Shiori Ito in Black Box Diaries (MTV Documentary Films)

In April 2015, journalist Shiori Ito, a 25-year-old intern at the Japanese branch of Thomson Reuters, ended up at a bar with Noriyuki Yamaguchi. A famous TV journalist, Yamaguchi was a close friend of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the author of Abe’s biography—in other words, a bigwig with important connections. Later that night, Yamaguchi pulled her out of a cab and into a hotel. The security footage survives, and you can see quite clearly that she was possibly unconscious as he all but carried her through the hotel lobby. According to Ito, he proceeded to rape her in his hotel room, an accusation he continuously denied.

While Ito chose to press charges, the process soon became discouragingly complicated. On one hand, she was accusing someone whom the rich and powerful wanted to protect. On the other hand, she was experiencing firsthand the insufficiency of Japan’s 110-year-old rape laws, according to which rape is provable only by “violence and physical threats,” not by lack of consent. And so, Ito was not only discouraged from filing a report but forced to reenact her assault with a life-size doll before the police, told repeatedly that she might lose her job, and spoke to a police officer (whom she refers to as “Investigator A”) who was desperately worried that he might lose his job. When Tokyo police finally made moves to arrest Yamaguchi, it was halted by the chief of police. Feeling she had no other option, Ito went public, speaking about her experience at a press conference. Years later, she pursued a civil court case against Yamaguchi and wrote the book Black Box.

Ito also had the foresight to record much of what she went through. She did so in secret, with the consent of others, and in the form of video diaries. She has now assembled them into the documentary Black Box Diaries. It begins in 2015, before the #MeToo movement, and ends in 2019. To say that the conversation, writ large, about sexual assault has changed since then would be an understatement. Though we have heard many survivor stories since then, Ito’s documentary is nevertheless one of distinction. The footage she has assembled is succinct, cohesive, and striking in the way it captures events as they unfold.

Especially notable are the manifold ways in which she records people either speaking around the point or in hushed tones as they are not quite willing to come forward on her behalf. In doing so, she exposes both the abuse of power and an incredible climate of fear and silence around the subject of rape. She also finds an excellent balance between recorded footage and her own diary entries, giving a sense of the emotional impact her ordeal, and her fame, has put her through, while also letting much of what we see speak for itself. One particularly chilling scene features her and her team chasing after the Tokyo police chief for an interview—he has been tipped off to their arrival.

Black Box Diaries is also notable for its distinctly legal focus. Ito’s story is one not only of abuse of power but of the failure of a legal system. As such, it is a documentary that highlights a subject within its specific context and asks the viewer not to easily conflate it with events elsewhere.

To say that Shiori Ito was and is incredibly brave is, of course, obvious. I did, however, often find myself wondering about the many survivors whom the legal system has failed, those who are not journalists and lack connections and resources. Ito’s challenge to the existing rape laws has implications more far-reaching than her own story, and some viewers may be left hungry for a wider scope. Yet that, of course, would be a different film, and to the credit of Black Box Diaries, it opens doors as opposed to closing them.