declares war on her and counter-sues her. 

The scene where the hotel doorman agrees to recount in court what he witnessed that night, regardless of the consequences to him, will bring you to tears. 

Ito, along with her landmark case, became the symbol for the Me Too movement in Japan and her victory after an eight-year battle paved the way for a change in the law. 

She is an inspiration, as is this film. 

In cinemas October 25.