i -Documentary of the Journalist (2019) Japan Cuts 2020

Isoko Mochizuki was the subject of the fictional film THE JOURNALIST which played Japan Cuts last year. This year the festival gives us the woman herself doing what she does best, rattling cages and not taking the official bullshit at face value.

The film opens with  Mochizuki on assignment. She clearly just flew in from somewhere and she is schlepping through a city with her luggage in tow looking to make a connection. It doesn't happen and soon she continues running around via cab trying to connect the dots about a landfill project that isn't what officials say it is.

Glorious rough edged portrait of a hero for our time. Mochizuki is a woman who goes for whatever story she is on like a heat seeking missile. Appearing seemingly everywhere she makes officials crazy by not taking their answers as truth (more often than not she knows what is going on) and refusing to give them a moment's rest- she simply keeps hammering way. In a country where there are levels of respect and inner and outer circles of access Mochizuki is an outsider who is more damaging to lies than a swam of mosquitoes.

Fast moving and possessing a real sense of urgency, i-DOCUMENTARY OF THE JOURNALIST is a film that grabs you from the first frame and drags you to the last. It is also a film that will make you feel good know that there is at least one person out there who is willing to do what is right. It also makes you wonder what President Trump would do if Mochizuki ever go into his press conference.

Highly recommended.

For information on how to see this or any other film at Japan Cuts go here