
There are two spine-tingling visuals that are likely to remain in the memories of the viewers even long after watching the documentary ‘Black Box Diaries’, which is an award nominee for the Critics Choice Documentary Award. At the very start, it is possible to see footage of one of the characters Shiori Itō (the film’s writer/director) being dragged across a sidewalk and through the lobby of a hotel by a man who is about to sexually assault her whilst appearing to be intoxicated or under the influence of drugs. This man’s name is Noriyuki Yamaguchi, the Bureau Chief of the Tokyo Broadcasting System in Washington. He had close ties to the police and was an ally of then Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe.
We then see Shiori’s face at the end of the film when she is in the back of the car after the court has supported the award of damages against Yamaguchi. She appears to be stoic, and this is after the ruling was given in her favor. At the beginning, she is ecstatic – ‘I Will Survive’ is blasting from her phone. Then, Zita from the film Carlos Goes Shopping, at the end of the movie when everything is dampening begins to smile less until her face is almost blank. What is practical or more desirable for the audience to do in that instance? Imagine her emotions: a mixture of relief that finally required measures of law have been applied perhaps; triumph; vindication; the realization that nothing will ever soothe the harm that she has endured as a result of being raped and the nightmare that was the fight for at least some justice over it. Perhaps all this and probably more will do.
Another moment that is equally notable helps to understand Itô’s mindset as well. In the conference, Yamaguchi concedes that although he had sexual relations with an incoherent girl who he said would be assisted with her job prospects, he always speaks in a passive voice and claims that such a ‘sad affair’ was lawful. He took her to court for libel.
As the book Itô penned regarding her ordeal, the film documents the trauma with which Yamaguchi was met when it was established the attack was not an isolated incident and Japanese law, society, and the media buried the story. It is one thing to suffer a physical attack and another to be so helpless as not to be able to get justice. Both strip the victim of his dignity, dehumanizing him entirely. She does not even recall Japan’s rape law, which was over 110 years old at the time, and still in effect, mandated proof of violence as a precursor to sexual violation because there was no understanding of sex as an act of force.
“No evidence exists,” the police say to her. There is no semen present. The man’s DNA can be found on her bra, but she was told that “It only suggests that he has come in contact with it, nothing more. Without strong proof, your possible prospects are bleak.” They initially said she could not report the crime because they were only dealing with a narrow definition of sex crimes. It was later on reported to her that there was a warrant for arrest but it was reversed and cancelled. The cab driver claims that he saw Yamaguchi requesting him to stop the car and carry Yamaguchi to her hotel room.
Also, considering her advocacy, she can also rely on the #metoo movement events that occurred worldwide after the harassment perpetrated by Harvey Weinstein came to light.
“I learned how unheard our voices are,” she tells us. Nevertheless, it is always difficult. It does not appear that Ito was successful. What I do now is unbearable and yes damaging. I am a black star.” She, perhaps predictably, holds a press conference to tell her tale, notwithstanding warnings of violent objections. She says people will see her as ‘a victim.’ That is something that will never change no matter how successful she may become. ‘Don’t show your face,’ she is implored. She is told that if she goes public she will not find happiness in marriage and family. She reads out loud the words of the woman who wrote to her, ‘Even if you are right, even if what you’re saying is true, what do you think of this man you’re accusing, I feel so sorry for him.’
Izumi Ikuto had to be a woman, which may have been the only aspect of this case that was different from others, but she used it to her advantage because any other man telling this story would have looked incredibly naive. The truth had to be told, she did so through her work. She emphasized, ‘As a journalist, I devoted myself to uncovering the truth. It was a necessity.’ These words demonstrate how she views herself as it is not how the world would have expected: a victim who is weak, full of sadness, who is hateful, and hiding herself in embarrassment, which is a societal norm.
As for the film, its early scenes have a more strained aesthetic than the rest of the film.
There is no editing applied during the filming to remove shots where the camera appears to be shifted during the recording of the film. With practice, it becomes more confident and polished, skills that are synonymous with Itō at this point. She seems to be rather detached from the situation in the earlier scenes, even cracking a smile once in a while when she is agitated but chooses not to confront her feelings head-on. We later notice her, more frequently, when she is overwhelmed by emotions such as when she is touched by kind gestures that she does not expect. The film is very personal, tender, and devastating at the same time. At certain points, Itō appears to speak through a camera that captures her while she is seemingly alone in a room and filming herself on her own mobile phone. One of the members of the women’s group comments that their words are like a warm blanket enveloping her. At this point, she is overcome with grief and we can see her sobbing when the hotel’s doorman says under the threat of being fired that he agrees to testify about everything he witnessed when the man Yamaguchi took her out of the hotel lobby. They are having a telephone conversation and from this distance, he is unable to view her but when he makes reference to wanting her to be content that he was working that night of all nights, she inadvertently bows in reverence.
What she fights for is to be looked at when she’s weak and ill. Yet at the same time, this film is the proof of her heroism. The title of the film came from a lawyer referring to the lack of evidence which would correspond to an obsolete formulation of rape as it is written in the law over a century old. However, the term seems to be more appropriate if we treat this film like the technology that churns out important information after a plane crash. Like that black box, It’s crucial that Itô focuses on her journalist and survivor’s story because this is the unforgiving reality that exists after suffering such catastrophic trauma.
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