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On January 13, Netflix introduced a new Japanese thriller series The Journalist to its diverse franchise. The Journalist, adapted from the Japanese Academy Award-winning film of 2019 and the novel of the same name by Isoko Mochizuki, is directed by Michihito Fiyi, who also directed the film.
Ryoko Yonekaru, Go Ayano, and Ryusei Yokahama play key roles as reporters who put their lives in jeopardy to prevent the government from tampering with investigative reporting.
What is the series about?
The series is an intriguing six-hour look at how the mainstream media led by Anna Matsuda can be used by people to strike against the government to implement public subjugation.
The show is based on the novel by former journalist Isoko Mochizuki and partly based on her own experience exposing government cover-ups. Through tragedy and a subsequent chance for better days, the series establishes reactions of fear, suspense and optimism.
Is The Journalist relevant?
What The Journalist gets right is the portrayal of this duality between the central protagonists and their inescapable preservation of the truth despite the torturous circumstances that the narrative poses in front of them.
It captures that multidimensional anxiety knowing the general population is moldable and are shaped by the work they do. The series explores a deeply moral conundrum and is shot in separate styles — with newsrooms cast in natural light and beautifully fluid portables and Suzuki's sterile office portrayed in distant, stationary cameras and darker contrast.
Although the inferences it draws are a little simple, it conveys the gravity of controlled media with a power that is immediately felt. Fuji's series never loses sight of its fundamental message as the plot develops more twists and turns and the intrigue deepens. As a result, Fuji's series is unfortunately still relevant today.
It's debatable if it will persuade some of the more adamant denialists of the media's value, those who mistakenly regard it as an enemy of the state. However, The Journalist, with all its shortcomings, is a clever reminder not to take the media's position for granted in socially tumultuous times.
