Pick
your paranoid poison: military industrial complex or deep state. The
conspiratorial world views of the far left and the far right definitely seem to
be converging, probably because they were never really that different to begin
with. You can see elements of both brands of tinfoil hat-wearing fever dreams
in Michihito Fujii’s political thriller, The Journalist, which screens
as part of the 2020 Boston Festival of Films from Japan.
Erica
Yoshioka is the journalist, just like her late American-trained father.
Unfortunately, he fell victim to a scoop that imploded on him, ultimately
costing him her life. His example will weigh heavily on her when she sees conscientious
bureaucrat Toshinao Kanzaki kill himself after getting scapegoated for
government malfeasance. She suspects Kanzaki was the anonymous source that sent
her revealing documents regarding a dodgy medical college, suspiciously funded
by the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office (CIRO, Japan’s CIA) rather than
their HHS.
Obviously,
Yoshioka will not be getting anymore information from him, but his
disillusioned protégé Takumi Sugihara might be ready to crash the system. The CIRO
bureaucrat was already sick of the online trolling and disinformation
operations he oversees. The death of Kanzaki might just push him over the Deep
Throat edge. However, he still has a responsibility to protect his pregnant
wife and unborn daughter.
It
might be paranoia porn, but the Journalist is still a highly watchable,
slick and glossy thriller, very much in the tradition of 1970s classics. Granted,
all of the villains a faceless, soul-dead caricatures, but the two co-protagonists
are quite intriguing, due to their subtle complexity and conspicuous human
failings. Frankly, they are both somewhat socially inept and neither is a stranger
to fear and self-doubt. Tori Matsuzaka’s portrayal of Sugihara is appropriately
smart and calculating, while Shim Eun-kyung’s Yoshioka is a deeply compelling
bundle of neuroses and insecurities.
Yoshioka
is a flawed but virtuous scribe, but journalists as a professional class take
quite a few hits during The Journalist, generally for being insensitive tabloid
bottom-feeders and boot-licking stenographers for those in power. Yes, that
sounds about right. Throughout the film, Fujii steadily increases the tension
and the paranoia quite adroitly. It is a good film, but it shouldn’t shape your
perspective on the world. Recommended for fans of shadowy halls-of-power
thrillers, The Journalist screens tomorrow (2/20) and Sunday (2/23) as
part of the Boston Festival of Films from Japan.