Black Box Diaries
Black Box Diaries
7.599%81%
Journalist Shiori Ito embarks on a courageous investigation of her own sexual assault in an improbable attempt to prosecute her high-profile offender. Her quest becomes a landmark case in Japan, exposing the country’s outdated judicial and societal systems.
Kevin Ward reviewedJuly 2, 2025
Shiori Itō takes it upon herself to investigate her own sexual assault by a high ranking government official, when the police (and essentially everyone else) are eager to dismiss her account. An investigative journalist by trade it’s fascinating to watch her process her own case at times as if she is external to the facts and circumstances, yet at other times you witness the gravity of her ordeal really hit her. Very similar in a lot of ways to To Kill A Tiger (an Oscar nominated documentary). These films make it painfully evident that cultural attitudes toward rape and sexual assault as well as the legal systems that prosecute these crimes across the world still have a massive amount of reform needed. There’s a moment here where Shiori’s lone ally — a police investigator who has been taken off her case, but who has been giving her inside intel — she speaks to him on the phone one night about her case and he drunkenly makes a pass at her. The sheer disgust and hurt and hopelessness that washes over Shiori’s face is heartbreaking.