The Gentle 12

Shun Nakahara directs this comic take on Sidney Lumet's 1957 classic Twelve Angry Men. Just as in that earlier work, this film takes place in a jury room and takes place in real time. The film opens as the jury is about to acquit the defendant -- a bar hostess who pushed her ex-husband path of an oncoming truck, supposedly in self-defense. Just as everyone seems to be in agreement over the woman's innocence, one bespectacled juror (Kazuyuki Aijima) -- no one is given names in this film -- voices second thoughts. Slowly, like an inversion of Henry Fonda's character in the earlier film, he sets about convincing his fellow jurors -- a group of nice folks who don't like thinking ill of people -- that the defendant is in fact a cold-blooded killer. The Gentle 12 featuring Sansei Shiomi and Kazuyuki Aijima is not currently available to stream, rent, or buy but you can add it to your want to see list for updates. It's a comedy movie.