Reporter Isoko Mochizuki has become a press freedom folk hero for interrupting the stifling bargain between the government and elite press (kisha) clubs. Voicing persistent questions on controversial subjects during cabinet briefings, she challenges the boys club of journalism that places access above truth. Mochizuki is a perfect subject for adversarial documentarian Tatsuya Mori, long telling stories suppressed or misshapen by dominant media accounts. He follows as she pulls her rolling suitcase while speaking rapidfire into her cell phone, covering issues from environmental impacts of U.S. base construction in Henoko Bay, Okinawa and the Noriyuki Yamaguchi rape case to the Moritomo Gakuen scandal. The subject of the hit dramatic film The Journalist (JC 2019) starring Eun-kyung Shim and Tori Matsuzaka, this rousing documentary is just as moving and inspiring.
“A timely, bracing snapshot of the sorry state of news media in Japan today.” —The Japan Times
Available streaming territory: U.S. only
in Japanese with English subtitles
English