• 12人の優しい日本人 (The Gentle Twelve)

4/23/13 (Tue)

Nakahara Shun’s 1991 film version of a play from the previous year by the prolific Mitani Koki envisioning jury duty à la Japonaise based on the format of Twelve Angry Men – call it “Twelve Not-So-Angry Japanese”. While the jury system has since been introduced in Japan, Mitani seems less interested in politics than in showing the Japanese temperament at work. Twelve jurors initially dismiss a murder case in an eagerness to get their duty over with and return home, but one of them has second thoughts and forces a serious discussion, which proceeds in the movie roughly in real time. A man has been run over by a truck after allegedly being pushed into the street by his ex-wife. But was it premeditated or self-defense? Did the woman have murderous intent, or did she push him without realizing the truck was coming?

I had initially imagined that this would be a mere gimmick, but it was actually a smart study of Japanese society in miniature. The jury’s first instinct is that the defendant is too pretty and nice to have committed the crime, which jibes perfectly with the emotion-oriented thinking that often takes precedence here, and several jurors are clearly uncomfortable with the notion of casting judgment or, for that matter, making any decision at all. Others flip and flop in line with others around them, and still others are happy with any decision, whatever the consequences for the defendant, if it means finishing the meeting.

Mitani Koki has a strong tendency in his shows to lay down a convoluted plot and fit the characters in as needed, resulting in unconvincing stick characters. Here, though, he has created believable personalities with humorous but completely plausible quirks. He was apparently inspired by Japan’s pre-war experience with a jury system, which reportedly acquitted just about everyone. I don’t find that at all surprising given the Japanese mindset, and Mitani pins that tendency down with great skill. Moreover, he offers enough twists and turns in the exploration of the crime itself to keep the story interesting. This is by far the best show of his I’ve seen since his later work The Last Laugh. I’m kicking myself now for not seeing the stage version of this show in the 2005 revival. Hope I won’t have to wait too long for the next one.