Juninin no yasashii nihonjin

The story was so much fun! Most works from Koki mitani, a famous scriptwriter in Japan, are really exciting!

12 Japanese was invited as a jury for a murder trial. Even though this movie has the same setting of "12 Angry Men," I enjoyed it. The atmosphere depended on the materials! Unlike angry men, Japanese tended to added kindness into true their opinions. It was just only subjective, that wasn't actually true. But I felt like extenuating circumstances was to be a virtue exactly.

"What's the belief? Is it to ignore others' opinion?"

I thought there was a huge difference between having your own opinions and ignoring others'.

This Japanese-language movie, which to my knowledge hasn't yet been released with subtitles or dubbing, is best regarded as a gentle parody of the 1957 Henry Fonda classic "12 Angry Men". (The title, which translates to "12 Gentle Japanese", makes this obvious.)

Of course Japan doesn't have a jury system, so this is even more of a fantasy than it would have been. The performances are generally over-the-top, and it's rather hard to take any of it too seriously. But there are some nice humorous touches. Like the 1957 original, it is set almost entirely in a single room, and for the most part it parallels the original, with a few interesting twists. (In this one, all the jurors save one begin with an "innocent" vote)

Not a great movie by any stretch, but pleasant enough. Very little that's original here, though--if you want an original Japanese movie, check out recent titles directed by Shohei Imamura, Hirokazu Kore-eda, or Takeshi Kitano.