Black Box Diaries | 2024 SXSW Film Review

“She’s a prostitute”. “I’m ashamed to be of the same gender as you”. A “botched attempt at obtaining work/job through sexual advances”. 

These are all things then 25-year-old Shiori Itō had other slander her way following her Tokyo press conference in which she spoke her truth that a prominent TV journalist, with deep ties to Prime Minister Abe, had drugged and raped her in 2015 following a meeting for a potential career opportunity. The man in question, Noriyuki Yamaguchi, denied the allegations, stating it was consensual. Itō’s initial attempts to provide a statement to the police and work through the Japanese justice system repeatedly failed her, but her journalistic roots of getting the truth and holding this monster accountable propelled her to a four-year endeavor of achieving just that at whatever means necessary. 

Black Box Diaries is an intimate exploration into the absolute absurdity of Japan’s decades-old rape laws – including the requirement of “force” to be evidenced for a rape prosecution, failure to include rape for all genders, and a sexual intercourse consent age of 13 – and the lengths to which a rape or sexual assault victim must go through for justice. Itō’s personal experience required her to demonstrate on a life-size doll the incident that occurred that tragic evening. Viewers should be warned, this film is deeply personal and portrays real video footage of Itō’s unconscious body being taken into the hotel from the cab, as well as the self-effacing struggles she endured with her mental health.

Shiori’s bravery to share her story and bring light to the corruption at hand to enact change is both inspiring and equally terrifying. A Japanese woman who is calling out a man so highly connected to power would bring fear to anyone, no less someone who endured such public vitriol. Her documentary, Black Box Diaries, began as a means of publicizing how unjust her case’s investigation was and started as book called “Black Box”, derived from a police investigator’s statement that they would not be able to pursue prosecution against her rapist because her case was a ‘black box’ – completely untouchable or prosecutable. Brilliantly so, Itō recorded all of her interactions with the Tokyo Police Department in 2015, had them transcribed, and kept as evidence to the mishandling of her criminal case. 

As a sexual assault survivor, this was one of the most courageous and powerfully moving documentaries on the subject that I’ve ever seen. It is incredibly raw, touching the deepest segments of our emotions, ranging from sadness and grief, to joy and celebration, and of course anger, frustration, and agonizing pain from our roots of empathy. 

It’s not all dour, though. The method in which Black Box Diaries is edited and displayed engages both the individual investigation and the larger scale impact that Shiori has had on Japan. A true advocate, journalist, and now filmmaker, Shiori Itō’s valor is the most impressive of its kind and is a true hero to women and men of Japan, and across the globe.

Listen to our full podcast covering the 2024 SXSW Film & TV Festival on this episode of The Hollywood Outsider podcast: