OSCARS 2025: Black Box Diaries (2024)

Japan is a country that has given us immeasurable gifts over the years, as one of the leading global forces in pop culture for decades now. Then you'll hear a news story about how someone had to invent a phone app simply to lower the rate of women being groped on the subway by some small degree. See, this is why you shouldn't exoticize and idealize another whole-ass country, full of complicated human beings and social injustices all of its own! Not to generalize or anything but, from my admittedly limited perspective as an outsider and ignorant American, it seems the women's right movement has struggled to establish itself over there. One of this year's Best Documentary Feature nominations directly addresses this issue. "Black Box Diaries" is a deeply personal film that covers one woman's journey to recover from sexual assault, expose the man who attacked her, and find something like justice and resolution in an extremely public sphere. 

Shiori Itō is a Japanese journalist. While interning at Reuters' Japanese branch in 2015, she met Noriyuki Yamaguchi, a prominent writer and the official biographer of then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. After drinks at a bar, Itō claims that Yamaguchi took her back to his hotel room and raped her. Reporting the crime to the police proved difficult, as she was discouraged from filing an accusation, repeatedly warned not to speak out, and forced to re-enact the assault with a life sized dummy. After the case was dropped without explanation, Itō publicly announced what had happened at a press conference. She quickly became the face of Japan's #MeToo movement and a target for harassment and public discourse. She would publish a book about her experience, called "Black Box." "Black Box Diaries" is a film Itō made during the process of writing the book, releasing it, the fallout and subsequent civil lawsuit, and how her life changed completely during these events. 

"Black Box Diaries" isn't abstractly about sexual assault and the abuse of women. It is an extremely personal documentation of one woman's attempts to process and heal from this traumatic experience. That means Shiori Itō essentially filmed herself working through this terrible thing that happened to her on-camera. She frequently loses her composure, slowly breaking into tears. While discussing that simply seeing a sliver of a picture of her attacker – or noticing that she hadn't thought about the cherry blossoms in years, as they were blooming that night – you can tell this woman is doing everything she can not to have a panic attack. Not to get too personal here but I know how that feels. I'm a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. I know what it's like to catch a stray thought that randomly sends you spiraling back to that time and now your whole day is ruined. You have to suck it up, keep this panic internally, because explaining it to anyone is more of a mental strain than you can take at that moment. When she discovers that the police have dropped the case, the stunned look of total hopelessness on her face is all too relatable for anyone who has lived through similar events. The courage it took for Itō to record herself in this incredibly vulnerable position is truly extraordinary. 

Why Shiori Itō would allow herself to be filmed during such an upsetting, difficult time is self-evident. Throughout "Black Box Diaries," she reads vile hate mail from strangers who claim she is trying to destroy an innocent man's life or that she was a willing participant in her own humiliation. That she should have kept her mouth shut. At one point, Shiori encounters a woman ranting on the street about the case at hand. During the #MeToo era, any time a woman goes public about being assault by some famous or powerful man, it is inevitably followed by people accusing them of lying for attention, fame, or revenge. That stock response ignores an obvious fact, that a woman gains nothing by accusing a man of rape. The chances of her attacker being brought to justice or facing any consequences is unlikely. By speaking out, she makes herself a public figure about one of the most private violations someone can experience. She makes herself a target for a noise machine of hate, ever-ready to jump to the defense of any man, primed by an outrage driven news media of right wing agitators. If someone you love was hurt, wouldn't you want to see them receive some sort of release from that pain? It seems like basic fucking human empathy to me. A lot of people, however, have been trained to throw away – or have willingly discarded – that part of their soul because they think life is a game of trying to score points against the other team. "Black Box Diaries" provides a first person perspective of trying to navigate that trial and still maintain some sort of dignity. 

Shiori Itō does this, endures this, puts herself suffering on-camera, because she knows what happened to her isn't unique. She knows that millions of women and children have been victimized like this. She knows that standing up and simply announcing that you have survived this too, gives a voice to people who can't speak up. There is joy in "Black Box Diaries" too. I'm not sure how Itō can muster it but we see her experiencing happiness at completing her book or getting it published. We see some sort of excitement on her face as she attempts to publicly confront this man. I doubt I'd have the strength to do that, to find the will to tell my own story and create in the face of something so personal. To realize that my story could mean something to other people, to understand that it's important to say and do these things. By the end, there is a scene of Itō speaking at a conference for a women's rights group in Japan. I hope her courage gave people some solace, some sympathy, and perhaps some strength needed to push through change. 

Because we all know too well that society is extremely resistant to change. We've seen men accused of dreadful things bounce back, get to complain about "cancel culture" while still having a platform, or get elected president. Throughout the film, Itō speaks about how power creates a structure to protect people from their own actions, that ripples down through every step of society. We certainly see that exposed in "Black Box Diaries" as this woman faces resistance and difficulty at so many levels simply from trying to report what happened to her. Shortly after the film starts, we are shown footage of a clearly intoxicated Itō being all but dragged into a hotel by Yamaguchi. That should be enough. Instead, being friends with the Prime Minister keeps Yamaguchi from ever seeing real consequences for what he did. If "Black Box Diaries" should be applauded for the courage it took Shiori to show herself in this difficult time, and to provide a chance for other survivors not to feel so alone, then it should also be applauded for pointing a camera at the specific ways those that commit wrong are shielded by their positions of power. 

"Black Box Diaries" is an exhausting watch, for the clear emotion toll it took on Itō and for how infuriating the injustices it's about are. I had to take a few breaks from this one, despite it being less than two hours long. Movies are sympathy generating machines, that deepen our understanding of other people and their experiences, and thus our own experiences. "Black Box Diaries" does that by having the guts to put extremely personal pain and the journey to move past it, on-screen. It's an important film and I hope those that need to see it the most get a chance too. And I hope Shiori Itō someday finds some peace and freedom from these events. [9/10]