Sidelights | "Untold Herstory" — When Will Justice Finally Arrive

"As a lawyer, your imagination of this case has nothing to do with the truth." "So-called factual truth has nothing to do with fairness and justice in the courtroom, nor does it contain any component of mercy. The moment the door is closed, even the most innocent girls lose the right to be presumed innocent."

"Untold Herstory" tells the story of a prestigious cram-school teacher who committed power-abuse sexual assault against multiple girls. Because ofower dynamics in a cram school, yielding out of compliance remains a blurry concept. Under cross-examination, the defense attorney asked numerous questions about whether the victims refused, whether the teacher used violence, whether they received gifts from the teacher, and whether they continued to go to the cram school the next day until the college entrance exam, ultimately causing the accuser to suffer an emotional breakdown.

"To submit and let it happen despite being capable of resisting—given the importance of chastity to women, it should be deemed as conforming to her will." There is no provision in the Criminal Code stating that sexual assault must involve physical resistance, which perhaps explains what is meant by yielding out of compliance. The victims of sexual assault were all high school students at the cram school. Inexperienced in the ways of the world, they developed doubts and fears toward the teacher's behavior, eventually letting it happen. Sexual intercourse requires affirmative consent. In the film, the cram-school teacher T'ang Shih-ch'eng used his status to soften the students' attitude, and only showed his true colors after Ch'en Hsin revealed that she had evidence, showing that he not only understood the legal elements of a criminal conviction, but also exploited them.

In this film, I felt a deep sense of nihilism regarding the defenses raised against offenses against sexual autonomy. Rape usually involves only the testimonies of two people. Faced with such circumstances, victims might remain silent—out of the aforementioned judicial attitude regarding "the importance of chastity to women"—and not know how to speak out. By the time they know how, it is too late to gather any evidence. In cases of offenses against sexual autonomy, the longer time drags on, the more unfavorable it is for the plaintiff, due to the potential unreliability of memory and the difficulty of collecting evidence. Under such societal conditions, how can victims of offenses against sexual autonomy fight for their innocence? Is it truly possible for fairness and justice to be upheld? In the end, perhaps it can only result in a settlement hearing, but can a victim's lifelong trauma be replaced by money?

From the death of Lin Yi-han, author of "Fang Si-chi's First Love Paradise", which resulted in a judgment without a living party, to public discourse sparking discussions on power-abuse sexual assault—exchanging one's life for a piece of autobiography, which in turn yielded a "non-prosecution disposition"—the judicial system is imperfect, yet regarding incidents of this nature, I cannot feel a shred of justice.