Xu Ang: Talking to Everyone

by+Gong+Haiying

Xu Ang， the youngest director at Beijing Peoples Art Theater（BPAT）， began adapting the Hollywood classic 12 Angry Men （1957） way back in 2005. His film， 12 Citizens， finally hit screens in 2014.

On November 10， 2014， the movie took Best Picture of Modern Movies and the Marc Aurelio， the highest honor of the 9th Rome International Film Festival. “This is the first movie to depict a group of Chinese characters so realistically，” remarked Marco Müller， president of the film festival.“It took a great angle on localizing a classic masterpiece.”

To make it happen， Xu Ang did a lot of reading about law and philosophy. “Only when the case is clearly detailed can the film focus on people，” Xu asserts. He created his adaptation hoping to speak to 1.3 billion people.

Something to Talk About

The original 1957 film consistently ranks amongst Hollywoods greatest. “Its touching to see 12 strangers from different backgrounds deliberate the case of a problem child from the slums murdering his own father，” explains Xu Ang. “In court， the 12 jurors expressed 12 varieties of anger.”

“Why does some other life completely removed from their own inspire such anger？” Xu asked himself when developing the project.

His film opens with a Chinese law school exam about a controversial trial of a 20-year-old accused of murdering his wealthy father.

The jury consists of 10 parents， a security guard at the school， and a store owner. The parents also practice a variety of trades such as law professor， engineer， doctor， prosecutor， taxi driver， real estate agent， insurance salesman， and landlord along with an unemployed youth who was wrongly jailed.

Every juror is strongly characterized by his background. Juror 3， a Beijing taxi driver， is played by Han Tongsheng， a well-known Chinese actor. He pushes the jury to rush the decision so he can get back to work. Juror 12， an insurance salesman， hands out his business card every chance he gets. The real estate agent pounds the table lamenting those who hate the rich. The store owner has no sympathy for the spoiled son， demanding “a life for a life”over and over again.

Their debate touches on a wide variety of topics， and everyone reveals his own prejudices and self-pity， introducing more social issues in China： polarization between the rich and the poor and regional discrimination， which in turn brings tension between each other.

Juror 8 is a prosecutor， whereas his counterpart in 12 Angry Men is an architect. The character exerts tremendous influence on the other 11 jurors due to his benevolence， reason， and fairness， eventually flipping the decision upside down.

“‘Juror 8 doesnt disclose his identity as a prosecutor until the last moment，”comments Professor Xu Feng from the Central Academy of Drama. “It mirrors the self-awareness of the state and elite. It seems that 12 Citizens conveys a message that Chinas reform might be going from the top-level down.

Xu Ang agrees. “In the American version， Juror 8 is simply a citizen， but the Chinese versions legal worker creates a moment of self-realization.”

How to Talk

“Our era is neither good nor bad，” argues Xu Ang. “It is a normal state of social progress.” How best to talk to the audience of such an era？ “I opted to adapt a classic work.”

To Xu， “classic work” transcends limitations of specific eras because it gains new meaning when falling on contemporary ears. A work such as 12 Angry Men can mean different things to a wide range of viewers.

This philosophy helped him hold tight to his dream for so long even when friends and colleagues recommended he move on.

Xu Ang has reason to be confident after his rich accumulation of experience in adapting stage dramas. In 2011， he adapted Warai No Daigaku by Koki Mitani into The Sorrow of Comedy， replacing the Japanese background of rigorous examinations about comedy during World War II with Chinas examination on literary and art workers in the Kuomintang-controlled area during the Chinese Peoples War Against Japanese Aggression.

Starring big names Chen Daoming and He Bing， The Sorrow of Comedy set a box office record for the BPAT.

Not only did The Sorrow of Comedy shoot Xu Ang to stardom， it attracted investors to 12 Citizens. His first film was the reward for stage success.

Before they began shooting， 12 Angry Men had already been remade and adapted many times. In 2006， for instance， Koki Mitani adapted it into The Gentle Twelve， shifting focus from legal justice to a display of the national character of Japan.

In 2007， Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov adapted it to racial conflict between a son born in Chechnya and his foster father. The Russian version was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film for Oscar.

Chatter

12 Citizens was released on May 15， 2015， only seven days before Chinas Supreme Judicial Court officially launched a tentative scheme to reform its system of peoples assessors. One highlight of the scheme is that assessors can express their ideas about fact finding during the discussion of the case.

Instantly， the movie became a hot topic in the legal circles in China.

Some believe that 12 Citizens is helping popularize law， leading Chinese legal movies into a new era. Others argue that it strays too far from actual legal protocol. For instance， judicial personnel such as prosecutors and judges arent allowed to be jurors.

“I didnt intend to make a movie about legal procedure，” illustrates Xu Ang. “Thats not the point of the story. I was most concerned about how 12 people stuck together communicate， express their anger and prejudices， and reach a final agreement.”

The films tagline on the poster reads“12 Chinese Men， 1.2 Billion Voices！” echoing Marco Müllers comment about its realistic depiction of Chinese people. This was exactly Xu Angs aim. It is a simple story about the pursuit of fairness and justice.

Reginald Rose， writer of the original 12 Angry Men， passed away in 2002. His son gave an interview 10 years later expressing hope that the story can still inspire todays generation to forgive and fight prejudice.